HOTPOINT WMD960

I bought this Hotpoint WMD90 Ultima in bog standard white about 8 years ago from Comet for round about £500, and have not been sorry.

The handy 8kg makes small change of even the biggest loads in winter time, and the 1600 rpm spin shortens drying times. On occasion I have washed the odd duvet, super king size blanket, and horse rug in it with the machine dealing with it superbly and efficiently.

The 60min superwash cycle washes at 60 degrees with 1600 spin and takes care of most of my cottons, white or otherwise. Push the ECO button and it turns the superwash into a cold water wash with an 800 spin. There are also 3 additional cotton cycles as well as 3 synthetic cycles.

The machine also has a Silk cycle, and a great Wool cycle which has taken care of all my husband's Austin Reed suits and most other things marked "dryclean only". The machine sports the 3star Platinum Woolcare logo.

There is also a number of rinse and spin cycles. The machine is programmable and has a time delay button for when you want it to work at the dead of night or during the day when electric is cheap but you are not there. I have never used this feature though.

There is also a Mini Load button which you can use if you are only washing a small load. There is also a Decreased Creases and Time Saver buttons, but I have never used them.

For bedding and towels there is a 90 degree cycle which will help to kill bacteria and sanitise your sheets, pillow cases and towels.

In the time I have had the Ultima, it has never broken down or left me in the lurch in any way. The LCD screen is starting to fade and the outside housing is starting to rust, but other than that I cannot fault it.

A lot of people have said horrible things about the machine, but I guess that by using non-bio detergents I have increased the life of all the components. If the inside of the machine smells its because they don't leave the door open for the machine to dry out - I only close the door when the machine is in use and have never had any bad smells.

This is a great machine which I will have not trouble to recommend or repurchase.

Worked fine for two years. Then started making lots of noise and the belt keeps coming off. Help line is Indesit not Hotpoint, costs 5p a minute and kept me on hold listening to music. When answered said there were no engineers to talk to only interested in booking in a service engineer, at £80 a visit I do not think so.

Not recommended.

Had machine 6 years had one repair for new board after 4 years now heater has gone bought one online 8 pound easy too fit now working, machine has a smell from drum.

Not bad for 6 year old machine

Within weeks of purchase I noticed that one of the paddles on the drum was loose but wasn't sure if this was suppose to be that way within another few months we had to get engineer to come out and fix the paddle, in all 2 paddles were broken and then after the engineer left again another paddles was loose! I have grey sludge all over my clothes and have to re-wash and have had to do this many times - we have tried cleaning crystals and putting on the hottest wash with no clothes in to no avail! I have also noticed tiny holes in our clothes and could only think it was due to the washer only to read a number of other reviews stating the same issue. To date the washing machine is only 3 years old and we will need to purchase another to prevent all the above problems! would not recommend or purchase another brand.

I have had nothing but problems with this machine since we bought it. Paddles came off and after calling hotpoint on their expensive phone line, was told the paddles werent covered. I agreed to an engineer coming out as they said it would be refunded if it was deemed a machine fault. i was sure it was as I don't have heavy loads. I work in an office where I use suits that are to be dry cleaned and I have 2 young girls with very light clothes. Of course the engineer said the machine was not faulty, charged me the £79 and left me with a spare paddle - he oviously knew I would need another as this seems to be a common problem with this machine. My husband had to renew the other paddles within the following couple of weeks. I also tried to claim Hotpoint through trading standards as new washing machines should have life expectancy of more than a couple of months. Other problems are the spin cycle leaving clothes soaking, the short 30 min and 60 min wash cycles lasting hours and the machine just does not wash the clothes properly - it is as if there is not enough water in the machine. I spend a fortune on pre wash and stain removal products and so much time pre treating be fore I put them in the machine. Don't touch this machine or Hotpoint with a barge pole - utter rubbish

I bought this machine in june 2009. So far it has had the display replaced as that stopped working, tricky to use a machine with an electronic display when it doesn't come on.

Next the motherboard had to be replaced as it had total system failure and couldn't use the machine at all.

The machine has got noisier and noisier and so last week it has had the drum bearing replaced. When the engineer was out last October fornthe motherboard I said about how noisy the machine was and was told it probably wasn't level!!

At the moment it is like a new machine, well as long as you don't look at it and see the rust patches. It is currently running well but I am SO glad I took the extended cover as we have needed it, although if I didn't have that cover I wouldn't have kept repairing the machine.

Sadly I wouldn't recommend this machine :-((

Thought I'd write this to give a balanced view. Bought from new 3 yrs ago and hasn't missed a beat from day one. Easy to use, big wash load, very quiet, great spin speed which leaves clothes barely damp, and washes well. These days drums are very big for efficient tumbling, the temptation is to overload it. If you do, the wash performance will obviously reduce. I know hotpoint come with a bad rep, but mines been faultless. The condenser dryer function works well too.

Please do not waste your money on this washing machine (Hotpoint WMD960 Ultima)! With my previous washer, a Whirlpool, I could put washing in stained with just about anything and they would come out spotless. Not so with this one. I can guarantee anything with a mark on it will come out with a mark on it. I've had to resort to using prewash stain removers such as Vanish - which is very annoying as quite often you either forget that the stain's there or don't even know. Another problem is that the washer doesn't rinse well at all. Black washes tend to come out with white deposits on them - obviously whites and coloureds have them but it isn't as noticeable I did go through a phase of putting it on an extra rinse at the end of a cycle but this added another 39 minutes to the time which is really quite unacceptable time-wise and economy-wise. Then there is the noisy spin cycle. The house shakes and things fall off the draining board with the vibration of it! I look forward to the day it breaks down so I can justify a replacement! Look at other makes!

Ann

Bought this Hotpoint WMD960 machine in June 2009,after a few months had trouble with timer,at start it would show 30/40 minutes fast wash???,still running up to 2 hours later,having taken out the service insurance got engineers out to fix it,big joke could find nothing wrong,total of 3 times they attended in the following months,none could find a fault,getting close to scrapping machine and get another make i saw on Amazon this Descaler powders,about £10.50 for ten packets,try anything once so put one packet in and followed instructions,HEY PRESTO!!,machine running very quiet,timer working spot on,machine running as when delivered,a magic powder that has worked for me,so forget the ENGINE-EARS, no that's not a spelling mistake!!,try a powder,i think it's a good machine but let down by service personal,

I first bought this machine 7 years ago, along with the graphite coloured fridge and freezer, when moving into my new house.

The machine tore holes in the clothes soon after buying, but despite having several engineer visits who duly conducted drum or seal replacements, we decided after 3 years to buy a new machine.

Now call me stupid, but because I had the matching appliances, I bought the same machine again.....STUPID I hear you cry.....and you would right!

Now, to be safe this time, I took out an extended warranty, at a cost of £7 per month - and the torn clothes have happened all over again. This time it's worse, we've lost hundreds of pounds worth of clothes.

They have fitted 6 new drums, several new door seals, but have refused to give me a new machine. I've paid £7 per month for 3 years to protect me, but it's not worth the paper it's written on. One engineer told me they would do anything other than replace the machine.

The engineers have accused me of not using the correct wash cycle for clothes, but even on a 30 degree cotton cycle with the spin turned down to 400, it's tearing holes in cotton t-shirts, socks, jogging bottoms?! All items that should be able to withstand a normal 40 degree cotton cycle according to their labels.

I am going to have buy my 3rd watching machine in 7 years because of this terrible machine, don't waste your money like I have!!