Spin doctor

So it’s in the manufacturers’ interests for that to happen as often as possible. Soon after the guarantee has run out, preferably.

Building in obsolescence to what the retailers call white goods is they way they shift machines these days. This is particularly true of washers, whose working parts make them more prone to wear and tear than other appliances.

Dyson was the last company to bring anything radically new to the market: a machine with two washing drums spinning in opposite directions. But at £800 there were few takers.

Rivals have found that research and development on that scale is simply not cost-effective, which means that buying a washing machine today is an experience best likened to choosing a British car in the 1970s: the trick is to avoid the one that’s going to fall to bits first.

There are plenty of familiar names on mid-priced washers but many can be traced to just three manufacturers: Electrolux (Zanussi, AEG and Tricity Bendix); Candy (Hoover); and Merloni (Hotpoint, Ariston, Creda and Indesit). Alongside them are retailers’ own brands, often German-sounding but more likely sourced from the far east. Higher up the food chain comes the actual German maker Bosch and higher still, premium brands like Siemens and Miele.

Manufacturers are fond of charging extra for features which you will seldom use. Digital displays, for instance, are not only pointless but prone to go wrong. Delay-start timers are invaluable if your house uses cheaper-rate electricity at night; next to useless if not.

Instead, look for an “A” energy rating, a spin speed of at least 1,200 rpm and (for an average family) a wash load of 6kg or more.

A Bosch machine with that specification can be had for around £300, a Turkish-made Beko for about £200.

You can, of course, shop for washers on the high street but online is where you can really, er, clean up, with many bargains from suppliers disposing of last year’s stock. Shopping.google.com will give you an instant price comparison, though not, sadly, a steer on which ones rolled off the production line on a Friday afternoon.