General Enquiries And Questions

Just lining up my names integrated products on Empire Direct (mainly for their 3 year warranty) and I see that the regulars here recommend try ing a local independent.

Well I'm now trying to find one (after reading that Bosch etc may have cheaply produced stuff now) and am struggling

I'm in Reading and if I search on yell.com I just get the curry/dixons etc and I hate their complete lack of knowledge and usually bad prices.

Can anyone recommend me somewhere round reading?

Integrated is a nightmare just now I'm afraid IMO.

At the top there's Miele which you'll need a second mortgage for to buy and an additional emergency loan if it breaks.

There's then the usual German stuff, your Bosch/Neff/Siemens which are all the same thing really pretty much. You pay for whatever Germanic style and name you happen to prefer.

There's Smeg which is hit or miss really. Dishwashers seem okay, avoid the washers and refrigeration IMO as they're nowhere near as good as they should be for the money. Looks nice though and the cooking products aren't that bad all things considered.

Below that lot well, let's just say I'm not very impressed.

Na, scratch that, most of it's just absolute rubbish and much of it should never have seen the light of day let alone a showroom as a thing that people would actually part with money to own.

If it says Made In China or Made In PRC... run quickly away!

Likewise if it comes from the Indesit stable, Hotpoint, Creda etc.

Integrated appliances are a bit of a chore TBH, they're hugely more expensive as they need all sorts of modifications to make them fit, are not ideal in many ways and they are a real sod to fix when they break as well as being a lot harder to replace if (when) the need arises. But if you really need to hide your appliances either for cosmetic reasons or in shame, then the top three are probably the best of what's out there.

HTH

K.

Buying white good is far more difficult than I thought - esp integrated.

I have trawled the only guide I can find (Which?) and everything they rate seems to have model numbers that no one sells!

I have trawled the web looking for independent white goods sellers but I have only found one in Reading and he was terrible - couldn't supply anything but hotpoint.

At this rate am I basically going to pick a set of makes I like and just buy whatever is in budget from the web.

Can anyone recommend where to buy from or another plan of attack?

Any local company that specialises in 'Fitted Kitchens' can supply and install whatever appliance you require. In the Reading area there's dozens of them, have you tried Piermont Kitchens? They are pretty good. Kitchen Solutions also?

cda do intergrated stuff see there website