Hotpoint LFT228A

Ok, firstly the positive, this Hotpoint dishwasher cleans quite well.

Thankfully, I put this appliance on our Domestic and General Home Appliance Service Policy; I cannot count how many times we have had to call an engineer out to rectify problems.

Most problems have been with the door locking mechanism, which is on a spring system that sometimes trips without the door being shut, this means the door WON'T shut, so we have to wedge it with a tea towel for the cycle to complete and the door to reset. When this doesn't work, an engineer has to come out and sort it out. We have had THREE new mechanisms - we were told it was a design fault - and one full new door. In addition to being one of the lucky ones with a known fault that could have caused a fire, so that meant another engineer coming out.

The cutlery basket is very poor quality, it deteriorates and splits quickly, the top shelf is not laid out well - things tip over easily and the glass rests cannot be lifted out of the way, they have to be removed to open up that space.

All in all, it is an incredibly poor machine.

Did quite a bit of research into which dishwasher we should buy and decided on this product as it met our budget, it was made by Hotpoint (our last appliance was a Hotpoint) and we thought it cannot be that different to what we were replacing. Wrong! Never assume that as it is the same make that it will be as good! Overall the machine is ok, fitting it in was ok (in my work I have fitted quite a few appliances) fitting the door was fairly straight forward so now it is all ready to go. The problem really starts when you put things in. We have fairly standard plates etc and we don't put saucepans in the dishwasher.

If we put a dinner plate in the bottom basket then you cannot lower the top basket as the spray arm hits the plates. If you leave the top basket at its high setting then you cannot put the 'glass supports' up out of the way as they hit on the top of the machine. If you leave the supports down you cannot get a mug below them (cups are ok) Small points but be advised that this is one of the problems of buying on line as you do not actuall see the item untill it arrives. We usually go to a local supplier and have a look before we buy but very few shops have integrated items on display as they are not very attractive. To conclude I am not saying that this item is worse than others but perhaps try to see it before making up your mind.

Bought this integrated dishwasher having read a few reviews which seemed positive.

It cleans pretty well (which is clearly v. important) and its pretty easy to use.

Installing was a bit annoying as they decided to save the 17pence it would have costs to include some instructions with words on it, rather than rather obscure diagrams - I always find it odd that reasonably expensive products can't stretch to having a few lines of text to help you with installation...

Anyway - that aside, I got it installed, not a major issue but just took longer than it needed to.

The other really annoying thing though is how the dishwasher is set up internally. For some reason it feels much, much smaller than our previous dishwasher - but is identical in size.

The layout internally just doesn't work for our glasses, cups, bowls and plates (all of which are fairly standard) - to such a degree that we find we often can't fit everything in each day - most frustrating.

Due to that reason I wouldn't recommend this to people