Hotpoint WM64

[dachwilson]

Guys, after having successfully replaced the door hinge at the weekend to get this machine working safely again, a friend (who happens to be a plumber and was in the house when I was running a maintainance wash) kindly told me that the bearing ‘at the back of the machine had gone’.

I’m not sure if he is right – so would value input from you….

Symptoms of this are a very loud spin, occasional banging noises from the drum when turning by hand, and the door dosn’t latch in exactly…. he reckons that as the bearing had gone that the drum was sitting lower and pulling the case out of shape slightly….

..it all sounds plausible ( & he’s not pitching for the work as he knows I’ll try it myself ) … but do you think he is right & is it an expensive part to replace?

Thanks in advance for your help on this….

[iadom]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

It sounds as though this may already be BER. ( Beyond economic repair)

When bearings start to become noisy they should be changed at once. It sounds as though yours has been left to run, becoming noisier and noisier. If the front bearing has collapsed then there is a good chance you will not be able to extract what is left of the front (inner) bearing from the outer drum and the drum support shaft ( spigot ) will also be damaged. This can also lead to damage on the heating element.

There are two bearings in the machine, the main or front bearing inside the drum fails first, if the rear bearing has also failed then it will almost certainly be BER.

If you open the door and push up into the inner drum at the top whilst at the same time observing the lower edge of the inner drum, the door seal and outer drum should move with it. If there is obvious play between the inner and outer drum of more than a few centimetres then I fear you have left it to long.

Jim.

[dachwilson]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

OK thanks.

I dont remember there being play between the inner & outer drums – but I will check tonight.

Thanks

David

PS …already warmed my wife up to the Meile vs ISE debate!

[aqualectric]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

Sounds to me like the suspension is at fault. The drum will sit at an angle to the cabinet; the pulley will catch on the back panel (hence occasional clanging noise) and the door gasket will be twisted. The door will have to be forced shut.
Unplug machine and remove the lid. Ideally, the drum will sit square and high in the cabinet and the springs on the top will be opposing each other in a straight line and evenly tensioned. If this is not the case, or the drum is very low down in the cabinet it is likely that a suspension rod has:-
1) Jumped out of its damper unit;
2) Sheared off;
3) Come adrift – ie: unscrewed itself.

All are relatively easy and cheap to repair. Hotpoint’s WM64 is the last decent type of washer Hotpoint ever made. If you can repair it at a modest cost, it will outlast a modern Hotpoint, even with the wear it has already had. If the hinge was broken in the course of a wash, it is usually due to the suspension collapsing and coming down, wash load and all on the door bowl. This can snap a hinge pin. 😉

The suspension job is a heavy and fiddly one!! Have a look first and see if you wish to attempt a repair yourself. Otherwise, help is at hand – click repairs@ for an engineer in your area.

Power off, plug out before any inspection. :plug: Stay alive!!

HTH,

Steve.

[dachwilson]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

Thanks Steve,

I’ve checked the drum ( as per first suggestion above) & there is, at most, 1mm of play between the inner & outer drum – so it seems unlikely that the front bearing has failed.

As for the springs etc and the positioning of the drum, I had the lid off to replace the tapping plate for the door hinge & don’t remember anything odd with the drum’s positioning or the springs being out of alignment.

The door hinge snapped because the thread of the tapping plate wore out & the blot fell out & the weight of the door eventually broke the hinge…

Maybe therfore, its just a noisy machine – having said that though I don’t ts always been like this – so any other suggestions welcome…..

I will take the lid off again though & chck the springs as suggested…..

[dachwilson]

Re: Hotpoint WM64 – ITS NOW Stopped !!! HELP….please

Two new symptons/Problems Help please!…. it cannot complete a cycle. It sits & hums having sometimes washed , but not drained & sometimes not done anything. It wont automatically move through the wash unless the dial is now manually turned round. And even then it often still does nothing. When you do get it to spin, there is so much banging that I was worried it was going to break & destroy the case. Doing a test with the lid off (we’ll pretend I didn’t say that…) the drum is bouncing around inside the case.

These new problems started after I had the bottom inspection plate off to try & establish what the noise was & found 15 pence inside the drain sump. After removing this, and having to lay the machine on its front to get the retaining clip back on, the symptons above started & the noise on a spin became unbearable. I’ve checked both concrete weights & they are both securely fastened. Pushing the drum with the lid off (Powered off by now) it will go down quite easily. But there is no apparent source of the banging.

Any thoughts guys? Is it bearings, suspension arms, control panels? Are we now in the realms of beyond economic repair?

[Penguin45]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

Have you tipped the machine back and looked underneath yet? I have been regularly attending Indesit/Ariston machines where the friction dampers have broken through the chassis floor, leaving the drum to bounce all over the place.

Penguin45.

[dachwilson]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

I had the machine on its front to replace the sump drain hose clip& there was nothing obviously broken through.

Can you describe what a friction damper looks like so I can check later?

Would this solve all the symptons though?

I need to get this resolved today as we are off on holiday on wednesday & mrs dachwilson is insisting that she have a working washing machine when we come back…. so any other suggestions during the day would be most welcome…… especially around is it worth repairing….

Alternative is to order a new one….. Budget would be around £500.

Cheers again guys.

[iadom]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

I have to say Chris that although the damper/ chassis problem was very common on older Hotpoint 9500/WM series I have never seen the chassis break through on a later WM model such as this.

The suspension dampers, two of them are similar to a car shock absorber, they sit between the chassis and the outer drum on either side. They can fail just like car shockers and cause the drum to bang around, to test them just push down on the drum and release, it should come back up without appearing to ‘bounce’ just like the old method of checking your car shock absorbers by pushing down on the front wing.

Jim.

[iadom]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

dachwilson wrote:

Alternative is to order a new one….. Budget would be around £500.

http://www.iseappliances.co.uk/ 😉

[dachwilson]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

Thanks.

Without wanting to be too picky, would replacing the suspension arms solve the other issue around not moving through the wash cycles? If not, what do you think the problem might be there?

If I were to source the arms through here, are there any hints around how the existing ones are removed & the drum supported whilst inserting the new ones?

Thanks for your continued help….

[iadom]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

Suspension is nothing to do with motor or timer faults, these could be caused by worn motor brushes, I would check those out before worrying about the suspension units. Suspension unit change needs the whole of the front cabinet removing, then it is a bit of a wrestling match to change them one by one. Again they would not cause a noise when the drum is rotated by hand, however a snapped inner drum support spider would.

You do seem to have more than one fault and a full examination by someone with the required experience may help you to avoid buying expensive parts that you do not need.

Jim.

[Phidom]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

For the noise, my bet would be cracked drum spider. I think they must have changed the metal alloy on those in recent years as they now fail in very large numbers whereas this was a fairly rare fault on pre WM models. On it’s own that should not cost too much to renew as the part is relatively cheap to buy and does not take all that long to change.

[dachwilson]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

OK guys,

So down to business – it feels like I am looking at a set of suspension arms, new brushes & possibly new bearings/drum spider.

PLease can someone provide me with links to the shop so I can check out prices?

I’m feeling adventurous so (Assuming the suspension arms arn’t prohibatively expensive) i’ll probably try these & the brushes to see if we can fix before venturing into the realms of bearings & Spiders.

Of course this might be money down the drain ! & a new Meile/ISE/Bosch might still have to be bought…..

Cheers

[iadom]

Re: Hotpoint WM64

It is pointless changing the brushes and suspension units without finding out the cause of the noise. All of these parts are available from the shop here. Together they would cost you around £80 to £85 plus delivery. Bearing & spider change is not a simple DIY job, suspension change is also not easy. I really do advise getting the machine checked out correctly, I appreciate that it is your money but I am giving you the best advice that I can. What you may save by not paying for expert help is likely to be lost and more, by throwing parts at the machine without the certainty that they are required, you could still finish up having to buy a new machine.

Jim.

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