Hotpoint Domestic Appliances

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Hotpoint began in the United Kingdom in the early 1900's when Earl Richardson invented a new electric iron with the heating element the length of the iron which converged to be hot at the point, hence the name of 'Hotpoint'. In 1911 the Hotpoint Electric Heating Company was formed and in 1920 an agreement was set up with General Electric (GE) of the USA to create an agency in order to sell GE branded domestic appliances in the UK. This agency was called Hotpoint Electric Appliance Company Limited (HEAC).

Hotpoint started to produce washing machines under its own brand name in 1923 and one of the biggest factories was situated at Llandudno Junction in North Wales.

In 1929 HEAC joined the Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) group and in 1940 purchased a factory in Peterborough to produce refrigerators. In 1967 the GEC group bought AEI when the name was changed to Hotpoint Limited. In 1982 a new factory in Kinmel, North Wales was opened for the production of washing machines.

In 1989 Hotpoint became part of a new division of the GEC Group called 'General Domestic Appliances'

General Domestic Appliances was formed as a division of the GEC Group in 1989 and encompassed not only Hotpoint, Creda and Cannon but also the brands of Redring (electric showers) and Xpelair (air management systems). Later in 1989 GE of the USA bought a 50% share of the General Domestic Appliances division. This encouraged closer communication between the individual companies and resulted in the transfer of the manufacture of gas cookers and fires to Creda's Blythe Bridge factory in 1994.

In April 1998 Hotpoint, Creda and Cannon officially merged to become General Domestic Appliances Limited, an official 50/50 joint venture between GE and the GEC Group (later to become Marconi). Redring and Xpelair became collectively known as GDA Applied Energy.

In December 2001, Merloni Elettrodomestici of Italy who where responsible for the major European appliance brands of Ariston, Indesit, Philco and Scholtes purchased the 50% share in General Domestic Appliances Limited from Marconi for £120M. GDA Applied Energy was sold in a management buy-out.

On the 1st January 2005 Merloni Elettrodomestici changed it's name to Indesit Company.

Retail Prices

Hotpoint products are in the lower to middle range on price with the exception of the new Aqualtis range which is generally in the £4-700 plus bracket. This would appear to be a move into Bosch territory.

Sadly from our experience the vast bulk of the current Hotpoint appliances appear to be little more than a re-badged Indesit with some extra features and the quality is not what it was.

Spares Pricing

Traditionally, Hotpoint spares have always been readily available and reasonably priced, the introduction of Indesit control electronics and completely sealed outer drums means that this is not always true today. Spares can be obtained nationwide from many sources including from UK Whitegoods.

Most of the common Hotpoint spares are available in our online store from this link. Any spare parts that we dont' list are likely to be the less common ones but we can order any Hotpoint part that you should need so long as it is still available.

What you may well not see are some of the new electronic modules that require programmed and, most do. Some online retailers do list these components for sale but, if you don't ahve the equipment to program them then they are absolutely no use to you and you will need an engineer with the proper tools to do this. Please bear this in mind if you're thinking on buying any Indesit Group produced applaince as they are all very similar.

Repairing Hotpoint Appliances

Hotpoint appliances had a reputation for being one of the easiest machines to fault find and repair.

Sadly however that is not the case today.

With the take over of the brand by Indesit the introduction of complex Indesit electronics that are very prone to failure and the additional curse of a totally sealed outer drum means that this is no longer true. Their own engineers have dedicated software on their laptops which is used to fault diagnose and re programme the electronics. This information is not available to the independent trade.

However at UK whitegoods we have a wealth of experienced engineers who are able to help you freely in most cases with advice on faults.

It is sad to have to say that the reliability of current Hotpoint appliances does not inspire confidence.

Hotpoint Service & Repairs

Service is provided by Hotpoint's own, in house service division for both in guarantee and chargeable work.

They do also use franchised service engineers. Hotpoint' labour charges are on the high side at around £100.00 . A better alternative for out of warranty repairs is a local independent who will almost certainly be far less expensive and in most cases will be able to callout far faster than the manufacturer possibly can.