Appliance shopping in Australia usually comes down to two machines that look the same and cost a few hundred dollars apart, or to a brand that labels everything Series 4 without saying what that buys. These pages take those questions one at a time, using the energy and water label figures, the published noise ratings and the owner review counts from the store each product is linked to.
Start with the type question
If you have not settled on the kind of appliance yet, these are the decisions that matter more than the brand.
- Front loader vs top loader washing machines: the water gap is 24 litres a wash.
- Heat pump vs vented vs condenser dryers: condenser dryers have effectively left the Australian market.
- Induction vs ceramic vs gas cooktops: power, pans and what happens in a blackout.
- Pyrolytic vs catalytic vs manual clean ovens: the only oven feature that changes a weekend.
Decode the series numbers
- Bosch Series 2, 4, 6 and 8 explained: the same numbers mean different things on dishwashers, ovens, washers and cooktops.
- Fisher & Paykel Series 5, 7, 9 and 11 explained: odd numbers, uneven gaps.
Dishwashers
- Bosch Series 2 vs 4 vs 6 vs 8
- LG vs Bosch
- Bosch vs Fisher & Paykel
- Asko vs Bosch
- Asko vs Miele
- Miele vs Bosch
Laundry
- Bosch Series 6 vs Series 8 washing machines
- LG vs Samsung washing machines
- Asko vs Miele washing machines
- Bosch vs Miele washing machines
Ovens and cooking
Three things worth knowing before you shop
Check the amperage, not just the price. A Chef or Westinghouse 60cm oven runs on 9.6 amps and plugs into a normal power point. A Bosch Series 2 needs 13.8 and everything above it needs 16, which means an electrician. On a like-for-like oven swap that is the difference between a delivery and a quote.
Star ratings only compare within the same test program. Two washing machines rated on different cycles, with different rinse counts and temperatures, cannot be compared on their kilowatt-hour figures. Where the programs match, the numbers are directly useful; where they do not, the star rating is the fairer guide.
Premium brands are not always sold by the big chains. The Good Guys lists Miele but passes the sale to Miele itself, and Ilve sells through specialist kitchen retailers. That does not make either a worse machine, but it does mean no price shopping and no retailer review pool to read before you buy.
How these pages are put together
Specifications come from each product's Australian retail listing and the registered energy and water label values. Owner ratings and review counts are quoted from the store linked on the page, with the count shown, because a 4.9 from three reviews is weaker evidence than a 4.6 from four hundred. Prices are given as bands because they move weekly, and every product linked was checked as in stock and orderable at the time of writing.
