Attempting a washing machine repair

mrscalex

mrscalex

Zorg Guru (IV)
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British Zeds
3rd Party Trader
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
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Location
Swindon & Swansea
The bearings have gone in the drum of my washing machine. No one available to fix it, would be too expensive anyway plus I don't want anyone in the house and I'm not buying a new one as it's an integrated washer/dryer and £600+

So I thought I'd have go myself. I figured if I could drop an engine in and out of a Z3 I ought to have a go at replacing the drum on my washing machine.

Took about an hour or so and the drum is now extracted. £165 parted with for new one and now awaiting delivery. We shall see if it goes back as easily...

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You might see the 'Agree' with my name appear under your post in the coming days...
 
I thought you were going to be fixing a white Prius from the title!
 
Used to be able to replace the bearings. That was pre inbuilt obsolescence. Big pressure on manufacturers to return to this.
A repair guy told me a few years ago that the larger 8kg/9kg machines had the same bearings as their smaller siblings. Consequently, they failed much earlier in the life due to overloading and abuse.
 
Redline said:
Used to be able to replace the bearings. That was pre inbuilt obsolescence. Big pressure on manufacturers to return to this.
A repair guy told me a few years ago that the larger 8kg/9kg machines had the same bearings as their smaller siblings. Consequently, they failed much earlier in the life due to overloading and abuse.
Click to expand...
Yes this one is a sealed unit and it's 9 years old so they've been doing it for some years now. It might be a blessing in disguise. Because we have the hardest water in the country who knows what it looks like inside. I had some pretty shocking limescale come out of the drain pump filter. It looked like slate chippings. So a new drum could lengthen the life of the machine beyond what new bearings alone might.

It's the same work doing the bearings as the whole drum too. In fact it's less work doing a sealed drum as no fiddling with the bearings themselves. That said I would have happily taken the c£120 saving in drum v bearing if we didn't have the hard water problem.
 
i have owned a dosmestic appliance repair company for 30years we no longer replace drum bearings on washing machines as all drums are sealed and the quality of the the bearings and drum shafts are very poor and in a lot of cases the bearings are epoxied in to the housing
most manufacters will supply complete drum container assemblies and are fairly straight forward to change older machines use to use SKF double rubber sealed bearings they all use know use cheap chinese bearings
if any forum member wants any advice for washing machine tumble dryer etc repairs just just message me
we also have access to a huge range of parts genuine and pattern which i will happily supply at trade prices plus postage
 
D R Oldfield said:
i have owned a dosmestic appliance repair company for 30years we no longer replace drum bearings on washing machines as all drums are sealed and the quality of the the bearings and drum shafts are very poor and in a lot of cases the bearings are epoxied in to the housing
most manufacters will supply complete drum container assemblies and are fairly straight forward to change older machines use to use SKF double rubber sealed bearings they all use know use cheap chinese bearings
if any forum member wants any advice for washing machine tumble dryer etc repairs just just message me
we also have access to a huge range of parts genuine and pattern which i will happily supply at trade prices plus postage
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good offer to me. Thank you. I've bought my drum now but I think I got a fairly decent price at £165 in this instance. I found them elsewhere for up to £220 and typically £200.

I'm realistic I could be weeing in the wind repairing this as it's 9 years old. But I wouldn't have been happy without trying.
 
it will be fine i am sure the biggest causes of bearing failure on any washing machine is not overloading in fact under loading does more damage , its because the machine doesn't get hot enough and machine built after 2005 use a lot less water so with out the natural flushing action you get with higher water levels and cold /cooler washing cycles the drum never gets clean and over time it gathers round the drum shaft which cause the seal to lift which lets moisture in to the bearings . you only need to see the build up of gunge behind the door seal
which shows the damage it can do most manufacturers are advising to do a maintenance wash once a month which basically means the hottest wash 90 degrees with an empty drum to clean it out , we recommend to all our customers to buy a cheap packet of dishwasher tablets and put one tablet in the drum when they do the monthly maintenance wash
 
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