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when doing a bearing change of a non welded tub appliance would you always change the drum shaft? we do and then guarantee the repair for a year.
However when speaking to tech manager at a large national company we do work for he said he didn’t want us to, he just wants the bearings changed in future and the seal packed with silicone grease to stop and water getting through to the new bearings.to fit or not to fit this is the question please
Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
The “national company” would always seek the cheaper option. Drum shafts are expensive and often part of the drum so often uneconomical to replace anyway.
Depends on the damage the bearings have done to the shaft especially the water seal collar…?
Quick ‘get out of jail’ is the national company option even when the shaft is badly damaged. That would NEVER be my choice under any circumstances and declaring the appliance BER commonplace when bearings are an issue.
Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
Depends on the make..Zanussi always,Hotpoint WM always,WMA depends on condition, others, if neccessary.
To my mind if I’m doing the repair I will decide, not someone sitting in an office. With 12 months guarantee you and only you should decide as you are taking the risk.Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
Can’t remember doing bearings without replacing spider. Although the amount of bearing jobs I do these days has dropped
Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
Depends on the machine, how bad it is etc I’d guess, pretty much as it always has been as robbra says.
Keep in mind that with modern machines water will rarely cover the bearing seal, if it ever does like it would in older machines, so they technically don’t need to be sealed as well since it is more or less just splash protection.
Some of the time I suspect they are changed more to cover the engineer’s a$$ than for an actual need to do it. Or, possibly to attempt to have the machine written off as they can’t be bothered to do bearings. And some of course where it’s perfectly legit.
K.
Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
Depends on how long you are expected to warranty the repair ?
We are in a chronic hard water area so always recommend changing shaft as well.Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
It’s often not possible to make a reliable decision until the drum is stripped down and the extent of corrosion of the support arms assessed. For this reason, if there is any doubt, I quote a price range and order the parts needed after strip down.
In my experience, sludgy, mouldy, smelly drums are much more susceptible to support arms corroding and on these, renewing the bearings only would be a false economy.
Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
Agreed.
Problem is, in my experience, most don’t strip down or do much assessment before ordering up everything that may possibly be needed. I get that as well to some degree as the engineer doesn’t want the cost of the revisit. A number these days don’t even bother to call first, just order up the parts based on what a customer tells them or what they hear over the phone, ’cause that’ll work out great eh?
In days of yore or, where you’re liable to see the same parts needed on another call a short while down the road that’s not a problem. You don’t fit them, you just use them on the next call, not a problem for anyone when that happened.
These days, not so much.
The days of one or two drum spiders etc fitting a raft of models is long gone for most so what happens is and, I have seen this first hand many, many times is that the parts are ordered and then “fitted” even although that may be only “fitted” on paper.
I know a number of engineers that have a bunch of parts that are “fitted” filling up the odd garage or hut still waiting on a happy home to be “fitted” once more. I’d hazard that a good proportion of them where ordered under the “pre-diagnosis” banner.
I appreciate why this happens and the whole system that leads to it is, frankly and in my opinion, stupid but, it is what it is and nobody seems all that interested in fixing it.
K.
Re: drum shaft or no drum shaft ?
In the very soft water area I work in I probably change as many Hotpoint WM drum supports without bearings as vice versa. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many sub 12 month recalls I have had for either bearing or shaft changes separately in many long years.
As mentioned above a very careful examination using your experience and advising customer of the possible variables before you start is the method I use.
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