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Considering chat today on brands that are usually better quality, there are good repair services available from the manufacturer, & often if last the point of repair a discount is offered & the goods recycled if you wish.

Here's a reminder that Berghaus offer a decent repair service, as do Lowe (alpine) & Patagonia..

Berghaus

https://www.berghaus.com/repairs.list


Patagonia
https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/repairs.html


Rab & Lowe Alpine (via equip)
https://rab.equipment/uk/service-centre ... ts/repairs

Montane (thanks stinsy)
https://montane.com/pages/montane-repair-service

Montane too:

https://montane.com/pages/montane-repair-service

Updated, all good brands, some super premium kit, some "blacks" staples (owned by millets now) some super premium kit that if you are looking for technical start in mountain towns clearance sales as their throughout is way more than the likes of Brigham 's Snow & rock etc.

A repair service is a good sign in a brand, if it's just a zip holding you back you are best off simply emailing for clarification what size YKK you ought buy & fit (cheap Chinese press on zip solutions suck) YouTube tutorials are plentiful for minor repairs.

If buying / cleaning a fleece please use non bio liquid wash, it helps the strands & overall water resistance / dispersal stay fully functional.
(Recommended after the machine has gone through a maintenance wash & a few other non bio washes before you full it with your fleece collection)

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Clearing all the clinging on overdosed residue at a high temperature, which also *presumably* helps keep stinking black sludge microbial build up at bay, as well as loosening & flushing some build up in this oft extra hard water environment.

A good time for a vinegar wash or whatever & give it hang time to get to work.

Do you not have a dedicated cleaning cycle on your washer / dishwasher, it's becoming more & more common these days?

Bearing in mind how quickly vinegar goes to work on cleaning my sous vide elements & kettle our washer gets the same periodic treatment, depending on what you are bunging into a washer load you may be inadvertently helping clean it anyway. (Percarbonates)

marshman wrote: ↑Fri Sep 16, 2022 1:53 pm "Recommended after the machine has gone through a maintenance wash"

I think I can guess, but enlighten me, what is a "maintenance wash", and why would you need to waste energy and water doing one?

Our last washing machine was an AEG and after many years the drum had a bit of play in it so I ordered a bearing kit and duly fitted it only to find the play was still there. On stripping the machine down I found that a build up of gunge on the alloy frame (that connects to the back of the drum) had corroded the alloy to such an extent that one of the legs had parted from the rest.
Our latest Samsung machine has a cleaning cycle after about 40 washes to help prevent such build ups and possible corrosion.

I'm guessing here, but is it more likely that gunge will build up if the machine only ever gets used on a low temperature cycle? We only ever run ours at the lowest temperature (40°C IIRC) so I wonder if that puts it at higher risk of corroding?

I can't see any mention in the manual about a "maintenance wash cycle", either. Our machine is plumbed to the softened water supply, though, so doesn't get any carbonate build up that I can see. Not sure if that's enough to protect it or whether we should be doing more to try and prevent its early demise.

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We tend to wash cold, or up to 30c, so with 20c being the middle ground I don't begrudge a maintenance cycle, having taken our last LG apart at end of life to see how it had fared with regular cleaning & heavy uneven loads, ..also to retrieve the weights, some metals & the s/steel drum for a fire pit.

It was very clean, sadly last of the h+c water inlets, it sits in a not conservatory utility room, so due to location it did benefit from a cleaning cycle.

Nowadays having got the types of washing liquid under control (don't fancy the clay in powders)using a disinfectant every wash (nursing) & ecover softener, ..wife & daughter use it , I dont, it's easier to do a hot maintenance every month or so to clean the tub than not, it's used every day & an empty wash helps shift dog hair & detritus etc.
I'll keep doing it, have done for the past 3 machines as a heavy user.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_percarbonate

Brewers use it after cleaning as an added layer of cleansing for stainless steel, good for pulling tannins out of barrels & cleaning wood decking.