The Indesit Moon washing machine advert had a catchy tag line, “Future Friendly”, and a catchy music track by New Order. I’m sceptical about the use of the phrase future friendly though.
The phrase implies it will either last a very long time, or that a product is so technically advanced it is unlikely to be superseded by anything better in the near future.
If they have genuinely pulled this off it would be an amazing achievement for one of the cheapest brands in the UK.
The TV advert was very slick showing lots of robots mingling with people in everyday life apparently integrated into society. The accompanying overlaid text says, One day – Man and machine – Will live together – In perfect harmony. Then as a woman loads her new Indesit washing machine with laundry it continues, That day – Has dawned. As she closes the door the voice over says, Indesit Moon: Future friendly.
The advert is brilliant (I’m not being sarcastic). It has great music, great visuals, and a great overall concept. I was just disappointed to see it was only advertising a washing machine – and one of the cheapest washing machines in the business.
£299 for a 6 kg washing machine with a 1400 rpm spin is cheap, and these days many cheap washing machines are notoriously not worth repairing (and get scrapped way too soon) if they break down out of guarantee unless it is a minor fault.
It would be great if the spare parts for this washing machine are going to be priced lower than previous Indesit spare parts, and at levels that make it economic to repair in the future.
So far this is not the case with many cheap washing machines and to me, something can’t be truly future friendly if it isn’t worth repairing after 3 or 4 years just because the PCB has failed. I do like the look of this washing machine. I also like the simple solitary control button offering just 4 wash programmes.
Many customers have often told me they want simple controls and fewer programmes – not more. It will appeal to customers buying at the budget end who see extremely simple controls as a priority but they won’t have to mind if this involves compromises elsewhere.
The Moon’s looks
The innovative soap dispenser behind the door looks interesting too although it’s too early to judge if this is a genuinely good idea or not yet (it wasn’t – see update below). The advantage is that, “because water is constantly splashing inside this dispenser as the drum rotates it should be kept very clean”.
However, one disadvantage is that it replaces the customary door glass – so you can no longer see the laundry laundry inside.
Although the novelty of watching laundry go round and round in a washing machine has long since worn off – it is still useful to be able to see the laundry as the drum revolves.
You can occasionally notice something that shouldn’t be there (such as a coin or credit card) and stop the wash to attempt to retrieve it before any damage occurs.
At the end of the day this is a great advert bigging up a normally quite basic brand who’s priority is to make washing machines as cheaply as possible and hopefully give some value for money.
It represents Indesit trying to become more sophisticated and more innovative, but it could only be truly “future friendly” if it proves to be much more reliable than other previous models, and if spares are much more reasonably priced to encourage future repairs. Otherwise the future friendly tag is disingenuous.
Update:
Which? have since reviewed the Indesit Moon and their opening paragraph says, “we weren’t overly impressed by the Moon”. They say it’s not very good on the 40 degree wash, the one most people use, and say it’s only good for light stains. However, surprisingly they say it is good at rinsing, which is remarkably rare these days and even most of their “best buys” aren’t highly rated for rinsing (Why can’t modern washing machines rinse properly?).
So if you require a cheap washing machine and rinsing is especially important to you because of irritation or allergies you might be interested in one but at the compromise of not being very good on 40 degree washes. It has to be said too that Indesit don’t have a good reliability record either according to my experience and Which? reports.
(1 month trial offer plus a copy of the Which? magazine) to get the full benefit of the latest washing machine reviews)
Update: April 2011
The Indesit Moon has now been the subject of a BBC Watchdog item due to them receiving so many complaints about it. The focus of the programme’s criticism is that the Indesit Moon is particularly vulnerable to the nasty build up of grease, grime, sludge, bacteria and black mould as described in my Washerhelp article Washing machine smells – causes of grease, slime and black mould inside washing machines.
Which although affecting any washing machine if the conditions I describe are present, the Indesit Moon appears to be uniquely incapable of doing the 90 degree maintenance boil wash manufacturers (including Indesit themselves) recommend.
If you have a Moon model which is covered in mould and grease you should read the article above for tips on how to discourage the problem.
Although the moon cannot do a 90 degree wash you can still try to limit the problem by not using liquid detergents, doing a 60 degree maintenance wash regularly with normal detergent containing bleaching agent etc.
On balance I think it’s fair to say this model should be avoided.
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Thanks for you contribution Carol. You may be interested in this article from Washerhelp’s consumer help section Washing machine under guarantee, but repair company say they will charge me if their engineer can’t find any fault Can they do that?
The opinions in that article are purely my own and I can’t claim any source to back up my opinion other than good old fashioned, and sold common sense :-)
I can’t comment specifically on the standard of aftersales service, other than to say I believe it’s often generally not so good these days especially with cheaper brands because the money to run a high class aftersales service just isn’t there, and engineers are expected to do too many jobs over too wide a range of products in my opinion (and experience).
Regarding the poor results on 30 degree washes there are some important points to bear in mind listed on this article washing at 30 degrees? 5 things you need to know
Bought the Moon from Costco with a 2 year guarantee. Not long after I got it they stopped stocking it. An assistant told me they’d had quite a few returned. well now mine’s going back. It used to be ok (if slightly drawn out) doing the 60 degree wash, but suddenly wouldn’t finish the programme. I had to stop it. wait for it to empty, restart it on 30 & wait for it to finish. then it wouldn’t stop on the 40 degree programme. Now, finally, it’s stopped finishing on 30. It just stops before the final light goes off & goes on forever. First & last time I’ll have an Indesit.
Bought our Moon 2 years ago and have nothing but trouble, since it being 2 months old. The washing cycles are very much the same as previous washers.
However, after the initial 3 months, we started to notice that on 60 degree washes, the washing was covered in dirty soap scum as well as the internal seal and the door pockets. We thought perhaps we were over-filling with 1CAPSULE and softener but ran out of ideas so called the engineer within the warranty. The engineer told us we have to buy a ‘SPECIAL CLEANER’ at a cost of £25 per bottle which we were supposed to use every other week….
This didn’t seem such an environmentally friendly machine as double the washing of clothes + the extra washing to clean the machine.
This made no difference and the next engineer said you can buy cheaper liquids for cleaning the machine from ‘Tesco’ and ‘Aldi’ so gave them a go. A little better but still dirty marks and still dirty seal around the door.
Indesit’s warranty response is that there is no fault and the cleaning is all part of the use and warranty of the machine. If you do this, it should be fine. 4 engineer visits and about £200 of machine cleaner later….
Pity they don’t tell you any of this when you buy this washing machine.
PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!!!!
Kevin: I’m not sure if the Indesit Moon is particularly prone to this problem but it is a common issue with all washing machines these days.
You should be able to use normal detergent to do a maintenance wash as long as it has bleaching agents in it and you use a hot wash. See this comprehensive article – Washing machine smells
There’s also a product called “smelly washer” which appears to be good.
Thanks for your response. However, I completely disagree. I have owned Indesit washing machines before, Phillips, Whirlpool and Bosch and never have I had the problems I have had with this machine. I think the other people above would agree.
I have tried every dishwasher cleaner known to man, recommended by the engineer when he came to look at it. Black mould and the ‘soap-scum’ is so bad, the machine is in my garage and I bought another machine. The machine didnt clean whites at all. They came out grey or off-white. Certainly dirtier than they went in. I would wash towels and whites twice on a 60 degree wash and that didn’t work so I had a relative wash them in their BEKO machine which cost the £170 and came out sparkling white….
Colours, you can’t tell but it really is not a good washing machine. They don’t sell them anymore I am told by my local Currys. For a machine that is supposed to be state of the art, futuristic and also cost effective, why would they no longer sell them??????
Hello Kevin, I’m not sure what you could disagree with – especially completely :-) as I just said I’m not sure if the Indesit Moon is particularly prone to this problem but it’s a common problem with all washing machines. It’s a well known issue caused by modern detergents (especially liquid detergents or colour-friendly detergents which don’t contain any bleaching agents) combined with low temperature washing.
It may be that the Indesit moon is more prone to this problem than other washing machines, I didn’t say it wasn’t, only that I’m not sure.
I’m not trying to be awkward in any way :-) I’m just hoping these links may be of some help – even if only by eliminating them as causes and making it clearer it’s the washing machine at fault.
There’s certainly anecdotal evidence in these comments that it doesn’t wash very well. I’m no fan of the Indesit Moon which as I say in my article was one of the cheapest washing machines around and can only be “future friendly” if it lasts a decent amount of time.
However it’s always worth examining all possible explanations not just the washing machine such as using liquid detergent without any bleaching agent in can cause whites to go grey Whites coming out of washing machine looking grey, coloureds losing their colour
well thats it we are done the moon has been kicked into touch (and and I purchased a Hotpoint) and my whites are now white again after only one wash with the same powders that i used in the MOON
it simply does not clean as well as it should
The bearings in my 30 month old Moon have failed. Solution – buy a £165, 12 month policy from Indesit and have it fixed by them. Local repair services are estimating £200 for repair works and are mainly suggesting sending it to the great white(silver) goods mountain. We haven’t even used it excessively, once every other day. We’ve also experienced the powder streaking and mould problems mentioned above. Very disappointing and has tainted my opinion of the brand. Although, it is very pretty!!
Paul. In my opinion if it needs £165 spending on it after only 30 months of light use it’s probably not lasted a reasonable time and hasn’t been fit for its purpose. You should be entitled to compensation from the retailer under the sale of goods act, which may be a partial refund taking into account the 30 months usage you’ve had from it or the amount required to repair it. However, don’t expect to just be able to ask and get because retailers will almost always try to fob customers off claiming there’s nothing they can do because it’s “out of guarantee”, which is totally untrue.
You should read carefully the following article and its comments EU 2 year guarantee. Sale of Goods Act gives us 6 years to claim for faulty appliances
Hotpoint and Indesit are both the same company with very similar parts inside. Hotpoint have more features and slicker design but aren’t much different quality wise to Indesit I’m afraid. At least you are happier with the wash results which is good.