I have just had first hand experience with our 6 year old Bosch washing machine.
It started tripping the RCD from time to time, this became more and more regular until it eventually tripped 2 to 3 times per wash. The machine itself was superb, quiet, efficient and good controls. I had decided to buy a Meile washing machine, the new Bosch ones seem to be cheaper and not as good. Due to pressure of a mounting washing pile, 2 kids and grandma living with us and Meile unable to deliver one for 8 days I was pressured into looking further into the problem and I'm glad I did.
I disconnected the element and did a wash cycle all ran fine except the times were inaccurate and greatly extended. So the element was clearly the problem. Locating the element was more difficult, I tried all the normal parts suppliers and left online enquiries. By chance I went on the Bosch site and to my absolute amazement they had online diagrams of my machine and furthermore online ordering. I placed my order at 11pm on Tuesday night and at 08:00 on Thursday morning it was delivered, genuine Bosch heater £32.07 brilliant. The biggest problem was removing the old heater, it took about 10 minutes due to the limescale. I removed a good mug full of limescale through the heater aperture. I was concerned about the effects of the debris on pumps etc so I poured in descaler and left it fizzing for an hour or so and then rinsed it through pouring water into the drum and draining from the pump filter, the sludge that came out was frightening. New element in, wires connected, covers on and the job is complete, washing machine back to it's former glory.
One of the well known online spares company called today, they had found the part £107, I commented that that was expensive and the girl said "Genuine Bosch always is, it's quality" I now know different!
Well done Bosch - 11 out of 10 for price, efficiency and quality.
My worry now is to stop the limescale build up, my current plan is every month or so, mix up a couple of litres of descaler and pour it in the drum, after a couple of hours run a rinse cycle unless anyone has any better ideas.
Regards - John