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. So people are naturally interested in their washing machines and wonder if they are just as good. I’m a fan of the Panasonic brown goods brand.
I 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, so there’s not much of a track record on white goods yet compared to other brands that have been making washing machines here since the 50s.
It’s highly likely they will be striving to carve an equally good reputation for white goods but white goods are completely different from brown goods.
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 a lot of information about Panasonic washing machines which you should check out before buying.
Panasonic 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.
After-sales service is important
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 appliances likely to require some repairs in the future unless you are happy to just get as long as you can out of something (with fingers crossed) and throw it away when it breaks down. My personal preference is to buy washing machines where the manufacturer have their own engineers in this country to repair them under guarantee. Panasonic are like all the brown goods brands in that they do not have their own engineers. They instead use third-party networks of repairers and this in my opinion is far less satisfactory.
Spares
Spares4Appliances is a spares company run by repair engineers who understand all about spare parts for appliances.
NA-148VA2 Owner & B jones: I have an extensive article on the problem of washing machines not spinning certain loads due to the out of balance monitoring systems. There’s also a section in there headed “Beware of large capacity washing machines”. Washing machine won’t spin just one item or very small loads
i have just bought a NA 147 VA2 and it hasnt completed a wash yet.error code H 48.asking for money back
Make sure the error code isn’t mentioned in the instruction book as ones relating to water supply or draining problems often are.
Other than that, despite having the “error code bible” compiled by dozens of independent engineers in the trade there is no mention of any Panasonic error codes at my disposal, which is why I reluctantly caution people about the brand. I personally would not want to buy an appliance where the independent repair trade have little or no technical information about them.
why are panasonic selling these machines with so many problems.the reason i bought that was all my other equipment is panasonic.which is so reliable..CMON PANASONIC SORT THIS OUT AS YOU WILL GIVING THEM AWAY
K.MCKAY says:
February 16, 2011 at 12:11 pm
just bought a panasonic washing machine 8 hrs old model na-168vx2 .Allready showing error code h41 .Cannot complete a wash
How did it turn out with your Panasonic washing machine with the H41 error? Did you get it fixed? Is it working properly now? Anybody else encountering this?
( mine is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1C_prAQuZM )
When Panasonic launched these machines on the market I worked for a company who were agents for the company used by Panasonic for the servicing of the new machines. As a result we were invited to Panasonics in Bracknell to examine their new products and were also shown how they came apart to be repaired, should they go wrong. When invited to comment on their wonderful new products they were rather disappointed in our negative views of the construction of these machine which made them almost impossible to repair in the size of kitchens we are usually expected to work in. As an independent repairer I would never go out to one of these machines. As for the repair agents, if Panasonic are using the same company as two years ago, do not expect good service. The technical back up and supply of spare parts that we used to get from that company was dire.
I have a NA-168vx2 which after a only a few weeks was diaplaying the U11 code and also U13. I managed to work it out that it would only take a very small wash otherwise was unable to spin. I had the engineer out after only 3 months which was disappointing and today I have the H43 code. Very shoddy for a machine that does not get that much use. It will be interesting to see what service I get, but have found this website very useful. Many thanks
I hope the following is of use.
U11 indicates machine unable to drain. Blockage between drum and drain pump?? Blockage of drain hose??
U13 indicates unbalanced load. Many modern machines suffer from this, but may be related to problem causing U11 fault.
H43 indicates an internal water leak reaching its detector in the machine base.
Like any washing machine, they are great until they go wrong. The problems are usually related to the after sales service.
Thank you so much. That was helpful. I had the same problem for U11 and now it turns out fine :)
Bought a Panasonic washing machine after being assured of their reputation, what a total load of rubbish
sevice is not worth speaking about, machine down now for 4 months, 4 visits by service engineers, never has spare parts, always have to wait for weeks for parts.
Machine is currently broken Again, virtually every part changed and it still doesn’t work.
its had 3 new PCB’s
2 pumps
Motor
now they say another PCB has gone
A company like Panasonic should look after their customer better
The washing machine NA148VA2 have a H43 error code,we have call to dealer but no feedback at moment,