Sharp Appliances

Famous Japanese brand Sharp offers a range of fridge freezers as well as microwaves, televisions and so on in the UK. 

Sharp has been producing appliances for some time but these have been primarily for the Japanese and other Asian markets so far as we can gather with only in the past few years seeing expansion into the US and Europe.

Washing machines appear to be currently limited to top loading models sold only in Asia.

Sharp has announced that it is to build a new plant to make appliances, specifically washing machines and refrigeration, in Malaysia during 2013.

UK and European appliances are made by Vestel (again) and sold under license as an own label brand no doubt with a kickback to Sharp for using their name and trading logos etc.

  Sharp Retail Position

Firmly in the mid-market with pricing above that of fellow Asiatic companies such as Samsung and LG.

Due to very low UK volumes and a lack of familiarity with Sharp applainces we do not have enough information to offer any meaningful opinion on the brand other than what we have already stated about Vestel made products in general.

Bottom line is that these are budget machines dressed up with a trusted brand name and a slighlty better warranty offering so far as we can tell. There seems little to justify recommending Sharp over other machines that are, considerably cheaper but have the same internals.

  Sharp Service

UK service for Sharp appliances is unclear although there is seemingly good support listed on Sharp's UK website.

We believe that service is now being handled by Minerva Services.

We also have heard that Sharp is to recieve a "priority" service but, in reality, that's unlikely from what we've heard of it but there's no way we could say for sure.

  Sharp Spare Parts

Spare part supply was said to be generally okay (ish) but we have not enough experience of the brand to offer much more opinion at the time of writing and on looking we failed to find any support.

However the usual caveats about Vestel spare parts apply, it can be difficult, limited and expensive.

  Sharp Rating & Review

You can find out how we determine these rating in this article explaining how we put this together in as easy way possible for people to understand quickly.

Sharp market share	Very small for appliances but then they are fairly new to the market
Brand kudos	Sharp is a very well known brand but, not for large domestic appliances outside of Japan and perhaps select other Asian markets
Sharp appliance pricing	Cheap enough but you can get better for similar money from more recognised appliance brands
Quality	For the prices do you really think these will be great? And, paying more for a Sharp badge as opposed to one of the many other Vestel build machines doesn't make it any better
Repair rating	We've not seen much feedback as yet but, given they're just rebadged Vestel machines expect more of the same
Repairer support	Authorised agents might fix them but, it's quite probable nobody else will
DIY repair rating	Not easy to DIY repair Sharp products as there is no information or spare parts avaialble we could find
Spare parts availability	No spare parts available from any major suppliers
Spare part pricing	None found to form any opinion
Environmental rating	No information on Sharp's environmental policies
Overall Rating	Roll up and buy Sharp to pay more for little more than a glorified Vestel product. We won't be in the queue with you because we'd be buying the cheaper version under another brand name if that's what we wanted.

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