Diplomat Domestic Appliances

No-one seems to quite know when the brand came into being or for that matter the sister "Hygena" brand name but both are owned entirely by the MFI furniture group.

The MFI name was created by Noel Lister and Donald Searle which was the abbreviated moniker derived from Mullard Furniture Industries. The two men had joined forces and based themselves in Edgware, North London, and used the maiden name of Donald Searle's wife for the company name.

In 1982 MFI acquired the Hygena brand name and allowed Humber Kitchens to adopt Hygena as its own trading name. Hygena had been recognised in the UK as a kitchen brand since the 1930's.

MFI acquired Schreiber Furniture in November 1988.

Howdens the trade focused venture focusing on kitchens and joinery products, was launched in October 1995.

Between 2001 and 2005 MFI and Currys had joint ventures to retail kitchens in Currys stores across the UK which were closed down.

Diplomat ceased trading as with the rest of the MFI Group in 2008.

Diplomat Retail Position

More often than not Diplomat appliances are sold with a kitchen and therefore only represent a small part of the package however they are better and higher priced that the MFI and Hygena brands. Products are not manufactured by MFI at all now as they have outsourced all production but they do buy from all over the world. Dishwashers were predominantly from Fagor - Brandt Group and Smeg but are increasingly founf to be Chinese in origin. Washing machines as well as washer dryers sourced from Antonio Merloni. Many cooking products, range cookers and ovens come from the Stoves stable which is of course owned by the Glen Dimplex Group.

Many cooker hoods are form the Best Cooker Hoods stable.

Probably the best description of the retail pricing is to place it in the mid-band being neither particularly cheap nor too expensive and generally regarded as reasonable value for money.

Diplomat Spare Parts

Diplomat spares were, surprisingly, actually pretty good value for money in general. MFI is one of the few brand owners that seem to have priced their spares at a realistic level. Of course there are a few exceptions to this rule, primarily products sourced from Smeg and Whirlpool where the cost price from those companies seems to adversely affect the retail pricing.

UK Whitegoods carries many genuine and pattern spares for Diplomat appliances and we have free and easy access to any spares currently available within a few days as one of the leading online suppliers of Hygena and Diplomat spares.

Most of the common Diplomat spares are available in the UK Whitegoods spares shop

However, since MFI entered into administration some spares have become increasingly hard to come by and prices have also risen, in some cases quite dramatically.

Diplomat Service & Repairs

MFI had a split service in that they do employ their own field service engineer force as well as having a national network of independent agents for Diplomat repairs. This arrangement seemed to work very well for the most part.

There is almost no problem having any Diplomat product serviced in the UK, often at very reasonable prices due to the availability of spares, commonality of spares and the reasonable cost of them. Service information is available but is not always complete although MFI have identified this as an issue and have been actively creating far better information lately.

Obviously this has now altered and service is a case of, as you can get it but the vast bulk of the approved appliance repairers listed on our free engineer search service will most certainly have no trouble in repairing Diplomat appliances cheaply and quickly.

There are no major problems with Diplomat washing machines or washer dryers other than that they are integrated and can be problematic to remove from their housing. However once accessed they are reasonable easy to service and most repairers will accept calls to these products.

MFI refrigeration which consists of mainly integrated fridges, freezers and fridge freezers are fairly straightforward with no known issues.

Cooking products such as range cookers, ovens and hobs in general are easy enough for most repairers, again with no major issues. Cooker hoods from Diplomat are very straightforward and easily repaired at low cost mainly.

Almost all spares for Diplomat, Hygena and MFI appliances are easily available from the UK Whitegoods online store.

Diplomat Key Contacts

Official website/email: No Longer Available

Official telephone support: No Longer Available

Unnofficial technical support: http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/forumsphpbb3

Unofficial retail spare parts supply: http://shop.ukwhitegoods.co.uk / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Primary trade supplier (where available): AWS

Address : No Longer Trading

Diplomat Ratings & Review

These key indicators are gathered from general opinion within the industry, spares availability with major trade spares distributors and general engineer's opinions alongside how many repairers are registered to repair Diplomat built in, integrated and other appliances.

Diplomat market share
Brand kudos	Diplomat is a largely well known brand in the UK although no longer trading
Diplomat appliance pricing
Quality
Repair rating
Repairer support
DIY repair rating
Spare parts availability
Spare part pricing
Environmental rating
Overall Diplomat Rating	While MFI was still trading and the Diplomat brand was alive, it was a good buy for the most part but as this is now no longer the case you cannot buy new Diplomat appliances