Thread Number: 67642
/ Tag: Modern Automatic Washers
AEG Heater failure |
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Post# 903668   10/20/2016 at 07:27 (2,716 days old) by Saj6952 (Balterley, Cheshire, UK)   |   | |
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Hi all,
Not posted on here for years but I'm a little disgruntled and therefore reaching out for a collective opinion! I bought a brand new AEG washing machine in January this year when I moved house. This time last week when running a 95c cottons wash, I noticed that the machine was washing in cold water. After trying a number of different programmes, I discovered it wasn't heating the wash water on any programme and not producing steam on the appropriate setting either. So I called 'Service Force' and had the obligatory four day wait for an engineer to come out to me. Out he comes on Tuesday this week... A very charismatic chap who made a whitewashed wall look almost entertaining. The visit lasted less than 5 minutes. He pushed a few buttons on the machine and managed to generate an error code (E69) and then abruptly told me that he hadn't got a new heating element in the van so it would have to be ordered and it will take 7-10 days. Thankfully, it hasn't taken that long, so a different engineer shows up this morning possessing a shiny new heating element. Starts effing and blinding about my vinyl flooring in the utility room and complains that the machine is heavy. So he replaces the heater and then advises me that if the pump fails for any reason it will not be covered under the warranty as the discharge pipe is not plumbed in according to specification... Fair enough! He shows me the heater which is covered in scale deposits. I questioned him as to whether he would expect to see this in a machine which is only 9 months old. He proceeded to tell me that if I could find a Teflon coated heating element for the machine then to 'feel free and go ahead'. And that the build up is caused by using powder detergent. He personally recommends those 'sachets'. As I'm not as much of an avid laundry buff as I once was, I'm not as familiar with products on offer these days so I questioned him on the use of 'Calgon' type products which he snorted at! So apparently, to prevent a repeat of this episode, I need to wash with liquitabs and run a 95c cycle once a month. Now then, I use a mixture of powder and liquid detergent depending on what I'm washing. It goes on a 95c cycle at least once a fortnight with a couple of 60c washes each week. The rest of the time it's generally used on 40c cycles. Once a month I put a proprietary washing machine descaler in it and run it empty on a 95c cycle (not that it's done it much good.) My question is two fold... a heater failing after just 9 months on what is alleged to be a premium brand machine. Is it acceptable? I appreciate the water quality isn't great but I've lived in areas of the country with water which is equally as hard and I've never had an issue with machines I've owned for years and years. Secondly, I suppose I'm fairly set in my ways in terms of my washing habits. A good hot wash for whites, towels, bed linen with a decent powder detergent and I don't do any of this cold water washing business. Anything below 40c is a rarity. Is it the case that I need to embrace a change in habits due to the fact that machines are not manufactured like they were even ten years ago due to this change in approach to embrace washing in cold/cool water? All advice and thoughts welcome. I can't decide if it's me being unreasonable or not! Pic of said 9 month old heater below.
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Post# 903691 , Reply# 2   10/20/2016 at 09:26 (2,716 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands)   |   | |
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Post# 903692 , Reply# 3   10/20/2016 at 09:54 (2,716 days old) by Saj6952 (Balterley, Cheshire, UK)   |   | |
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No, in actual fact, the only time I have ever used the steam cycle was this week to verify that the machine wasn't heating.
As for the drum capacity, 66l sounds about right. A few more pics of the machine below... Saj |
Post# 903717 , Reply# 4   10/20/2016 at 14:11 (2,716 days old) by marky_mark (From Liverpool. Now living in Palm Springs and Dublin)   |   | |
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Sorry to hear about your machine having this problem so soon. That looks like a pretty bad build up! The obvious answer would be to install a whole-house water softener. This will protect not only the washing machine but also everything else in the house.
Alternatively you could add STPP along with your detergent (sodium tripolyphosphate). This is a non-precipitating water softener available easily online at chemistry stores etc. This is what detergents used to contain. As the water in your area is pretty hard, you might need around 20 ml per wash, which should soften about 15 litres of very hard water. It is a safe, natural product and our food actually contains lots of it, as does our urine, so quite a lot goes down the drain and it appears that the sewage plant in your area does remove the majority. It is no longer added to laundry detergents due to excessive quantities contributing to eutrophication of waterways although it is still added to dishwasher detergents. Unfortunately the phosphonates found in laundry detergents these days do precipitate a horrible grey powdery residue (if used in hard water) that resembles limescale and tends to set in hard clumps.
If you do neither of the above proactive measures, then you will need to be reactive. Doing a 95 °C wash with an acid (such as citric acid or any of the acid-containing washing machine descalers) will remove the limescale. However doing a 95 °C wash with hard water and detergent that does not provide sufficient water softening will actually contribute to the build up of limescale and residues because the more the heater has to heat the hard water, the more limescale you will get. Although it's still a good idea to do 95 °C washes as this will clean/kill/remove other crap in the machine. As foraloysius said, steam cycles with no detergent will build up limescale more rapidly.
Hope you find a solution! |
Post# 903755 , Reply# 5   10/20/2016 at 18:00 (2,716 days old) by ozzie908 (Lincoln UK)   |   | |
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I do agree with you as far as stick to your own regime for your laundry as I was always led to believe that in liquitabs there is no limescale reducing chemicals at all I must admit I too live where the water comes out fighting but have never had an issue with heaters unless previous owners have used liquid and 40c washes, but I do admit to being rather heavy handed with the old big box Persil that I use for the 3-5 white washes I do most weeks, An AEG belonging to a friend of mines mother looks just like yours and was just out of warranty had the exact same issue maybe AEG had a batch of iffy heaters??? Who knows anyway good luck with it all and let us know how you get on.
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Post# 903884 , Reply# 6   10/22/2016 at 04:32 (2,714 days old) by hotpointwfwt02 (Manchester)   |   | |
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Post# 903890 , Reply# 7   10/22/2016 at 08:16 (2,714 days old) by Saj6952 (Balterley, Cheshire, UK)   |   | |
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I left the Miele with my late mother when I moved elsewhere in the country for work. It suffered with a few niggles and we donated it to a dog grooming parlour a few years ago. Whilst living in Scotland for the last 6 years until recently I had a Hotpoint Aqualtis which provided excellent service. I left the machine there when I moved back over the border and bought the AEG.
I like the AEG as it doesn't take forever to wash like some of the newer models on offer. Let's see how long the heater lasts in it this time! |
Post# 905550 , Reply# 9   11/5/2016 at 10:37 (2,700 days old) by Pierreandreply4 (St-Bruno de montarville (province of quebec) canada)   |   | |
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Post# 905576 , Reply# 10   11/5/2016 at 16:38 (2,700 days old) by timon90 (Norway)   |   | |
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I'm seeing this quite often...AEG is "supposed" to be a premium brand, but not with premium quality! They are only expensive Zanussi machines!
I think there is many reasons the heater breaks like that, but the main reason is a combination of not using the 90/95* cycle as often as nessesary, choice of detergent, and the design of the machine. Because I rarely see this occures in a machine with stainless steel tub! Carboran(plastic-fantastic) is a perfect surface/place for "stuff" to bond and "grow"..! And I'm working as an tech on appliances, including E.lux/AEG, so I'm catching up the differences out by the customers.. |
Post# 905645 , Reply# 13   11/6/2016 at 05:41 (2,699 days old) by aquarius1984 (Planet earth)   |   | |
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I too am fed up with this attitude towards plastic outer tubs.
In the UK, plastic outer tubs have been in common use now for 40 years and from what I have seen they are no better or worse than any metal tub machine be it stainless steel or enamelled steel. If anything stainless steel tubs offer no advantages over plastic. Heat from the wash water is lost more quickly due to conduction in stainless and enamel. Should a coin or other hard object get flung into the outer tub then I always assumed damage would be potentially worse as stainless steel can be pierced more easily than plastic, - in plastic the material can take some degree of impact which could prevent fracture damage due to its slight flexibility. There is also a train of thought that plastic has the ability to be moulded much more precisely than metal helping bearings to sit properly and thus reduce wear and tear on the bearing seals etc. Dirt build up on plastic is just the same as on stainless and enamel, this is obvious from washing greasy roasting tins and rinsing with cold water just as it does when washing plastic tupperware containers and rinsing with cold - this comes down to the detergent used and in the right doasge for the soil. |