Coloured washing machines were once very fashionable. But before buying a nice coloured washing machine think carefully about the following potential downsides.
Are coloured washing machines a good idea?
I recently heard about an engineer who was called out to repair a blue coloured washing machine. It had a repair limit of £125 because was under an extended warranty. The machine was declared beyond economical repair (very common these days – what you need to know about appliance extended warranties).
So they scrapped it. Here’s what the engineer said –
This customer’s kitchen is all blue. Blue fridge, freezer, kettle, toaster need I go on? The manufacturer no longer makes a blue machine and the insurer only supplies replacements in white. Fashion, don’t you just love it! ”
So the first thing to consider is that you might find you can’t replace your appliance in the colour you need because the colour is no longer available. This shows how impractical it can be – particularly with flamboyant or bold colours. Appliances don’t last anywhere near as long as a kitchen and some can be scrap after just several years these days.
Spare parts for coloured appliances
Manufacturers also often refuse to supply certain spare parts in the same colour they originally made them in. Control panels and doors, door handles and control knobs could be affected. This could force an ugly colour clash. I’ve had to fit parts that the manufacturer refused to supply in the correct colour. Instead they placed a leaflet in with the part saying it was considered a “suitable replacement”.
Colours are only cosmetic they said. As long as they supply a replacement part that fits and functions they are (presumably?) meeting their legal requirements to supply spare parts for a reasonable period of time. I remember once when Hoover only supplied brown coloured parts to fit on appliances that were all red, green or blue. They didn’t look too good with the dual colours.
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White appliances are best choice
Strongly coloured appliances can look great. But any colour but white is likely to fall in and out of fashion. If you really don’t want white, then silver is a good alternative. Silver usually looks classy and will always look good in a kitchen.
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Phil C says
I understand the point you are making and the reasons for it but sometimes people don’t have a choice.
We have just moved into a newly built house and as part of the process, had various options and extras to consider. For the kitchen, we were able to select our preference for cabinet doors; cabinet door handles; work surface; flooring; wall paint; decorative paint i.e skirting and even the type of handle on the door..
There was no choice however as to the fitted oven; hob and extractor, ALL OF WHICH ARE STAINLESS STEEL. As a result, when we ordered our new fridge freezer; washing machine; dish-washer and even the microwave, it would have looked odd if we hadn’t ensured that these were similar although we had to settle for metallic / grey in most cases since stainless steel was either too expensive or not available otherwise.
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
Hello Phil. Definitely, and your dilemma really enforces my point that colours are fashion driven and cause many problems when replacing appliances or fitting a kitchen, and that once you decide on non-standard colour it causes problems down the line.
Having said that I think the appliances you mentioned are all stainless steel because that is a finish which should look okay in any kitchen no matter what colour the other appliances are in the same way that a stainless steel kettle or toaster will always look good no matter what colour everything else is. I agree that matching stainless steel appliances would look brilliant but white would have probably looked okay. It’s very much subjective though.
Stainless steel finish is very expensive and it’s rare for a company to produce appliances in stainless steel. Miele are one of the only ones I know that make washing machines and tumble dryers in stainless steel and you have to see them close up to appreciate how beautiful and awesome they look. Photos do not do them justice. However, they are extremely expensive and for the very rich only.
The beauty of white is that it looks okay in any kitchen which is why the overwhelming majority of appliances have always been white and probably always will. The only way I could see this changing is if it becomes just as cheap to produce them in stainless steel finish, in which case I would expect that to become dominant but whilst ever it is cheaper to use normal metals and paint them, white is always going to be best ;)