After falling out with the incompetent 'repair' man I went to a biggish handyman store in town. There the electrical guy suggested that an AVR was indeed the right answer, but it needed to be 10kVa to suit the washing machine heater, not 7kVa as suggested initially.
So duly ordered one. Collected 2 days later and transported home (33kg!).
Whilst collecting, wifey managed to engage the services of the electrical guy in the handyman store, who travelled back with us to the house. He duly installed the AVR, which solved the problem and the washing machine works perfectly. Only took him a couple of hours a to do the install and he hard wired the whole lot so that the whole laundry area - a seperate building to the main house - has a regulated 220 volts. Gave the guy 300 pesos for his help (that's about £5!) and he was delighted. Can't see that happening in B & Q
Thanks for all your help and guidance.
