We employed two rather strong men to elevate it onto the pedestal after it had been completed. The pedestal could only be made once the machine had been delivered and everything measured in-situ to get everything to fit correctly.
Our pedestal was made with 4x large heavy duty pivoting wheels (from Bunnings) with the front two having brakes. This allows the whole unit to be brought forward to clean. Probably due to the good wheels, it is not heavy to move.
Thank you for your helpful comments.
Thank you for your comments, but I am restricted by a small laundry area and my old Hoover (made here in Australia, sob sob) is not difficult to unload. I will keep your suggestions in mind.
Also, the costs for a new washer are astronomical for me so having a bespoke pedestal is out of the question, but thanks.
Do you have a Mens Shed in your district? The Shed movement has a non-profit community charter that means they help out worthy causes in the community which can be other organisations or individuals.
Some examples:
An elderly woman on a pension with a more elderly dog found the dog was having trouble getting in and out of her elderly car. The local Shed made her a bespoke dog ramp that went into the boot of the car that she could put up to the back seat so Fido could climb in and out. She asked the price, they said make a donation if you like, she found $10.
A volunteer was building new childrenâs seats in the yard of the local pre-school. He had a couple of dozen heavy planks of thick rough-sawn hardwood to work with. Using a sander to make them smooth enough to sit on would have taken days and half an acre of sandpaper. He brought them down to the shed and they put them through the thicknesser which took half an hour (it is not a toy). No charge.
Another targetting those with a disability not served by routine means is
Good suggestions for a pedestal to solve your âbending downâ difficulty @lliedaw. But just from a different point of view: after reading that you have had a top loader washing machine for 26 years, it reminded me of my mumâs problem when her old faithful top loader came to the end of its life. I convinced her to get a water/energy saving front loader but she absolutely hated it because she didnât have the control over it the way she had been used to: more powder could be added mid way, the washing cycle reset, the rinsing cycle done twiceâŠuntil she was happy with the results. The âset and forget, taking forever to finishâ new machine wasnât what she wanted at all.
Just saying, please be sure youâre comfortable with a different type of washing machine before you decide to switch.
Thank you Gaby, I hope my old girl has a few more washers in her, keeping my fingers crossed, but I am so frustrated that nothing on the market now compares with Hoover for reliability, and all made in China or where ever. What happened to Australian manufacturing? I know, it died a slow death! cheers.
Thank you! I have seen the Haier brand fridges but didnât know they had taken over the Hoover brand. I will keep that in mind. cheers
There is a whole other topic on that if you are interested!
Itâs not just Hoover. There has been lots of discussion in many topics about how the old whitegoods seemed to last a very, very long time compared to the rapid obscelesence of today.
They were too well made, and in most instances repairable? Perhaps towards the end the race to reduce the cost of production to stay in the market also caused a reduction in product quality, accelerating their demise?
Todays products offer extra features we never needed, internet connectivity, and models at a price point hard to walk away from. Especially for many under increasing pressures to reduce spending. Repairability is not assured. The manufacturing base for many brands in SE Asia is broad, meeting all component and manufacturerâs needs at a scale not able to be supported locally by Australiaâs small market.
Itâs all the more difficult to know what is value, effective and reliable, as the imported brands and models are produced for a much wider market than just Australia. Some sell for significant premiums, and others far less ambitious in their marketing budgets at relative bargain prices.
Looking at the latest product and reliability reviews from Choice, there are good and bad choices at both ends of the market. Very different from how our parents viewed higher cost with better quality of product. But then it was not unusual for their generation to look at what once were relative to incomes very expensive white goods as lifetime investments.
Our washing machine review has been updated, including top loaders and front loaders to avoid:
Bought a Bosch 8kg washer machine a year an ago. Thinking Bosch is a good buy will not buy another one Bosch. Made so cheap plastic I put my hand on the door bent down to pick up some clothes to put in the washer and the door came off in my hand.
The plastic door doesnât hold weight because of the heaviness of the glass door and plastic hinges does not hold up even I know that and Iâm no mechanic. I hardly put any weight on it and it came off now waiting for door to be fixed. Not happy at all if I knew about it beforehand wouldnât have bought it. So beware people what youâre buying.
Thanks for adding your experience @rainbow5700. I moved it to this topic as it may get more notice from washing machine shoppers than as a stand-alone post.
After a year and that a door can be easily replaced it would probably be categorised as a minor failure to be repaired. Whether it is well designed and manufactured is another topic.
If Bosch is repairing it as a warranty item they have done well by you. Regardless of brand you will find most newer washers have lots of plastics in them to save weight and costs, and they do not rust, so plastics are not all bad under normal use.
Without full details of weight loading and how the door was grabbed being included here, Bosch could knock you back claiming it was misuse/abuse â washing machine doors are not meant to be used as grabs or props. If you face the cost of repair you should read the Australian Consumer Law in detail to see if anything applies to make your case.
@rainbow5700, Iâd be interested to know what model Bosch washing machine you have. It sounds similar to the Bosch Serie 4 8kg model WAN24121AU I bought in January this year. The door on mine, although partly plastic, has very solid metal hinges that donât look to me to be likely to break. Was it the hinges that broke, or did the door break away from the hinges?
