F&P Smart Drives vs Water Jet Washers

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I was always a big fan of Fisher & Paykel. When the Gentle Annie Auto Washer first hit the market, I purchased one and adored it. It washed like a dream, spun almost half dry and was relatively quiet while doing so.

I didn't hear about the F&P recall of the first batch of Gentle Annie’s until it was too late, and paid a hefty repair bill as a result. I loved my Gentle Annie, although 10 years later I decided it would be wise to invest in a new machine, after another repair to correct a leakage problem.

I purchased the new F&P Smart Drive Auto Washer 5.5kg, swayed by all its promises of what it could do for me. But this washer was a lemon from the start.

Two electronic boards, new motor, new pump, etc. Two repairs were done before the 2-year warranty ran out, plus I paid more than $800 in repairs (the washer cost $799) in the first four years of its life. When I told the servicemen about the problems I was having, I was told I was over-filling, under-filling, or unevenly distributing the washing in the machine.

It thumped alarmingly and clothing had to be re-distributed, sometimes twice during the same cycle. The tangled, twisted clothing hooked on the fins drove me nuts and the washer was pulling threads in all my towels.

F&P's reasons for the problems I encountered were unacceptable. I'd never had anything like this happen with my darling Gentle Annie or any previous autos.

The washer died again at five years old. So I called F&P to tell them what to do with their not so smart washers. They offered to replace the parts free of charge if I would pay the labour cost.

18 months on, it developed more problems. Unbearable noisiness rattles, agitator tardiness and the out of balance on spin problem were far worse. The water trickled into the machine, and took ages to fill, although the water filters were clean. Now I had to nurse the washer through each load, after filling it with a bucket on both wash and rinse cycles. I was just grateful on the odd occasion when it didn't unbalance the load!

I decided not to pay for more repairs, and I put up with it because I didn't know what to buy as a replacement.

Anyway... I've been very brave. It was a gigantic leap of faith.
I bought a 'LG' Fuzzy Logic WF-T755TH 7.5kg with TurboDrum Sensor on Queen's Birthday weekend. It's a water jet washer and I love it. It cleans as well if not better than the Smart? Drive. The controls are easy to use. It's gentle. Clothing doesn't tangle. It spins without going out of balance and it's quiet.

I’d almost decided to buy a Westinghouse washer (no fins), but decided to research further options.
The salesman wasn’t helpful when I asked for help on the LG. He wanted to sell me a front loader. When I rejected the idea, he bored my son with the superior qualities of the front loader for way too many minutes. While he talked, I began conversing with another customer who was also standing by the LG's waiting for the salesman to quit talking. He'd been in a day or two earlier and spoken to a saleswoman about the LG water jet washer. It just so happened; she’d been asked by Harvey Norman to trial the machine at home and had nothing but praise for it after six months. He was so impressed, he’d come back to purchase.

So in spite of the salesman or perhaps because of his misplaced attention, I was sold the LG by a fellow customer. I went searching for someone more deserving to profit from the commission, as did the other customer.

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