Team-BHP - The Home Appliance thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by drchernish (Post 1447908)

between lg n samsung which is better?in context to side by side refrigerators.anybody using them?any personal experiences will help.thanks.

Bought the most inexpensive Samsung Side by side available in the market a year back. Working like a charm still.. Was a 4 star model for which I paid 45k after exchanging my old videocon.
Did NOT opt for one with an water/ice dispenser as:
1. It was taking too much of my freezer-meaning less ice creams
2. Needs a plumbing line to be run to my refrigerator
3. Would assume that I would still open the refrigerator searching for the cold water bottle past midnight semi conscious..Old habits die hard.. :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 1470582)

Have MK regulators, still speed "1" is too fast for me!

In my previous rented apartment with Crabtree built-in regulators I got
nice and gentle speed at setting of "1". (and I mean slow. I don't think
it would be too fast for anyone).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 1451350)

How best to get service for my European Bosch washing machine? ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by filcord (Post 1453416)

Try and see if there's an authorised Bosch service point in your city. ...

Have realised that Bosch and Siemens are sister companies with respect to domestic appliances, so Siemens is more likely to be able to help me than the tools division of Bosch.

I've made further investigations and found the cause of the problem... a dead rat in main controller. A rotted dead rat. Although the machine is in an open-air passage way, I cannot understand why we never smelt anything.

You can see the progress. I didn't photograph the rat in place, as I didn't know what it was before removal.

The close up was my way of noting the connector positions for replacement after cleaning, but it can be seen that there is some damage to the board near the two connector blocks. I cleaned and dried the board, and reassembled --- but no result. It still has some functions working, but will not wash. something must have shorted.

This was a high-end Bosch machine; I got a clue that a high-end Siemens machine is 60,000 here :Shockked:

It was bought from UK when I imported my belongings, Murali. Rats inside a UK house would be a pretty rare event, and not one that even Bosch would think of guarding against.

I did not have the sense to think of that when I installed it. We have recently covered the bottom part of the grill gates at either end of the passage way with sheet metal. Even though we knew we needed to do that, we still didn't think of rats in the machine.

I am very sad; such a machine under the light usage it has had, might have lasted a lifetime.

I know this is off topic and completely useless but I just can't resist asking...........how the hell did the rat die? Did it get electrocuted, crushed, ground or a combination of the above?

The only way one tell it's a rat is by it's teeth:eek:.......and are those maggots on the circuit board?

There was a cover over that board, and yes those are maggots.

By the size of the contacts, and (I guess, I really know nothing about electronics) by the size of the traces on the board in that area, I would think high voltages would be there. I guess the rat was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Finding dead maggots is quite unusual; I guess they must have been electrocuted too --- and the whole nasty mess was probably cooked after that :eek:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 1481940)

Wow! The rat's head (or whatever's left of it) is contorted in a pretty gruesome way!

Anyway, in all likelihood you have probably done this alredy but make sure that you have disinfected the machine and the space that the machine occupies. Would'nt hurt if you could also sterilise the clothes that you may have washed just before the grisly discovery. Apart from a host of other diseases, rats in India sometimes carry leptospirosis which can be fatal.

It had probably been in there for months :(

The fault started appearing some time back, and I, stupidly, put it down to voltage, as our supply was very irregular for a long time. Earlier action might have saved the day.

Anyway, plan A is to see if Siemens will send me an engineer to look at it. If they are not prepared to do component-level repair on the board (if the board is the source of the problem; a short could have affected another component in the machine, but there are not many, apart from that board) then (plan B) I have to see if a local engineer can tackle it. worth a try, as I can buy an entire machine for the price of that board, and it is just not worth spending that much on an old machine.

Wow... I just found the bill... 22 May 1999 --- it's ten years old!

And it cost £549 (around Rs.44,000) :(

I heard from a friend, that one could insure the home appliances (like the car insurance) which covers for the repair and maintenance. In case of the eventuality, we can recover the deprecated cost of the appliance.

Do any one have idea of how it works?
How is the premium calculated?
What are terms and conditions to look out for?

You can add appliances to home insurance. Usually you have to pay first 2k of any breakdown expense.

So, if you spend 1200 on getting your TV fixed, insurance wont pay anything. If you spend 10 on getting some appliance fixed than insurance would pay 8k.

Cost is 1 - 3% of current value of appliances. And appliance should not be more than 10 yrs old.

After exact 9 years of trouble free run, my Fully Automatic top load washing machine from whirlpool whitemagic needs replacement.

1).stops between wash cycles.
2). buttons worn out, have to dig with screw driver.
3). wastes a lot of water
4). electric shocks sometimes
5) High Repair cost suggested

Above are reasons i would like to go for a new machine.
got it inspected from whirlpool guys and they didn't cared to even pop open it, they just came like a doctor, asked for symptoms, said Logic card needs to be changed and its Rs.3000 they also stated there's no warranty on this repair which would be around 4k in all.

I fear spending 4k on repairs and that too they won't take any warranty on replaced part whatsoever. :deadhorse

I checked out a few and Samsung washing machines look cool and are quite affordable.
I think big bazaar was offering the cheapest deal than other dealers.

from some research i found these models.
anybody with first hand experience with these models.

WA78D4P new
5.8Kg top loading
MRP Rs. 10,690/-

WA85VNLEC new
6.5Kg top loading
MRP Rs. 15,090/-

WA85VPLEC new
6.5Kg top loading
MRP Rs. 16,390/-

Official website

Rates at Bigbazaar are cheaper than whats quoted above, may be due to the BULK purchase they make.