I get quite a few emails asking what I think of Panasonic washing machines. It’s a good question because Panasonic have a very respected reputation for brown goods and as you can now buy Panasonic washing machines people are naturally interested in them, and wonder if they are just as good. I’m a fan of the Panasonic brand and currently have three of their products (a TV, a hard drive recorder, and a Blue-ray home cinema unit). I’ve also previously owned several of their VCR’s and cameras in the past and never had a single problem with any of them.
However, in the UK their washing machines were only launched in 2009, and there are only a few models to choose from so far so there’s not much of a track record on white goods yet. There’s not much data for how reliable they are, or how satisfied customers are, so it’s early days for Panasonic washing machines. It’s highly likely they will be striving to carve an equally good reputation for white goods though.
Any new brand of washing machine has an uphill struggle to become established in an overcrowded market especially against names that have been producing white goods in the UK for many decades. I can’t help feeling there are already too many washing machine brands to chose from (even though many are owned by the same handful of manufacturers) but I suppose there is always room for genuine innovation or better quality if that proves to be what’s on offer.
Panasonic seem to be pitched in the mid price range competing with the likes of LG or AEG so I would judge their washing machines against those brands and ask, what’s different about them? What are Panasonic offering that AEG and LG aren’t?
Which? have reviewed the few Panasonic washing machine models produced so far. Here are the models they’ve reviewed.
Panasonic NA-147VB2
Panasonic NA-14VA1WGB
Panasonic NA-16VX1WGB
Summary
Ultimately, as newcomers to the white goods market (at least in the UK) Panasonic have got to prove themselves. They do have an excellent reputation on brown goods products so it would be crazy of them to produce sub standard white goods to sully their name. On the other hand, can we afford to just assume anything they make will be excellent? Washing machines are very different to a TV, reliability is much harder to achieve because they are far more mechanical and have many moving parts.
If I turn it around and imagine what I’d think if AEG or Hoover started making TV’s it would seem pretty strange. LG made the transition well before Panasonic and sell both brown and white goods in the UK. However, even after several years they are still very much a newcomer in white goods, and haven’t taken too much of the market from the old established white goods manufacturers. At the end of the day moving to a completely new field of products such as moving from brown to white goods may take a good few years to get right.
An important aspect of selling white goods is a good supply of spare parts and technical information to the trade as well as a good quality after-sales network to cover the guarantee period. White goods, particularly washing machines break down much more often and need a lot more spare parts. Newcomers can take a long time to get these right, especially from a background of brown goods, and my sources tell me spares and technical information can be difficult to get for these brands. Only time will tell, but after-sales is a vital consideration when buying product likely to require some in the future unless you are content to get as long as you can out of something (with fingers crossed) and throw it away when it breaks down.
Panasonic washing machines may promise the high quality and reliability provided by their brown goods. Indeed the performance is very good, providing excellent cleaning with low noise and energy consumption. However, woe betide if you have a problem with the machine in warranty or beyond. Despite the high tech fault codes, the Panasonic appointed repair organisation cannot sensibly use them to arrive with parts to repair or even know what is wrong. End result, without washing machine for more than 4 weeks! Could you survive this long? Think of the expense for alternatives! Companies can only be regarded as good by how they perform when things go wrong; unfortunately Panasonic falls way short of what could be considered acceptable. You have been warned!
Hello E G: Yes, my last paragraph mentions this problem. I’m afraid they do seem to have a reputation for issues regarding technical support, spare parts and aftersales service.
Yes I have looked at Panasonic and its track record and it seemed good enough to make me buy one 18 months later still in its warranty period it has failed the engineer is not sure what the prolem is maybe it is the main circuit board or maybe not. Supplier is going to credit me £200. So I am going with that.
just bought a panasonic washing machine 8 hrs old model na-168vx2 .Allready showing error code h41 .Cannot complete a wash
Hello K.MCAY: Make sure there isn’t a problem with the water coming into the machine ( No water coming into the washing machine ) or the water pumping out of the machine ( Washing machine won’t drain water ), which are both common installation faults for failed brand new washing machines when first connected up.
Regarding the error code, Panasonic are one of the appliance manufacturers that are hard to get error codes and technical information for, which means independent repairers may find it difficult to work on them or refuse to do so. Manufacturers might like that idea but independent engineers are usually the first people asked to recommend a brand by customers with an expired appliance and they virtually never recommend brands they can’t subsequently repair. Most consumers trust what an engineer recommends or advises to avoid. I don’t think manufacturers realise just how many sales they lose because they shoulder out independent repairers.
My error code book is quite comprehensive (compiled by appliance repair men across the UK) and there isn’t a single Panasonic error code listed. In my opinion this is a reason to avoid an appliance brand as access to good independent repair engineers is an option that many people want and it shouldn’t be denied.
My new Panasonic washing machine has failed after only 3 months!. error code h 43 is showing which i understand is supposed to be a water leak even though there are NO signs of leakage. have waited almost a week for engineer to come and fix. initial impressions of the machine were very good but now im not to sure, not what i expected of a relatively expensive machine and considering my old hotpoint lasted 10 years without a fault ( running night and day ) im not overly pleased. we shall await the engineer and hopefully he can fix it.
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Update: 1st March
I had an engineer visit today to fix error code h43 which is an internal leak, sure enough once the back was off there was water lying in the base of the machine and once the water touches a sensor the machine stops. The fix for this was for the engineer to simply mop up the water and dry the sensor, so not exactly a repair as such!. We then ran the machine with the back off and no leaks could be found so put back together again and all was well until after 5 washes later it broke down again with the same error code-very frustrating. I have lost all faith in a machine which is only 3 months old and this was further compounded by the engineers comments on the panasonic machine which were poor to say the least. Tomorrow it’s over to John Lewis customer services to try and return this machine for a replacement machine and alternative brand. Not happy.
March 4th 2011
Hi, bought the Panasonic NA-168VX2 from John Lewis, it only managed 2 washes before it went awol showing error code H-55, it was replaced with a new one by john Lewis (within 5 days, Tech Support very helpfull) I have just installed the 2nd machine and hope all will be well, fingers crossed, watch this space !!
Bought this specifically for its large load capacity and energy efficiency. Its very quite compared to a lot of other machines as its got a brush less motor and washing seems to be on par with my other machine an old 5 kg Miele. But if you make use of the so called 8kg capacity, especially if you have a mixed load with a few large items that retain water, your typical large bath towels in 1 out of 4 washes, it will not do the final spin and throws U13 code for being out of balance. Take the heavy stuff out then it will spin ok. If I put the same load in my Miele, no problem spinning it! I don’t think the suspension and or dampers are as robust as they should be for a 8kg machine unless you are very careful as to how you load the machine ..let’s face it who is?
Also happen to notice the door catch mechanism which is made out of plastic and seems very weak, can’t see that lasting many years, let’s just hope when that does go Panasonic 5 year warranty don’t play silly buggers and claim it “user fault”!! On the whole good machine, but a few silly cost cutting mistakes by Panasonic which could turn out to be a pain. So only buy it if you get the free 5 year warranty otherwise look elsewhere.
Have to agree..Puchased panasonic machine 2009… John Lewis….Started to not take the fabric conditioner, so-called engineer came down with his tiny tool box got a scew driver out, washed the draw through (which i have already done) didnt even test the machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! said that should work now!!!!! Did it ? like hell!!!! Waiting for another panasonic tosspot to come down …
Been on to John Lewis, they are great as always, cant fault them at all . They are monitoring the situation…..
Wish I had stuck with the old faithfuls….hotpoint, indesit, even a John Lewis machine…Thought I would spend a bit more this time…..lesson learned…..Very unhappy!!1
Just exchanged my three month old panasonic NA148VA2 after having problems with it not spinning with wet towels in it even though its an 8kg machine took 1 out and it went fine, and then error code H43 kept coming up on it , i contacted panasonic and told them what was wrong they sent a third party engineer out to have a look it ,he diaganosed it to water leaking intenally so he ordered a new door seal ,after 2 weeks there was still no sign of it getting sorted, finaly after 3 weeks panasonic agreed to change it for a new one but i choose not to have a pana after reading all the write ups on different sites ,i think appliances and all there { FANCY} sensors are a little bit too far advanced ,remember the old TWIN TUB !