How to save 100 quid

A couple of weeks ago, the door hinge of my washing machine broke. It’s not an uncommon problem – my mum had the same washing machine (Hotpoint WM63), and she had at least two sets of replacement hinges – one set last year. For that reason, I knew she had paid 60 pounds to have them refitted – barely more than the minimum call out charge.

So I called Hotpoint, and was told that it would cost me 120 pounds. That is to have this fitted:
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Note that if I replaced the whole machine, I would only be paying just over double that!

So I googled, and found http://www.espares.co.uk/. The hinge cost 8.99, and the two hinge bearings to go with it were 5.49. With postage, the total was 18.43.

The spares arrived in the post this morning, and with nothing more than a Philips screwdriver, the machine was fixed in 30 minutes, including giving all the insides of the door a good scrub.

However, if you do anything like this, it is always worth googling, even if you think you know what you are doing. In this case, I already knew that the hinge has a loose backplate, which if you remove *all* the screws at once, falls back inside the machine. I found a handy tip on how to hold it in place, through the door seal, while you replaced this hinge, one-handed.

Originally posted on my WordPress blog as http://www.filklore.com/2010/01/how-to-save-100-quid/.

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