Hi,

I am looking at refitting my kitchen and notice that the price of built-in
appliances vs. the freestanding equivalent appears to be extortionate and
really puts me off built-in appliances, i.e.. built-in dishwasher £700,
freestanding is £250 for Zanussi with equivalent performance.

Is there any reason why they are so expensive? Aren't they the same with a
little bit less metal (sides) and no feet? Or are the manufacturers or DIY
sheds just making money on the fact that they are built-in?

Do you know of any keenly priced sources to get these built-in appliances?
I am looking at Wickes B&Q prices at the moment and wonder if they're making
a lot of money on the appliances. I'd like to get a reasonable quality -
Zanussi or thereabouts.

Any advice on this would be welcome, as well as other areas of fitting a new
kitchen where I should be wary of costs or getting ripped off.

Thanks
Mike

Lamb wrote:
I am looking at refitting my kitchen and notice that the price of
built-in appliances vs. the freestanding equivalent appears to be
extortionate and really puts me off built-in appliances, i.e..
built-in dishwasher £700, freestanding is £250 for Zanussi with
equivalent performance.

You can get a Smeg DWI612c fully integrated build in dishwasher for £330
delivered but it's only B rated.
The internal guts look like the same as fully cased models.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Smeg+DWI612c

It's available online from many places but I found these people helpful:
http://www.kitchen-appliance.co.uk who get most of their stock delivered
direct by the manufacturers or their UK agents.

--
Toby.

'One day son, all this will be finished'

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 23:01:12 +0000 (UTC), "Lamb"
wrote:

Hi,

I am looking at refitting my kitchen and notice that the price of built-in
appliances vs. the freestanding equivalent appears to be extortionate and
really puts me off built-in appliances, i.e.. built-in dishwasher £700,
freestanding is £250 for Zanussi with equivalent performance.

Is there any reason why they are so expensive? Aren't they the same with a
little bit less metal (sides) and no feet? Or are the manufacturers or DIY
sheds just making money on the fact that they are built-in?

It is because there is not so much demand for integrated as
freestanding. As you may well already know, the more appliances that
get built the cheaper they can be produced. i.e. mass produced.
Integrated are not as common so cost more to manufacture. Although the
innards are the same they are built differently, on some models. Some
are entirely different on both types.

I personally would go for freestanding appliances with deeper worktops
and standard door fronts, because of the price difference on the
appliances but mainly because of reliability. Integrated are not able
to get the same air circulation as freestanding and therefore
overheat, basically.


Do you know of any keenly priced sources to get these built-in appliances?
I am looking at Wickes B&Q prices at the moment and wonder if they're making
a lot of money on the appliances. I'd like to get a reasonable quality -
Zanussi or thereabouts.

Any advice on this would be welcome, as well as other areas of fitting a new
kitchen where I should be wary of costs or getting ripped off.

Thanks
Mike





SJW
A.C.S. Ltd.

"Lamb" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Is there any reason why they are so expensive? Aren't they the same with
a
little bit less metal (sides) and no feet? Or are the manufacturers or DIY
sheds just making money on the fact that they are built-in?


Its all down to cosmetics - built-in LOOKS nicer, flush doorfronts hiding
the appliances underneath. Its still a pig when it goes faulty!

Having been the owner of both styles at various times, I can say that *I*
prefer standalone, but *SHE* prefers built-in! Since I prefer to keep my
sanity (and hot meals and offers of sex), she gets her way!

--

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---
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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.562 / Virus Database: 354 - Release Date: 17/01/2004

Lamb wrote:

Do you know of any keenly priced sources to get these built-in
appliances? I am looking at Wickes B&Q prices at the moment and
wonder if they're making a lot of money on the appliances. I'd like
to get a reasonable quality - Zanussi or thereabouts.

We got all our Zanussi appliances from www.freenet.ltd.uk, but there are
loads of other oline places too, but take your example of a dishwasher from
wickes / B & Q, ZDT6252 fully integrated dishwasher, wickes / B & Q = £600,
freenet = £357, likewise Oven ZBS663 - B&Q = £600, freenet = £389, hob
ZGF642 - B&Q = £200, freenet = £132, remember that you'll have a delivery
charge from the online retailers, but if you get your appliances from the
same manufacturer then you only pay one charge which in the case of zanussi
is £33.

Good luck
Jon

Do you know of any keenly priced sources to get these built-in appliances?

It's worth shopping around and NOT buying all the same make, as the
performance and price of various integrated appliances varies wildly, with
some manufacturers being good at a particular thing. A careful perusal of
kelkoo should tell you all you need to know.

I ended up with an Ariston dishwasher, a Smeg 1600 washing machine and a
Bosch sensor dryer, as each appliance had the best price/performance ratio.
I found it was the dryer with the biggest markup over free standing like
with like. The dishwasher had the smallest differential over freestanding. I
bought it because I had a couple of previous similar Merloni models, which I
found to be excellent in operation. All appliances are 'AAA' rated.

Smeg WM: ~500
Bosch dryer: ~600
Ariston d/w: ~300

It was the dryer that really hurt, but it seems very difficult to source a
cheap condensing integrated dryer. However, I must say, it is really
excellent, much better than any free standing dryer I've used. The sensor
really works. The amount of water it collects in the tray is about 3-4 times
what my old one used to. The old one was drying after a 1200 spin instead of
a 1600 spin, too. The 1600 spin gets the clothes pretty dry to begin with.
I'll be plumbing it in soon, as I can't be bothered to empty the tray every
single time.

Christian.

This advice is really fantastic. Two more questions.

What do people think about buying all the same brands of appliance vs.
different brands?
Where can I find some modern stainless steel sinks and kitchen taps that
look designer but are budget on the pocket?

Thanks

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:32:43 +0000 (UTC), "Lamb"
wrote:

This advice is really fantastic. Two more questions.

What do people think about buying all the same brands of appliance vs.
different brands?
Where can I find some modern stainless steel sinks and kitchen taps that
look designer but are budget on the pocket?

Thanks

I personally would 'group' appliances.
For instance have WM and TD in the utility matching, DW to match
appliance next to it, if not directly next to each other try and match
colour. But put quality above matching appliances.
I have a Bosch WM & TD next to each other in the utility, Bosch DW on
one side of the kitchen, all white. Then on the opposite side of the
kitchen I have a Zanussi fridge in a colour matching the door fronts
of the units. It's not all an exact match but looks tidy when done
logically.


SJW
A.C.S. Ltd.

In article ,
"Lamb" writes:
This advice is really fantastic. Two more questions.

What do people think about buying all the same brands of appliance vs.
different brands?
Where can I find some modern stainless steel sinks and kitchen taps that
look designer but are budget on the pocket?

I'm impressed by the IKEA sink I bought -- nice low profile edge
which is better than I've seen on all the others I've looked at,
and cheaper too. Of course, the Swedish waste bits needed some
hacking to fit onto UK waste going out through the wall (looks
like Swedish wastes go out through bottom of cupboard).

Also bought an IKEA monoblock tap which looks OK, but badly needs
a nossel or airator, and the rotating joint flexes in directions it
probably shouldn't, so I wouldn't recommend that in particular.
Having looked at the taps mounted in the sink on the display and
seeing how they move around, I mounted my tap in the worktop behind
the sink, which I would strongly recommend.

--
Andrew Gabriel

For instance have WM and TD in the utility matching, DW to match
appliance next to it, if not directly next to each other try and match
colour. But put quality above matching appliances.

But then, with integrated appliances, appearance isn't an issue.

Christian.

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 09:33:08 -0000, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

For instance have WM and TD in the utility matching, DW to match
appliance next to it, if not directly next to each other try and match
colour. But put quality above matching appliances.

But then, with integrated appliances, appearance isn't an issue.

Good point! In that case have whatever you want. ;-)


SJW
A.C.S. Ltd.