I am a full member and thought I would share my recent issues with this machine and the separate pedestal I bought to go with it.
Firstly, the Vida XL self-assembly stand was terrible, it took hours to assemble and vibrated and danced all over the tiled floor. I fitted anti vibration pads to the machine and pedestal and that made it worse, so I have sent the stand back for a refund via Kogan.
The Chiq 8.5 Kg washer is stable and quite good except the manual states it spins at 1400 RPM which is incorrect as it only spins on 2 or 3 of the 16 programs at 1400 RPM. Yesterday my wife put our queen size lightweight wool doona in it. It was set for the wool cycle. It went around and around on the spin cycle for 9 minutes, but failed to spin at all. When it stopped it was totally wet. We then put it on the spin cycle only to remove the water and again it went around and around for 9 minutes and without spinning at all. Needleless to say the doona was soaking wet. This is not good. Our previous Haier 7.5 kg machine spun it well, but this one does not?
I have written to Chiq as to whether it is our issue e.g. machine overloaded or a machine fault and await their reply. I wrote to them when we first got the machine a month ago about the incorrect manual RPM speed of 1400.
If it is too unbalanced, the machine will not try to spin at higher speeds, it has protections that won’t allow too unbalanced operation. What it seems it is doing is trying to distribute the weight before trying to spin. This on our Samsung ends with a failure code that indicates unbalanced if it can’t distribute the weight more evenly.
Sometimes adding more items to help the distribution can assist getting it to run properly.
That is normal with most front loaders. Each program will have unique limits for spin speed, weight of clothes, and water temperature, and if a presoak/prewash can be set, and so on.
What you have described seems to be a normal front loading washing machine.
@grahroll’s comment on the balance issue is also typical. When most are unbalanced they wil slow, reverse, and do it over and over trying to distribute the load into balance - but when there is only one heavy water logged item it will eventually give up and stop.
On some a user can change the selection such as temp (sometimes limited amounts), spin speed, rinse amount, and other options that may be available with the machine e.g., bubble soak on the Samsung we have. This selection is only for that single use and at the finish of the cycle the choices go back to the default for that cycle selection.
Perhaps @Nickolas might like to try changing some settings for a wash cycle to see what is available.
For our bulky item setting we can only select a speed of spin up to 800 rpm (it also allows drip dry so no spin at all), for wool cycle it is a maximum of 400 rpm (plus no spin again), cotton cycles allow all the maximums the machine has available.
@Nickolas, I found a manual for a very similar one and in the manual it does show that many of the parameters for the cycle can be changed. While the English is somewhat lacking in accuracy, the ideas can be followed adequately. Hopefully they have improved the manual since this one was produced to correct the spelling issues. The manual also confirms the out of balance behaviour.
Regarding the smaller Haier spinning your doona, it is probably more likely that your doona filled the smaller drum on the Haier whereas on the slightly larger Chiq drum it only occupies a portion of the drum space. I hope that makes sense where the doona distributes itself in the smaller drum but there is space left in the larger one, with nothing to fill it in weight wise to enable proper balance, and hence spinning at speed.
As @grahroll mentioned, add something that will be about as heavy as the wet doona, eg a large wet towel or small wet (washable) carpet. You still might need to arrange it by hand once but it should help the balance and thus spinning at speed.
I had the Chiq service man out and he tested it. The issue was/is the Q/S Doona is simply too big for the 8.5Kg machine as when it is wet, its wool, its too heavy for the machine. He told me he has a 10Kg LG and he has to take his Doona to the laundrymat to wash it. He told me to only fill the machine to a height of 3/4 of the open door.
I sent back the Vida XL pedestal stand bought via Kogan about 10 days ago and still waiting on a refund and they are each appearing to blame each other saying the refund was processed on the 7/7/2025 and still have not got it.
Thanks for adding that. Every consumer experience can be helpful to another person who comes across a topic.
Re the weight, you posted your previous 7.5 Haier could handle it. While not ‘expert’ it seems as likely it is the weight and balance problem on your 8.5, not just the weight itself although his advice is good and hopefully provides insight.
Following on, every front loader motor is not equal, nor are the bearings, so prudence at not overloading will help getting a longer life from the washer.
