You mean a manufacturing fault rather than default - A manufacturing fault is when a piece or assembly is made not according to specification - something went wrong with a process.
In your instance you plainly do NOT have a manufacturing fault - the machine worked from new without error - some time later a component failed - if the machine is still covered by warranty you can have the vendor - the people who took your money - resolve the problem for you.
As for the component(s) that failed they may have been manufactured with a flaw in them that caused them to fail prematurely - but this is not a manufacturing fault. In a mass production environment some items will fail prematurely and others will go on seemingly forever. It costs money to provide greater reliability and many manufacturers buy their component parts on cost rather than reliability.
Hotpoint is not necessarily the most expensive brand - I doubt that you have a claim on anybody.
You seem to have had bad-luck - something failed prematurely but probably just outside the warranty period so you may not be covered.
I have a vague awareness of recent EU consumer protection legislation that gives up to three years's warranty - you may wish to look into it.
Good luck...
Peccavi
December 2010
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