Alcazaba Hills

Has anyone decided to have Polaris kitchen appliances- dishwasher etc? We are toying with the idea, mainly for convenience but the Polaris brochure on the pdf download doesnt give a brand name for the products (not sure we'd recognise it even so) and the 4 chrome appliances come in at just under 1500 euro's. This is only a thought at the moment brought about by looking for flights for October half term which so far have been very expensive (and if we can get out there it appears we cant get back and vice versa- no available flights) but its likely not all airlines have released their winter prices yet. However given our general restrictions on getting out there this year we wondered if anyone has had time to do any price comparisons yet because we are thinking 'convenience over managing deliveries'

Wecome any input. Jan

Hi Jan,

Haven't looked at appliances yet could you tell me what the four include please.

Regards

Mandy 

Hi Jan,

That does sound a bit expensive.  We have shopped around for the furniture packages and got several prices from Spanish firms offering the furniture packages, together with the cleaning, installation, fixing etc.  Most of them are quoting in the region of 1500 euros for the silver/chrome appliances.  The difficulty we found was that we liked some of the furniture items in one pack, and some from another, but overall felt that we were compromising on the choice of items just for the sake of buying a furniture package - although the quality of the Murcia Furnishing items in particular was very good.  We then decided to price up buying all our furniture and electrical goods over here and shipping them out to Spain - that has proved to be very much cheaper, even allowing for the transportation costs.  We are also able to spend more time here looking round and choosing items we really want, rather than just having to make do because they form part of the package.  The obvious disadvantage in doing it this way is that we will have to set everything up when it gets to the other side, but husband is quite happy to do that as long as there are a few cool beers to keep him going!   It wouldn't be everyone's choice to do it this way but we have decided it the best option for us - we rented a villa at Mar Menor last summer and the owners of that villa had done the same thing. 

We have priced up the chrome/silver appliances at a total of £840.00 for a fridge/freezer, washing machine, dishwasher and microwave but then there would be the transportation cost to be added on.   It might be worth just shopping around when you are over in Spain, although as you say, you may not save a great deal and then have to weigh up the disadvantage of waiting for delivery, installation etc.

 Just wondered if you are still in touch with Ailmnoty (Lynn and Alan) as I noticed from an earlier post that you met up with them on a visit to Spain.  They provided some really helpful information and recommendations but have not seen anything from them for a while.

Debbie

Hello Debbie,

I was interested to read your comments about white goods & transporting furniture out to Spain. Have you transported goods out to Spain before? What company do you intend to use and how much roughly is it costing to transport everything out? One final question if you don't mind, but is it a problem converting UK white goods for use in Spain. I was thinking of the different voltages. Sorry to put you under pressure!!

Thanks

Steven T. 

We also live in Scotland (near Glasgow) and I enquired about transporting furniture to Spain and the prices have varied between £1500 to £3000.  This was only an estimate as it would depend on the amount of furniture you were moving.  It was hard for the companies to estimate as we had no furniture to show them what would be going as I was only enquiring about costs before we decide whether it would be better to buy here or over in Spain.  Obviously with th Euro being so low prices in Spain are obviously going to increase!

Linda

Hi  ALL  We also live close to Glasgow we bought our appliancies in the electrical shop in LOS Alcazares square he delivered and fitted washing machine, fridge give him a go he does TV s as well .We have bought in Balsicas

JIM GWEN

Thanks to everyone- it was useful to read about transporting from the Uk, though thats expensive too. We are just considering options at the moment so could decide anything. We had thought of hiring a van and taking a load of things over with us but realised the electrical goods still need to be bought in Spain because of the voltage. It wasnt cheap to use the ferry either plus cost of the hire vehicle. I imagine in the end we will buy over there- which cuts out all the transporting but leaves us managing deliveries.

Have had some contact with Alan and Lyn although not recently. I'm sure if we manage to get over again we'll try to cacth up with them.

Good point about the different voltages - some articles we have read suggest that you can get round this by using a converter or transformer to reduce or increase the voltage as necessary, but other articles suggest that this is not satisfactory and you should consider buying the appliances in Spain.  We may decide to re-think that one! 

As far as transporting the furniture is concerned, we have a quote from Elite European for £2000 plus VAT - that is based on transporting furniture for two apartments (both two bedrooms).  I sent them a list of all the items we would be taking over and they estimated that we would need 90 cubic metres of space, although we think that might be a little on the high side (cubic metres not price).  Even allowing for transportation costs in the region of £2,000, we have calculated that this will still save us money on furnishing the two apartments and we are able to choose individual items.  There are a few removal companies advertising in the Living in Spain magazine so I am in the process of getting other quotes as well to compare.  

I must admit that I do like the idea of having a furnishing company going in and doing everything for us, but this was working out more expensive and also the low exchange rate made it even more costly.  At least if we buy furniture in the UK, we are not affected by the exchange rate. 

Thanks for the advice about electrical appliances - looks as though we now need to increase the budget to allow for buying these items in Spain!

Debbie

Another point to consider for the electricals will be the warranties on the products with them being taken out of the country. Thought about hiring a van and bringing furniture out myself but this was working out about £2000 by the time you add up van hire, ferry crossing, fuel etc and then probably 2 days each way travelling with overnight stops. Soon ditched that idea.

Read on the other forums Masters electrical in El Mirador supposed to be very good, quite often next day delivery. 

Have checked with a couple of electrical retailers here in the UK who have confirmed that there shouldn't be any problem in using the appliances in Spain, but both indicated that the warranties would be invalid.  One retailer suggested that if we selected a particular item, to be on the safe side we should check with the manufacturer and they would confirm whether any converter or transformer would be required to use the appliance in Spain.

We have now changed our minds about this and have decided to buy the items in Spain  - thank you to everyone for pointing out the potential problems!

Have just had a quick look through the "Round Town News" that we picked up whilst in Spain in March - there is a company called Discount Electrical Appliances advertising at very reasonable prices.  They seem to be English owned - no website but will try to ring them and get some prices.  Prices quoted in advert in March look very good so it might be cheaper than we thought.  Will update this thread once I have got prices.

On furniture, and only if you generally are okay with Ikea, I recommend the Murcia Ikea store. Large and wide offer at the usual reasonable Ikea pricing. Availability can be checked online and a lady there mentioned that when out of stock, replenishing takes some 2 to 3 weeks at most.

Matthijs