Baumatic kitchen appliances?

[Boo Boo]

Looking at buying some new kitchen appliances (i.e. hob, cooker etc.). I know that Smeg is regarded as like top of the range and Indesit as at the other end of the scale, but I have come across a make/brand called Baumatic which looks very nice/good but don't know anything about them. My question(s) is/are Baumatic any good and do they have a good "image" in your eyes?

[lady_p_gold]

You don't mention Miele they are pretty much top of the range too .... I have the induction hobs which are so fast you can boil water in a nano second. Sorry not much of an answer to your question as I don't know Baumatic, but just wondered if you had looked at Miele.

[Boo Boo]

I agree "lady_p_gold" that Miele are up there as top of the range - at the moment, I'm pretty well an "expert "on kitchen appliance brands - hence my question regarding Baumatic - if I can conquer this one I should be up for the Nobel prize for Kitchen Appliances 2006 !!!!

[Miss-taken]

Wouldn't say Indesit was the bottom of the scale - I would say Beko and Baumatic were - they're the really cheap brands!

[rhona_j]

I have a baumatic hob and oven,my fridge and freezer are both beko, and I've had no problems with either.

[KARL]

In my experience, concepts of the relative merits of these things are a bit akin to fashion - although you do assume that if you pay more you get better quality. However, there is absolutely no guarantee that a "better" name or higher price will give you longer/better service with less maintenance. We had an Indesit dishwasher that ran for over 15 years pretty well entirely trouble free. We have an induction hob (Scholtes) that is as good as new after more than 20 years and a fridge/freezer (General Electric) that is just as old and both have had only minimal maintenance carried out by myself at the cost of the spares only (although the hob manufacturer gave me his for free). Ovens should be DIY maintainable at only spares cost for decades, so long as the spares are available. Washing machines are the most awkward, and I have come round to thinking the cheapest is just as likely to be satisfactory - when it packs in (perhaps after 2-3 years) buy another one at under �200 (e.g.B&Q). Ask a Miele or Smeg salesman to promise you his machine will work trouble free for 5 years and he will reel back in horror, compose himself and point out these things are generally regarded as semi-disposable and you would be lucky to get 5 years total life including some (possibly quite costly) repairs. He will probably offer you insurance to take the guarantee conditions to 3 years, at 50-80% of the price of a new machine. His job depends on these things not lasting so he can sell more machines. It is entirely possible to make a washing machine that lasts 5 years of average use without any maintenance at all, it would cost more, but nobody does it "because of competition on price". I would happily buy a more expensive machine if I could be sure it will last, but currently none of them is likely to be that reliable