With everyone looking to save money at the moment the last thing anyone wants is for a key home appliance like a washing machine to break down. Today’s post looks at one of the common, and most preventable, causes of washing machine faults.

As the saying goes ‘prevention is often better than a cure’ and when it comes to washing machine repairs this is undoubtedly the case. Many washing machine faults can be tricky to diagnose and depending on the nature of fault it might be fairly expensive to put right, especially if you need to call on the services of a trained professional.

As you would imagine there are many causes of washing machine faults, but one of the main issues, or at least a contributing factor, is limescale build-up. So what is limescale build-up and why is it such a threat to the health of your washing machine?

Limescale is caused when the dissolved minerals contained in your water supply are heated or left to stand for a period of time. When this happens these minerals form a coating on the internal parts of your appliance, which over time can cause the parts to fail – leading to an expensive repair bill.

Unfortunately, the eventual repair cost isn’t the only impact limescale can have on your pocket. As limescale builds up it causes the affected parts to work less efficiently, so although on the surface you might not notice any difference in your washing machines performance it may, in fact, be using more energy to do the same job – and the more energy you use, the higher your utility bills!

British Water suggests that even a 1.6mm coating of limescale can make your appliance up to 12% less effective, which means you could be wasting up to £200 worth of energy each year.

Limescale build-up is generally more of a problem if you live in hard and very hard water areas; this is because hard water contains a larger quantity of dissolved minerals. Generally, this means that if you live in the south of the country or on the east coast it’s probably a good idea to take a few preventative measures such as using a good quality limescale remover on a regular basis.

If you’ve got any top washing machine tips of your own, feel free to put them in the comments below.

Tags: Descaler, Limescale, money saving