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.
My NA-147VB4 has had a programme malfunction on the two occasions i have used the machine since new 3 days ago. It does not complete the programme and comes up END before the spin cycle. Phoned the customer service centre, they cannot get any one to me for about 10 days. I only bought the machine because of panasonics good reputation in the brown goods market of which i own 4 products.
I bought a Panasonic washing machine on Wednesday as recommended by the very nice man in John Lewis and the fact that it boasted the which 2012 best buy sticker. I have to say it has been one of my worse decisions ever made. It washed like a dream on Friday and I managed to get all the children’s dark coloured school uniform washed in one go. I was very impressed until Saturday morning when I put in the white clothes, the wash started and then the fatal error U11 appeared. We checked the hose and all was ok, so we started it again and still the error came up. We then changed the hose for a new one, checked outside and all was ok and so started it up again….yes you guessed it the error came up again. After spending the whole of yesterday draining and starting the washing machine we finally gave up and called John Lewis who as expected were fantastic. They are coming to pick it up on Thursday and have agreed to refund me. I have ordered an LG today and will be expecting it on Wednesday. What a shame I didn’t read your comments before I wasted my time and money with Panasonic, NEVER AGAIN ! Absolute rubbish !
Hello Diana: It’s good to hear about first class service from John Lewis, which is why I promote them so much. I’m pretty sure that almost all other retailers would insist you wait for an engineer to come and check the fault.
However, the reason they do that is perfectly legitimate because many faults turn out to be user faults or installation faults. It’s very rare for any appliance – even the completely rubbish ones – to be faulty the first time they are used, and to be honest, U11 error on a Panasonic washing machine means “The washing machine cannot drain”, which 9 times out of 10 is caused by some obstruction getting into the pump or blocking its filter, or even a badly kinked drain hose or other obstruction in the outlet it pumps the water in to.
Of course it’s also possible that the pump or a connection on it is at fault, but until an engineer has checked it it’s impossible to know so it’s unfair to blame the washing machine.
If John Lewis are prepared to come out quickly and swap it over without even checking it that shows service above and beyond the call of duty :)
Further to my comment of Jan 2013, I had the retailer [currys] come and collect the panasonic machine at the same time as they delivered a new BOSCH machine, The Bosch has never given me any concern and does the job so well. All i had to do was connect it up and plug it in.
Hi, we have a Panasonic NV-140VG3 which has caused damage to my wife & daughter’s bras. The tally has now reached 7 pieces of damaged underwear. These have always been placed in a washing bag as recommended and on a delicate wash. Upon unloading the machine damage is noted to the bag and the contents within. The machine has been replaced due to this problem, but the replacement machine (just one month old) has started to do the same thing.
When looking in the drum, it appears the problem is a fairly large grey plastic ‘bracket’ that is fitted in the ten o’clock position, this has become burred, which in turn appears to be causing the damage.
Would anybody know what this part actually is and what purpose it serves, and if (and how) it can be removed without causing any other ongoing problems?
I have a panasonic NA168VG2 washing machine that keeps showing error code U13! This onlyhappens when the spin starts. If you reposition the clothes 3-4 times it will normally finish the cycle. The machine is now out of warranty. I have been in touch with panasonic customer support and they have advised me to contact their service agent. GDHA I was quoted £135 call out so I have referred it back to panasonic . I’ll let you know how I get on ?
£135 is ludicrous. Check out this article in case there’s not actually a fault being as you say when you reposition clothes you can get it to finish
https://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/wont-spin-one-item-or-small-loads/
My NA-16VX1 bought during Summer 2009 threw up the “H 01” error last Sunday. Apparently the ‘water level detector’ (pressure switch, to everyone else!) was misreading the level. The local Panasonic shop was very helpful in supplying error code information. I managed to unplug and re-plug the connector, presuming it was just a poor contact. Operated okay since. However, I did notice that the motor wiring harness was trailing on the baseplate, near protruding screws and the sharp edge of an access panel. Several cheap twisted wire ties were used! Dear God, why weren’t robust cable ties used? I replaced them with proper cable ties. Also noticed that a similar wire tie had broken on the 3D sensor wiring harness.
Drain pump has always been noisy, despite being totally clear.
The machine was not cheap; I expected far superior quality. The Panasonic shop doesn’t deal with the machines any more, citing spares availability. I won’t buy a Panasonic washing machine again.
Thanks for your comments Anonymous. You highlight the problem well, their washing machines seem more focussed on features than build quality so the relatively expensive cost is for innovations and bells and whistles, but more importantly there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that they simply don’t have a good enough after sales service set up. It appears to be just the same for the other household-name brown goods manufacturers.
I have had a Panasonic NA1400 7k Since September 2010 purchased from Comet. Threw up could not spin code last Sunday.. Have extended warranty. Below is our experience of Panasonic Customer service:
Monday am – called. Engineer booked for Wednesday.
Wednesday – engineer called between quoted time and arrived at house during time slot. Ran machine, showed husband fault. Said Panasonic did not replace bearing, said New Machine. Was also advised not to use it as it could ruin clothes.
Thursday – Panasonic customer services called. Told husband that they would deliver new machine model equivalent to old one next Saturday, install and take old one away. It would have been sooner if had not been for work commitments.
The above is a précis but neither of us can fault Panasonic’s customer service and care. As regards the machine, machines do break down. The build quality is very good, never missed a beat until last Sunday and it is used constantly.
Used launderette yesterday. Three machines took less than 30 mins to do a week’s worthy of washing at 40 and 1 hour to tumble dry what could be tumbled dried. All beautifully clean. Enlightening. Even with new washing machine will still use launderette every so often. Where can you buy these big commercial machines?