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Hi all,
So, back in 2008 I picked up a 13 month old Zanuissi WM from Freecycle that had been written off by their insurance Co because it had a welded tub. Not realising it was impossible to cut the plastic tub open to replace the bearings and put it back together again and it not leak, I did. 😉
… and a good few years later (8?) the bearings finally went again and daughter treated us to a new Bosch (WAB28162GB) before I could pull the Zanussi apart again. ;-(
Some 5-6 years later and not particularly heavy use, that’s just failed with a broken spider. ;-(
We bought Mum a similar model a couple years after buying ours that she said we can have it but are we looking at just getting another 3 years out of that or is there anything we can do (realistically) to prevent that one failing so soon, assuming it has the same design flaw?
Or is there anything in the std range of machines that doesn’t have a spider made out of cardboard or any other built-in- ‘they all do that Sir’ obsolescence issues? Can we get back to splittable tubs at least?
Cheers, T i m
electrofix wrote:the Bosch WAN series still has a drum you can split
That’s good to know Dave, thanks.
I can see me in the showroom and taking the top off the next one I’m thinking of buying to check (you know, because of ‘progress’ //// more profit for the manufacturers at to the cost of the environment). ;-(
I think we chose the Bosch over any lower spec machines at the time because it had a steel drum. Looks like that’s not enough these days.
What about machines that don’t have a pot metal spider? Do they still exist?
Cheers, Tim
the spider has always been made of aluminuim but how long it last depends on lots of things
aluminium is attacked by Alkeli. so if you overdose detergent your reducing its life.
too many cool washes without a boil wash. liquid detergent as it has no bleach will both lead to bacteria and mould build up that creates a slime that coats all surfaces you cant see. this builds up on the spider and makes it corrode quicker
I sold one bosch machine to one customer and she managed to kill a spider in under 3 years by using eco detergent on low temp washes
as for checking if the drum splits, with bosch its easy
https://www.bosch-home.co.uk/custome…e-parts-search
go here, put in Enr number. if you have not got last 2 digits choose the highest. then see if you can get internal drum components
Dave
electrofix wrote:the spider has always been made of aluminuim but how long it last depends on lots of things
aluminium is attacked by Alkeli. so if you overdose detergent your reducing its life.
Dave
That’s for that Dave and sorry I’ve only just noticed the reply! ;-(
Time to wash some stuff on hot then I think. 😉
Cheers, T i m
But even buying a WAN model e.g. WAN28000GB/03 you still should know that the bearings ( officially ) and oil seal come as part of the rear half tank and that half tank section costs £170.14.Of course if you catch it early you can knock the offending bearings out but if left until bearings are in rusty shrapnel mode ( usual customer thing!! ) you`ve had it since the outer steel bearing race will not easily / is impossible to shift. The bearing related parts you can get separate is the oil seal @ about 14 quid and a new spider which comes with the drum at £169.36 as one unit and the tank seal. The point is at those prices they have you by the ” short ones ” ( and they know that! ) BUT it at least gives you a fighting chance if caught early on and the machine is therefore not thrashed and so trashed into oblivion.
There are about 8 types of aluminium alloys used in common engineering and some are better than others for different purposes ( hence 8 types of alloy ) as far as washing machines go it will not be one of the highest quality nor will they be coated with a protective paint but there again my Hotpoint WM series machine`s spider lasted 18 years and that replacement spider ( less bearings and oil seal ) cost, trade price, as a genuine** spare less than 30 quid at the time ( part number C00197587 ) that was duely replaced but not the bearings or the oil seal since they were both in good nick and so the oil seal was just regreased in situ…so still running on the original bearings and oil seal, machine now 22 years old. Why not change the bearings at the same time? The reason is, that sometimes when knocking out bearings the alloy tube they fit into can go the same way as the spider and be rotten especially around the oil seal area and you get a hair line fracture within the bearing tube due to knocking the bearings out which can go 2 bad ways 1) you will not see if it cracks but it will become a problem OR 2) it disintergrates into 2 pieces = you now have a definite problem that you did not have before so that is the reason why I did what I did all without the use of the useless crystal ball! Those who remember the Reliant Robin 3 wheeler steering box bolts will know all about rotten alloy threads. ** if you buy the pattern spider remenber to transfer the old C ring off the old shaft to the new often C ring less pattern spider otherwise the bronze hub ring becomes unglued from the shaft = back to square 1 within a month with duff bearings.HI Andy,
Sorry, I’ve only just seen your reply and thank you so much for all the detailed information.
Also thank you so much for saying ‘Reliant Robin’, not ‘Robin Reliant’ as so many people do (who obviously don’t know what they are saying!). 😉 (Uncle had a Regal then Robin and had a king-pin fail the MOT, only after 1 year of having it replaced by the garage who failed it the year before. I sorted it out for him and found they had fitted the pin but not aligned the oilways, meaning it had been run dry for the whole time. ;-(
From what you say about WB bearings you can understand why people often just throw stuff away, especially once it’s a few years old, just because (say) it’s not pumping out because of some small thing stuck in the impeller. ;-(
my ex’s father bought a Robin because he only had a bike license. I did not like the heater fan as it was either on or off so i bought another light switch, which gave me a 2 position switch, swopped the top of the switch so it had the fan symbol on it. then i wired a Cortina fan resitor in circuit.
that would be the only robin with a 2 speed fan. Much quietergreat days lol
Dave
electrofix wrote: i wired a Cortina fan resitor in circuit.
that would be the only robin with a 2 speed fan. Much quietergreat days lol
Dave
Hehe, they were indeed, or still are for us in some respect as we built a Mk1/2 Escort based kitcar 30+ years ago and so I can still do the sort of things you did with the Robin blower switch. 😉
Coincidentally I currently have the entirre gheater unit out of the kitcar because the motor bearings had failed and so the blower was very noisy. I have removed the fan and intend to replace it with a motorcycle cooling fan driven by a PWM controller with either a pot (full variable speed) or retain the Off / Low / High switch but still retaining a PWM controller.
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