HA2 · South Harrow
Washer dryer repair in South Harrow HA2
One call outnumbers every other on this appliance: it washes perfectly well and then hands back a load that is still damp at the end of a full drying programme. We hear it week in, week out across HA2, and the reason has as much to do with the kitchens here as with the machines themselves. More on washer dryer repair across West London and Harrow.
There is rarely room for two appliances. A kitchen in one of these interwar semis was drawn around a sink, a cooker and a larder, and even where a narrow utility space runs off the back of it, the footprint a washing machine takes is the footprint you have. Above the parades it is tighter again, with no garden and nowhere to hang a line. So people buy one machine that promises to do both jobs, and then ask it to do both jobs most days of the week. That is a great deal more work than the same drum, heater and pump would ever see in a house with a separate dryer beside it.
Inside, the drying side is where the strain tells. These machines condense the moist air coming off the drum against cold water running through a channel at the back of the tub. The water in this corner of London is hard, that channel furs up, and once it is scaled the air and the water stop exchanging heat properly. The cycle then runs and runs, the clothes come out warm and wet, and the programme keeps extending itself because the sensor never sees anything dry. Stripping and descaling that channel is the repair more often than not. Where it is not, we are generally looking at a heater gone open circuit, a fan seized on its bearing, or a thermistor reporting nonsense to the board.
And then there is the answer nobody enjoys hearing, which is that the machine is working. The dry load on a washer dryer is smaller than the wash load, on some models a good deal smaller, and a full wash left in to dry will not dry however the dial is set. When that is what we find, we say it. The £80 for the visit still applies in that case, so it is worth splitting a load and trying once more before you ring us. Where there is a genuine fault, labour on most repairs sits inside that same £80, longer work is quoted and agreed with you before anybody starts, and the part we replace carries a three-month guarantee.
£80
call-out charge per visit
Labour is included for most repairs. More extensive or complex jobs may require additional labour, which we always quote and agree with you before starting. Parts are charged separately and always quoted before we fit them.
We are not registered for VAT. The price we quote is the price you pay.
What South Harrow kitchens throw at us
The flats above the Alexandra Avenue parade make the point plainly: no garden, no line, and a single appliance in the corner of the kitchen doing the work of two. In the semis behind Roxeth there is often a narrow utility space off the kitchen instead, which makes the machine easier to reach but no less hard-worked. Either way, a condenser channel on a machine drying six days a week scales up a lot faster than the handbook implies.
What you can rely on
Frequently asked questions
Why do so many South Harrow homes run a washer dryer instead of two separate machines?
Space, almost entirely. The kitchens in these interwar semis were never laid out with two appliances in mind, and the flats above the parades have no garden and nowhere to dry a line of washing. One machine covering both jobs is a sensible answer to that, but it does mean the drum, the pump and the heater work far harder than they would in a house with a separate dryer.
My washer dryer in HA2 runs a drying cycle for hours and the clothes are still damp — what causes that?
More often than not it is the condenser channel. The machine cools the moist air from the drum against cold water, and in water as hard as ours that channel scales up until the two no longer exchange heat properly. The cycle extends itself indefinitely because the sensor never reads a dry load. Flushing and descaling it is the usual repair, and we check the heater, the fan and the sensor while the back is off.
3-month guarantee on the part we replace. Any part we replace is guaranteed for 3 months from the date it is fitted. This covers the replaced part only — it is not a warranty on the whole appliance.