Hi guys,
I ahve just discovered whilst surfing the australian fisher and paykell site that they are planning to bring out front loading washing machines. I have always thought that Fisher and Paykell would stick to top loading machines after they have developed several effective series of top loading machines such as Smart Drive or Intuitive. The site also had pictures of the new front loaders as well as User Guides. Maybe they are already being sold in the Eastern states of australia? Anyway heres the link if anyones intrested.
I will be first in line to buy one when they are put in the stores, i think i'm well overdue a washer update!
Matt

I was in David Jones yesterday and they are already sold in South Australia they look nice. I also saw them a Retravision as well.

Those frontloaders are sold under the Beko label here in the UK! Beko is one of the cheaper brands of machines available in the UK, although the new electronic machines seem to be of a reasonable quality. I have linked to a Beko verison below.

Jon :-)

No Jon, I think those machines are rebadged Bauknecht machines. And that makes sense because Whirlpool and Fisher & Paykel work together a lot. The link shows a Bauknecht (owned by Whirlpool) machine.

I think you are both right:
Top one is Beko
Bottom one is Bauknecht

I emailed F & P about a year ago and asked if their FAB TL's would ever be available in the UK. The reply I got was in the negative however, they did go on to say that they had something exciting to launch in the UK over the next 3 years in the laundry market so who knows? But, if Beko FL's are the 'excitement' I am mortally disappointed in them.

Ah! I only clicked on the bottom one. That explains it. Sorry Jon!

LOL, and I only clicked on the top one!

Seems we are as daft as each other :-).

Any updates on the television set adjustment?

Today whilst shopping in Myer, the first thing i saw was a Fisher and Paykel front loader, the top one on the website. I stood for a while looking at it and then saw the price, $999 which is just a little too much at the moment, i mean hey if its the same price as a Bosch, if i could afford a Bosch i would have one, but i can't so i can't afford a F&P front loader either :(
But as soon as the Whirlpool gives me cause for complaint i will be down to that store quicker than a cop in a donut shop. On thing tho, i thought that the front loaders would have the same style drum as the top loaders, its a unique style of drum that i thought would be present in every F&P machine, oh well, maybe in models to come.
Thanks Jon and Louis for the links, i don't care if they are rebadged, it says Fisher and Paykel on the drawer so thats good enough for me :)

I can understand F&P jumping on the bandwagon with an imported rebadged FL, but I must say I am confused and a bit dissappointed with its strategy. Why have one Beko model and another Bauknecht model? Would it not make sense to have both models from the one source? Next to each other they look quite different, which is at odds with the family appearance with the rest of its product line.

Having seen both I quite like the look of the Bauknecht model.

I really do wish we could get a locally manufactured front loader. Why Electrolux has never put the Frigemore into Australian production i dont know. A big, simple and cheap front loader would be a sure sales success.

have a look at the model Blanco have released, looks like the F & P

How can you fit 7kg in a drum with a volume of 56 liters. There has to be a mistake. Or the volume or the capactiy is wrong. For the americans 7kg is (I think) 14 pounds and 56 liters is 1.96 cu. ft.

F&P had a FL washer out around 1999.

They got rid of it within a month

The 56 liters stands for the quantity of water it will use, not for capacity since you´re getting 7 kg (14 lb) or 2.8 Cu. Ft aprox specification (I don´t know the exact number for 14 lb in Cu. Ft.)

Ultramatic,

Actually, 56 litres is the volume of the drum. Askomiele, it's all to do with exaggeration and marketing - manufacturers like to claim that their washers (which would have held 6kg last year) will now hold 7kg this year, so they can advertise them as having more capacity! Go figure...

Jon :-)

I noticed that for a long time the same washers were rated higher in Australia than in other countries. I don't know why they do/did that, but as long as I have been online (since 1997) I noticed the differences.

HI Louis

Choice magazine have noticed it over the years too.

There IS an Australian Standard to calculate washer load size but the manufacturers seem pretty slack about it.

Some years ago Choice criticised Kleenmaid for selling their Speed Queen manufactured washer as an 8kg when according to the standard it holds 5.5kg. They had a photo of the washer with the standard 8kg load, it was piled up over the top. Some years later they criticised LG for claiming 7kg for their intellowasher FLs, Choice claimed it was 5kg but I'm not so convinced on that score. I have seen the LGs and I thought they looked pretty big inside.

Chris

Hi ShanonABC

That was a Zanussi wasn't it?

FP didn't have one wearing an FP badge as far as I know, but they were the AU agent for Zanussi FLs for about five minutes.

I saw them on display once when I went to FP for a spare part but I never saw them in the shops.

I wonder what happened - I thought the Zanussis were pretty good. "Blanco" washers at the time were also made by Zanussi so maybe there was some dispute between the two importers.

Chris.

Blanco and Fisher and Paykel may of being interested in zanussi at one point. But wouldnt Electrolux have had the final say? One would think they would of being mapping out there plans at appliance industry dominance and surely Zanussi would figure too highly for others to source there appliances from there.

Looks like a few brands are using Beko as there source for washing machines, dont see many Antonio Merloni style machines in Aus stores anymore.

yeah it was branded f&p

Hi shanon, Hi Arrroooh

that's interesting, Shanonabc.
Do you know who made them? Was it the Zanussi or was it something else?

I was in town yeaterday and had a sticky - saw the Beko/FP and an Omega washer/drier which was still an Antonio Merloni. It had the exact same drum as my Thor TH85.

I have been using the Thor as my daily machine for a while and I really don't think it is a bad machine. The pump was noisy for a couple of days but I pulled it apart and cleaned a heap of gritty gunk out and it's quiet again. Previous owner seemed to be a cold water washer, machine had heaps of yuk residue which I cleaned out but I hadn't dismantled the pump...
I am giving the Whirlpool AWM5100 a whirl as I had to wash a sleeping bag and it didn't fit in the Thor. Nice machine but I'm going to have to increase the water level. I have selected "intensive rinse" and still clothes stink of detergent after a full cycle, had to give two extra rinses.

Been trying Cold Power Matic (front loader flavour) and so far I hate it - really strong perfume, doesn't want to rinse out, have to keep doing extra rinses in both machines despite now I am down to 1/3 of recommended dose... Final rinse has more lather than the main wash!! Will try a couple more times, may even phone the 1800 number and grumble...

chris.

yeah it waz zanussi

B.T.W do you have a F&P GENTLE ANNIE?!?!?

Hi Gizmo, when did you get the Whirlpool AWM5100? What are your impressions on it, other than the rinsing performance.

Havent tried coldpower matic. I like Duomatic so I am sticking to that. I have seen a Fabmatic but normal Fab is just horrible so I wont be trying the front loader version.

For all's interest, I have notice that the Bauknecht FisherPaykel FL seems to be on the floor in Harvey Norman, Domain and David Jones, While the Beko version is in Myers, Megamart and Retravision. I havent seen any store yet with both on the floor.

The looks of the Beko verson have grown on me.

I don't get why they are selling washer from other brands. And why selling horrible machines. I had a few bad experiences with Bauknecht. Both my dishwasher and my dryer died after 6 years of running. And both after a few repairs. I have changed every to Miele and hoping they will live longer than 6 years. NO MORE BAUKNECHT IN MY HOUSE!!!

Actually if you didn't have any repairs in those 6 years it wasn't too bad. My brother and sister in law had a Bauknecht washer that had three repairs or so in the first year. After that it needed another repair that would have costed them around $500.- if they had had to pay the full price for it. And then in the fifth year it broke down again. And out it went!

Hi Shanonabc

I have three Gentle Annies - one my parents use every day. Mum just loves it - she calls it"Annie" and craps on about it all the time. The second was for spare parts - the motor control board is shot. The third is in my garage - I got it to possibly replace Mum's machine as hers was misbehaving but the fault turned out to be trivial (can't remember what) so the extra machine is still here.
These are fantastic machines, the quality is amazing, I think much better construction than Smart Drives which were built more to a price. Gentle Annies were $999 about 15 years ago, you can get a new basic Smart Drive for just over $500. To my mind the GAs really show FP's history of medical equipment manufacture - where it is really important that things never fail. The only common fault I'm aware of on GAs is the lid is made of two layers of plastic, over time they separate and the lid then becomes "floppy", sagging away from the lid switch so it stops spinning. Gluing the lid back together fixes the problem. The power board is in a metal box underneath, if a hose leaks the box can get wet and fry the boards inside - that's what happened to my spare parts machine.

Hi Arrrooohhh
I got two Whirlpool FLs a few months ago. One wasn't working simply because the dispenser had its liquid detergent dam in place but it had been used with powder, so the dispenser was completely caked up with goo. Water had been flowing down the face of the machine so paint was wrecked and starting to rust.
Inside the machine was disgusting with several handfuls of slime - mixture of detergent residue and probably cooking oil - machine was a tea towel washer in a restaurant - not where I work I hasten to add. It is now cleaned out and working but I have to repair the paint yet. It is an awm285-800, a fairly basic 800 rpm machine less than 5 years old. I really like it, very quiet, stable and no fuss, seems to wash well and is gentle on itself, should last ages. I got it for nothing.
The later one, the 5100, is only three years old, thrown out by Radio Rentals, the only fault was a bit of plastic caught in the button trap which almost blocked it completely. I got it from the recycle centre for $15. Also the (fragile) plastic fingers that hold the lid on were broken off but I think I can repair that, so the machine works perfectly but the lid panel is loose. I am using it again at present, it is very highly computerised and the programmers don't think like I do and it is too clever for me, I am still battling to get it to do what I want instead of what some engineer in Italy thinks is good for me. Heres some of it...

When the machine is started, the computer checks the settings of the buttons, then locks in the settings so most of them can't be changed during a wash (child proof, also fiddle-proof when I like to fiddle...)
As I don't want it to heat but I want it to fill with warm to hot water, I have to set the temp to higher than 60 degrees to get some hot water in the fill, on lower settings it fills cold only. When full I turn the dial back to tap cold so it doesn't try to heat, as I have disconnected the heater. If I don't change the temp setting it will sit there all day waiting for the water to heat up...
Even on the short wash it washes for bloody ages, but if I select Rapid button as well as short wash I get a wash about the right time but it only does ONE rinse!!! pathetic. It spins after wash, then clicks past each intermediate rinse with a short pause at each, then goes straight to final rinse.
If I don't select rapid I get four rinses (or three, I can't remember). It has an "intensive rinse" button but even then it only does one rinse when rapid is selected. The water level may be higher but it is slight - still doesn't reach the opening, let alone come up the door. It is the most miserly washer with water I have ever seen.

If I were prepared to leave the cycles alone and do as it was designed it would be an excellent machine, quiet for a brush motor but still not as quiet as the Thor which has an induction motor. Probably not a great rinser, though it does spin after the weash and every spin, but the water level is SO low even in rinses. Very stable when spinning, seems robust and thoughtfully designed, but no thought given for my needs - minimum power use including NO heat (it is impossible to stop it heating unless you disconnect the element, even on "minimum" setting it heats cold water to 20 degrees C.), good rinsing, prefer full load done in about one hour.

Chris.

Interesting to read your review of the Whirlpool. Ive heard from a few that the Whirlpool models take an excessive long time to do a cycle, and what a shame it saves time by cutting out rinses. One rinse is just not enough.

My Hootag is reasonably fast when the express button is selected. I find on the Light cottons which I use most, the display says that the cycle will go for 1hour 12 minutes, but its often finished in an hour. It seems to be intuitive somewhat to the load, a small load will finish quicker, and if there is not a lot of soap used, sometimes does two rinses instead of three, though you can select the extra rinse. The rinse water level is not high, but it does use the recirculating jet.

The hootag will take in hot and cold water even when it is set to 30 degrees, but of course Im not on solar power so heating the water is not an issue, but I do think its good that the Whirlpool will heat up cold water to 20 degrees. When you think about all the people brainwashed into washing in cold water, often in winter its just too cold to be effective.

The other whirlpool sounded disgusting, how can people be so stupid not to realise the dispenser is blocked?

Interesting to hear that the THOR TH85 performs well. I know that those Antonio merloni machines are unreliable but they do seem to work well performance wise. Choice once recommended the Omega and Omega always performed well in their tests.

Back onto the Fisher and Paykel, has anyone noticed that the Beko 6kg model, you cannot select a cold or 30 degree wash for cottons? Its 90 60 40. Yet F&P say the machine has been optimised for Australian conditions!!!

"Optimised for Australian Conditions" means "We scrape off the Beko sticker and whack on a Fisher and Paykel sticker".

Doesn't work any better but it sells better.

Choice's number 1 machine in the latest test was an Ariston, wasn't it? a 7kg front loader??

Chris.

LOL that sounds about right!