AEG Domestic Appliances

AEG's history spans over 100 years,from the founding of AEG with the purchase of the German license for Edison patents to the first electrical appliances created by Peter Behrens, the father of design.

Emil Rathenau, founder of AEG, bought the German licence for the Edison patents and in 1883 founded the German Edison Society in Berlin, which was renamed General Electricity Society (AEG, Allgemeine Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft) in 1887.

In 1889, this company went public in Berlin with an exhibition of the first electrical heating units. On show were items such as curling tongs, cigar lighters, irons and tea kettles. The 1896 AEG catalogue already contained 80 different products, among them hotplates, coffee machines and egg cookers.

Already at that time, the technology as well as the designs were impressive. At the beginning of the century, AEG was the first industrial company that employed a designer. This was the architect Peter Behrens who in 1907 was commissioned not only to design new factories but also appliances for AEG.

AEG manufactured a range of aircraft from 1910 to 1918. During WWII AEG engineers played a significant role in developing the magnetic audio tape recorder.

The appliance side of AEG is now owned by Electrolux who bought the company in 1994.

As of around about 2008 most of the AEG appliances we'd seen were simply rebadged Electrolux products sold under other brand names such as Zanussi or Tricity Bendix with cosmetic differences mainly, but a few software and feature changes in an attempt to make them seem different.

AEG, strong on laundry and dishwashing products

Retail Prices

Priced to compete directly with its old rival, Bosch, AEG is firmly placed in the upper-mid sector of the market.

It appears that, in line with other German manufacturers that production has been totally moved away from Germany due to increasing labour costs.

To our knowledge there are no AEG machines now built in Germany at all. Most laundry appears to be Italian for example, coming from the same production facilities as other Electrolux Group products.

This reflects also on the John Lewis own brand products which are, exclusively as far as we are aware and can see, Electrolux products with quasi-AEG fascia on them. John Lewis claims that their machines are of "German design" implying that they are made in Germany when, they clearly are not. Often when asked John Lewis staff will tell people that their appliances are AEG which, these days, is no great shakes.

Spares Pricing And Aftersales Service

Spares pricing is generally in line with other Electrolux brands, Zanussi, Parkinson Cowan, Tricity Bendix and Electrolux where some can be expensive but in the main they are not too bad. Also, with the huge crossover of spare parts from one brand to the other there are quite a few cheaper pattern spares available.

Electronic components and major electrical items, such as drive motors, can be hideously expensive. £200 plus for an electronic control module is not uncommon.

For fridge water and air filters, please click here

Almost any AEG spare part can be sourced by UK Whitegoods and also by local Service Force agents. You will require the model number at the very least but, most often, also the "PNC" number from the rating plate or you may be unable to identify the correct spare part required.

A great many of the internal components are shared with the other Electrolux brands, whether the AEG brand is worth more than the others is open to debate.

Aftersales service is the same as for Zanussi and the other Electrolux brands.

If you need a repair, you can search for our repairer database for a repair for any AEG product from this link and this will usually be much cheaper than going to AEG direct who may try to put you on a rolling maintenance contract.

Servicing Information

There is a fair amount of servicing information available for AEG appliances as there is with mode Electrolux Group products however it should be noted that this is protected by copyright and that nobody bar Electrolux is allowed to offer access to this information. It is not unknown for Electrolux to initiate legal action to protect it's copyrighted and trademarked properties.

That said, there are a number of the repairers who will assist wherever possible in the help forums.