hotpoint wma63 bearings failed?

Hi,

Our Hotpoint wma63 has been getting louder on the spin cycle. It’s been loud for a while but I don’t know how loud these are when brand enw, so don’t know how bad/abnormal the noise is.

I know noise is a sign of wearing bearings. I guess the machine was bought about 2001 and the bearings were changed about 2006; I think it must have had a 5 year parts guarantee.

On the basis that the first set of bearings lasted 5 years and another 5 years has passed, I decided to change the bearings.

I stripped the machine down. I didn’t really find any wobble in the bearings but I did find the larger, front bearing had damaged plastic between the races. I don’t think I did this trying to knock it out! So perhaps some water had got into this bearing?

The spider had some rust on the section that passed through that bearing, so I guess that confirms my suspicion that water had got in.

I changed the bearings and spider and rebuilt the machine. I ran the machine empty as a test and it was whisper quiet but when I ran it with clothes in, it was noisy again. It’s hard to say how the noise compared with the noise from the previous set of bearings.

This morning we washed a load without problems and then tried to wash a second load and the drum would not turn. I cannot move it by hand.

I can only assume that the bearings have failed after one week but I haven’t had chance to strip it down to take a look. I’m quite disappointed as I used genuine hotpoint parts and thought I had done a good job.

Any ideas what could have gone wrong? It can’t be anything else, can it? Why might the bearigns have failed so soon?

My other half wants a new machine now, so I’m looking at Bosch but will post another thread to ask about that.

Thanks.