how long before the bearings give up the ghost alltogether

[richardc1983]

Well my hoover WDM130 washer is on its last legs, i’ve had it 7 yrs and luckily I took out the extended warranty! its cost me about £700 overall though! Within the first 2 yrs the motor required replacing, door hinges were shot and it was underfilling with water.

Now the bearings have been wearing on it for the last year and its getting so noisy now that we cant hear ourselves in the other room with the door closed. The drum moves freely inside but there is noticeable movement on the drum almost like it is bumpy in the bearings if that makes sense.

Can anyone tell how long it has got left now? We do about 5 washes per week on the same day. Will anything bad happen if I carry on using it? Were going to get an ISE10 as a replacement when it does.

Thank you kindly.

[brightspark]

Re: how long before the bearings give up the ghost alltogeth

Seven years from a Hotpoint washing machine sounds pretty good to me, but £100 a year sounds a bit much, especially if that doesn’t include the purchase price, and taking into account all the grief of breakdown, going backwards and forwards to the launderette etc.
I’d guess that as the amount of drum movement increases, eventually a few things will happen. First, the motor will start to have to work much harder to turn the drum. There ought to be some kind of sensor that will trip before the motor overdoes it. Second, once the bearing really starts to go, the bearing seal will go,and you’ll probably get some sort of a water leak from the bearing. Third, once the bearing starts to disintegrate, unless some anti vibration sensor or motor overload sensor kicks in, if it’s still spinning, it will probably fail completely and very quickly, allowing the drum to touch the inside of the tub making an almighty racket. It will hopefully stop completely then.
I reckon that even with the door shut, if you have normal hearing and any empathy for mechanical devices, you’ll have switched it of well before you get to that stage.
I’ve never heard of washing machine bearing failure being a serious safety hazard, but I’m sure the UKWG professionals have some stories. 😯

[brightspark]

Re: how long before the bearings give up the ghost alltogeth

Difficult to say how long the bearings will take to go – professionals will have a better idea, but from my experience I reckon you’re probably looking at anything between 3 days and two weeks, depending how on lucky you feel.
But remember you’ll want to allow yourself up to two weeks to get the new machine sorted out.

[Penguin45]

Re: how long before the bearings give up the ghost alltogeth

Some will rumble on for ages – the point at which you must do something is when you find gret or brown spots appearing on the laundry.

If you have any intention of actually repairing the appliance, the longer you leave it the greater the chance of damage to the drum shaft, which will double the price of the repair.

Penguin45.

[Twoten]

Re: how long before the bearings give up the ghost alltogeth

It would be difficult to give an idea on how long bearings will last once they start to go. As you’ve had a year out of them I think any more time would be considered a bonus.

Continuing to use the machine shouldn’t be a problem, as the situation worsens some of the following may happen.

Oil may start to appear on the clothes as water seeps back into the drum from the bearings. This will often appear as a series of dots that match the pattern of holes in the drum.

The element could become damaged from the loose drum which will prevent the water from heating, depending on the model the machine will either stick in the middle of a wash or wash in cold water.

The drum may stop rotating caused by excess play in the bearings making the rear pulley move out of alignment.

The noise becomes such that you can’t tolerate any longer

[richardc1983]

Re: how long before the bearings give up the ghost alltogeth

Thanks for the info guys, the drum has been increasing getting louder over the last yr however you dont notice it slowly over time is increasing in loudness.

When rotating the drum by hand it feels lumpy and only now has this started happening the last month or so.

Will putting it on a slower spin stretch it to last a little longer as I need to save up for the ISE10 machine you see.

I am not sure how much it will cost to get it repaired but as you know yourselves with a machine that is this old what will break on it next?

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