When going through the decision process of what appliances to buy to kit out three properties from scratch, part of my research led me to a very useful website www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk which provides a lot of inside information as to what goes wrong. Inevitably, and this is bound to be a generalisation, cheap brands such as Beko, White Knight, will pack up sooner. The top of the market appliances are generally well built, and of the middle of the road manufacturers Siemens/Neff/Bosch are well regarded.
From a rental owner's point of view, stuff packing up is a big headache. If your dishwasher at home dies, you can probably live without it for a while; if it's equipment in your rental, the guests have a right to expect it to work, and incoming guests aren't going to be terribly interested in the fact that it'll be working, or replaced, after they've left! So the less often stuff packs up, the less headaches, and the less chance of not meeting guests' expectations.
Top of the range goods such as Gaggenau, Miele should last - and given the cost, that should be expected! Trouble is, if you've paid £1k for a dishwasher, or £2k for a single oven, if it goes wrong you're going to want it fixed, and that's going to take time that you probably haven't got.
Which leaves the middle territory dominated by the Siemens/Neff/Bosch group; not the ultimate in appliances, but well made and always seem to be recommended by those who understand these things (as opposed to those who are trying to sell you stuff.) They come out of the same factory, and there is often no difference other than the badge on the front.
So - surprise - it's probably worth avoiding the low end and the top end, and sticking to the mid-range. (BTW Liebherr, who happen to produce a fridge over freezer of a size that matched our needs in two of the rentals, make refrigeration kit for Miele, but sold as their own brand it's sensibly priced.)
Ceramic hobs are easy to clean - which is an important consideration - providing they haven't got knobs. Knobs seem to work as a gunge magnet, gunge looks disgusting, and the only way to clean under the knobs is to pull them off; so touch control hobs are a Good Idea for rentals. They need a couple of seconds of touch to operate, so turning them on accidentally is highly unlikely, and they usually have a child lock setting.
I wish somebody would produce a double oven without an automatic timer. Their sole purpose is to prevent anyone being able to switch the oven on without recourse to the instruction sheet (laminated and left prominently in the rental), prayer, and a large element of hope. I can't imagine that anyone on holiday, faced with a strange oven, is going to attempt to set the timer so that the oven comes on/goes off/cooks for the set time, so guests' lives would be simpler without this little feature. Anybody know of one on the market?
Final thought when first kitting out. The UK is obsessed with the fully integrated look - ie you need to open everything to discover if it's a waste bin, cupboard, or a fridge as you are simply faced with lots of doors. All very nice, but a potential nightmare in a rental, because things go wrong. If the under counter free-standing fridge dies, you can rush out and buy a new one the same size, and it's then a ten minute job to swap out and adjust height - a pain, but easily done in a changeover period. Integrated kit is a totally different proposition. If you are extremely lucky, you just might be able to get a replacement the same day, but more often than not you'll have to order an integrated appliance. Unless you can get exactly the same model of appliance, the door fitting arrangement will be different. The new item will come with a hopelessly confusing paper template showing where to attach various bits, where to drill holes, where to replace screw A with screw B, once you have very accurately adjusted the height and level of the appliance. After a couple of hours of frustration, you realise that the template you've been carefully following is for a full height door, whereas you have a two-piece drawerline setup. Remove the template which you carefully and accurately taped in place, tearing it in the process, and turn it over to the correct side. Start again. DAMHIKT
If you can find a seasoned kitchen fitter to come and do the job at a weekend whilst you attempt to get the place serviced for the next guests, he will quite possibly use the correct template first time, and may even complete the job in less than two hours. If, and maybe. So for that reason alone, when it comes to the rental properties fully integrated is not such a great idea. (BTW built-in/integrated ovens aren't generally a problem as they don't have doors to worry about, but you do need to feel comfortable and competent to connect them.)
Sorry that's all a bit longwinded; hopefully there's a few things that might be of help to some, and maybe others have some useful tips.
