Can an expensive purchase, replacing something that, technically, isn’t actually broken be justified?

Back in the 1990s my gran bought me a Zanussi washer/dryer. It was brilliant and lasted 18 years before its age really began to show and it was in need of replacement (I could have had it repaired but technology had moved on – washers held bigger loads and were more efficient).

So, 3-4 years ago we bought a brand new Indesit to replace it. It was just a washer (I never used the dryer functionality of the Zanussi) and was a cheap model, which is all I could afford at the time. Sadly, that cheaper price reflected in the quality – even within the first year, we would get intermittent failures of the wash (with the washer reporting error codes that are not documented by Indesit). After some trial and error this seemed to be due to the load being too heavy (never confirmed, though).

Since then, we’ve had further problems, including further errors (with all the washer lights flashing frantically), the conditioner tray filling with water and the tablet tray, well, doing the opposite – the wash would finish and the tablet would still be there, albeit now damp. The washer was also noisy (it always had been, not really a fault).

Last weekend I had enough as it refused to complete its final spin (in the end, I had to switch it off and on and then run another drain before the spin would work) and, digging into savings, I bought a top-of-the-range Bosch. AO came and installed it (and very good they were too) and it’s genuinely a pleasure – easy to use and quiet (we really can’t tell when it’s on the spin cycle as it does it so quietly).

At the end of the day, though, the Indesit worked, just with the occasional hiccup that we always seemed to be able to work around. But, sometimes, spending just to get rid of an inconvenience in your life (and one that can cause levels of stress) can be worth it. But it’s not something I plan to do too regularly.

Oh, and if anybody is after a new washing machine and can justify the cost, I can heartedly recommend the Bosch Serie 8.