- This topic has 95 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 18 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hi All,
I’ve just inhereted a ~1 year old Zanussi ZWF1431W that had been replaced by a friends insurace company due to failed (failing / noisy) bearings.
Reading the notes here it would seem that 1) bearings failing in this sort a time period are no longer uncommon and 2) some machines have sealed tubs making access to the inner bearing impossible?
So, assuming the above to be the case ..
1) Do we have any rights with Zanussi re these items failing well inside their expected lifetimes (let’s say worst case 3 years?). Failing any positive support from Zanussi, would Trading Standards be interested?
2) Can you get replacement non-sealed (two part) tubs (it appears there are the mouldings on this one for it to have been screwed rather than fused together)? I might not mind investing say £100 on a new tub if I knew I could at least get to the bearing easily if / when they failed next)[1].
3) Could a one piece tub be cut open and bolted (and/or, worst case, glued or plastic welded) back together do you think please (I don’t have much to lose etc).
All the best …
T i m
[1] Assuming the panel thinks the machine in general is worth it.
p.s. Good site here. 😉Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
These late Zanussi washers are quite often fitted with bonded tubs – sounds like yours is one of them. You can tell easily by removing the lid (power off!) and looking at the lugs around the centre line of the tub. Each lug should have a ‘bolt’ through it. If it has, new bearings can be obtained and fitted and the machine will be fine. If not, it is a bonded drum and is therefore scrap.
If the machine has already been written off by an insurance company then they would almost certainly have noted the serial number. If you report the fault to the manufacturer, then you can be pretty sure it will get picked up and refused.
Manufacturer interested? No. Trading Standards? Well, it has been written off so the insurance company has fulfilled its responsibility = no case. Yes, it is not really fit for purpose considering its age, but in the eyes of the company this machine technically doesn’t exist anymore.
Bonded tubs are being used in more and more machines every year – they may become the norm in the future. It is extreme cost cutting by the manufacturer to allow them to meet the unrealistically low prices that are expected by today’s consumer. Bad for the trade, disastrous for the environment and most of all, more aggravation and inevitably a higher cost for the customer. But while people are happy to spend less than £250 on a machine then these problems are surely going to arise.
The Zanussi is scrap; unfortunately. To repair it would be expensive and still would not improve the quality of the product. It is sad reality.
Look for a quality machine like a Bosch or ISE and get a decent product with a decent warranty. (10 years with the ISE10!!) Worth it in the long run.Hope that helps,
Steve.
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
Hi Steve,
These late Zanussi washers are quite often fitted with bonded tubs – sounds like yours is one of them. You can tell easily by removing the lid (power off!) and looking at the lugs around the centre line of the tub. Each lug should have a ‘bolt’ through it. If it has, new bearings can be obtained and fitted and the machine will be fine. If not, it is a bonded drum and is therefore scrap.
Yup, that is the case (bonded) but does it have to be scrap so fast? ie, What if I was to drill through the lug holes whilst the tub is in one piece then cut it in half around the seam? Isn’t it possible I could then re-join it (suitable adhesive or even the std seal for bolted tubs) and bolt up using the std fastenings? I would like to know exactly what is going on inside the join (lips and seal grooves etc) *before* I cut mine open as there may be a better place to cut if I wanted to re-join them later (anyone done so)?
If the machine has already been written off by an insurance company then they would almost certainly have noted the serial number. If you report the fault to the manufacturer, then you can be pretty sure it will get picked up and refused.
Manufacturer interested? No. Trading Standards? Well, it has been written off so the insurance company has fulfilled its responsibility = no case. Yes, it is not really fit for purpose considering its age, but in the eyes of the company this machine technically doesn’t exist anymore.Ok, understood. So, had it not been insured we may have had more of a case etc. And would Zanussi have picked up any of this tab or would it have been just down to the Insurance cover?
Bonded tubs are being used in more and more machines every year – they may become the norm in the future. It is extreme cost cutting by the manufacturer to allow them to meet the unrealistically low prices that are expected by today’s consumer. Bad for the trade, disastrous for the environment and most of all, more aggravation and inevitably a higher cost for the customer. But while people are happy to spend less than £250 on a machine then these problems are surely going to arise.
Agreed on all points Steve. The frustration for me is that had they just bolted it together I would happily have paid the extra £5 it would have cost them to do so …?
The Zanussi is scrap; unfortunately. To repair it would be expensive and still would not improve the quality of the product. It is sad reality.
Ok. Let’s say I have more time than money. Let’s say this washing machine is currently between £350 and £399 to buy. If I could get a new two piece tub inc bearings for £100 I have potentioally got a year old machine for £100 and the bearings next time would only be £20?
Look for a quality machine like a Bosch or ISE and get a decent product with a decent warranty. (10 years with the ISE10!!) Worth it in the long run.
.
Understood Steve. The AEG Lavamat 6100 Digitronic lasted 10 years before I fitted the new bearings and seal. It was 13 years old when the carbon deposits in the motor caused it to trip the house RCD (cured using an airline and a pair of new brushes while I was there) and at 15 years old we now have an 18k resistance between the stator and ground, again tripping the RCD (but this time it’s a hard fault). Assuming it could be salt deposits causing the problem I’m about to strip the motor [1] and wash the stator in distilled water in the hope it might disolve the cause, I’ll then dry and seal the area (varnish etc) and see how we go.
In the meantime the 3 year old Ariston Margherita 2000 I was given as “faulty and leaking” and fixed (necklace in the pump and blocked under the soap dispenser) provides our washing services, but for how long …? 🙁
Hope that helps,
Steve.
Well sort of Steve (respectfully) but probably fires my determination to see if I can actually save these machine from landfill. 😉
If you were looking at any of the above entirely from a cost point of view I guess I should just dump all 3 machines and spend £800 (that I don’t have incedentally 🙁 ) on something ‘better’. I guess the big question on the ZWF1431W is if it was working ok (and aparently it is apart from the bearing noise), would it be considered a good machine .. as in functionality? Looking at the short list I spotted on here somewhere, Zanussi in general seem to be up the good end?
All the best and thanks very much for your time …
T i m
[1] How do the multi-V pulley and rev sensor come off the shaft of the AEG motor please?
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
Hi
The motor pulley is not designed to be removed, it is a press fit. So to remove it you most likely damage the motor shaft, and it would need to be refitted to the correct position and be very tight.
The drum may look like its just a modified split drum , but if you split the drum and providing you can get a seal for the drum and refix with bolts ,then you get a problem and drum leaks or floods your insurance company will not be too happy.
Mike
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
The seal on the split Zanussi tubs sit in a channel around the tub. The front tub half has a raised edge that sits snugly in this channel compressing the seal. It is then bolted together. This makes a stable and tough joint, resistant to vibration. I cannot see a way you can cut the tub and reseal it satisfactorily. If you simply cut the tub in half, you will end up with 2 flat cut edges with no seal channel. The motor is directly beneath this joint and so integrity of the seal is paramount.
Unfortunately, the bean counters have thought of this long before this machine was on the market – ie: at the design stage. Believe me, I used to champion Zanussi products and on the whole, they are not too bad compared with the competition. The drum assembly is subjected to huge stresses during the spin cycle. 10lbs of clothes spinning slightly off balance at 1400 rpm is what the original design was built to cope with. This machine has been designed as is, and you, me, and even the most sympathetic manufacturers engineer could not and should not try to repair this tub – the risk of personal injury from water leaking on live electrical parts cannot be stressed enough. A complete replacement tub is the only answer. That said; if you were to put a new tub in this machine, you still have the computer unit, the pump, the motor, the valves and heater that are still the originals. All you can do is cross your fingers that they don’t fail too quickly, or the machine could become a proverbial money – pit.
Please do not attempt to repair this machine.Steve.
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
Ah, the joys of sealed tubs, this will lead to an inevitable rant. :rolls:
Tim, it’s not repairable unless you happen to have access to plastic welding gear as one of the trade guys was looking at a few months back. There’s no seal as far as I am aware, at all. The whole premise relies on the fact that the tank is sealed.
Currently manufacturers using these include:
And those are the only ones I can recall off the top of my head late on a Saturday evening, there are others. Clicking the links there will show the HUGE range of brand names affected by this “brilliant idea”!
As consumers demand low prices, or prices that don’t change as the decades roll by and manufacturers will seek to meet that expectation then will reduce production costs as they see fit. One such measure is sealed tanks. As consumers, people ask for low prices and get them, then complain about a throwaway product.
You can’t have your cake and eat it I’m afraid.
We despise sealed tanks, lots and with prejudice. We utterly abhor the whole notion as it makes our lives harder and we’re the saps left to explain to people that the machines are a write off at 18 months old. But heh, it was cheap!
It is really hard to explain to people that it’s their own fault that they have a pile o poo washing their clothes, they tend not to take it too well as they think that it’s a good brand.We laugh and cry in equal measure as a lot of people don’t deserve this, yet still expect something for nothing.
I keep saying to people, twenty years ago the cheapest you’d buy a washer was £250 for an 800 spin pile of rubbish. Now you can buy a 1200 or 1400 with all the bells and whistles for under £200, how do you really think they do that? Beat 20 years inflation and make it cheaper, it’s not hard to work it out.
And, this sort of policy does extend to other kitchen appliances as well.
The flipside is, as you are learning, is that when they do fail it’s not really so cheap is it? It means you replace the appliance sooner and, well there’s a surprise, the people selling these things are in the business of selling white boxes. It’s hardly rocket science, the public are being taken for a ride and they haven’t even a clue it’s happening but, it’s okay so long as you can buy a new one for a couple of hundred quid eh?
I’ll not rant about the stupidity of it any more and how, very often, the people that buy these machines are their own worst enemy.
Even people in the trade can’t repair these things satisfactorily under pukka workshop conditions with jigs and allsorts at their disposal as well as an intimate knowledge of the machines. You have to ask yourself, do you really think that you will be able to do it and, is it worth the hassle trying to repair what started life as a hunk ‘o junk and, despite what you do, will still be a hunk ‘o junk when you’re done?
As we often find ourselves telling people, sure we can repair it… but we can’t make it any better.
HTH and apologies for the rant.
K.
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
Washman wrote:Hi
The motor pulley is not designed to be removed, it is a press fit. So to remove it you most likely damage the motor shaft, and it would need to be refitted to the correct position and be very tight.
Ah, thanks for that. On a picture of a similar motor I saw a screw down the centre of the pully / shaft. I was wondering if there was the same under what I thought could be a blanking cap (rather than the turned end) on mine?
The drum may look like its just a modified split drum , but if you split the drum and providing you can get a seal for the drum and refix with bolts ,then you get a problem and drum leaks or floods your insurance company will not be too happy.
Understood Mike.
I’m pretty confident that IF I put retaining bolts back through the (many) lugs and I could re-seal the tub it wouldn’t fall apart (the seal does nothing to hold the two halves together as such). You would be surprised what can be done with 2″ roven roving bandage and some fiberglass resin. 😉
All the best ..
T i m
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
aqualectric wrote:The seal on the split Zanussi tubs sit in a channel around the tub. The front tub half has a raised edge that sits snugly in this channel compressing the seal. It is then bolted together. This makes a stable and tough joint, resistant to vibration.
Ah, thanks for that.
I cannot see a way you can cut the tub and reseal it satisfactorily. If you simply cut the tub in half, you will end up with 2 flat cut edges with no seal channel.
But then might I have two flatish faces that might be ripe for re-bonding, backed up with the many bolts Steve?
The motor is directly beneath this joint and so integrity of the seal is paramount.
If the tub leaks then I don’t suppose I’ll care too much what happens to the motor if it’s only cost me some glue and some bolts? 😉
Unfortunately, the bean counters have thought of this long before this machine was on the market – ie: at the design stage. Believe me, I used to champion Zanussi products and on the whole, they are not too bad compared with the competition.
All 5 of our whitegoods are (AEG)Zanussi and 3 of them still date from the good_ole_days when things were made ‘properly’. 🙁
The drum assembly is subjected to huge stresses during the spin cycle. 10lbs of clothes spinning slightly off balance at 1400 rpm is what the original design was built to cope with.
Shame they didn’t ‘design’ the bearings to cope with the same then? 🙁
This machine has been designed as is, and you, me, and even the most sympathetic manufacturers engineer could not and should not try to repair this tub – the risk of personal injury from water leaking on live electrical parts cannot be stressed enough.
Whilst I hear your warning and am generally in agreement the reason (and partly how I’ve lived this long whilst playing with electricity most my life) I’m not using the AEG is because an 18K ohm resistance between the stator and ground is sufficient to kill all the power to the house within milliseconds. If I simply cut the earth lead out of the plug the machine would be working fine .. but that *would* be dangerous.
A complete replacement tub is the only answer. That said; if you were to put a new tub in this machine, you still have the computer unit, the pump, the motor, the valves and heater that are still the originals. All you can do is cross your fingers that they don’t fail too quickly, or the machine could become a proverbial money – pit.
I fully understand Steve, however to me the gamble is between spending say £125 on some new tub halves, seal and bearings to potentially fix a 1 year old machine that could last for a few years, or spending £400 pounds on a machine that may well only last a year (or less than that and have to play the warranty game). 5+ years ago I put new bearings in the Lavamat and they are still fine.
Please do not attempt to repair this machine.
Well, I can’t promise I’m not going to strip this machine down (even if only to get to the duff bearing) and I’ll see what happens after that . If I re-join the tub (I am an engineer, have plastic welding gear and have built and re-built many a thing in my time, including cars, boats, houses and much electrical and electronic kit), I can’t see a washing machine being any more dangerous.
I can see those words on my gravestone though eh!
All the best ..
T i m
p.s. The last repair was the Zanussi tumble dryer. Front felt bearing, rear bearing and plate and drum spigot. £36 quid and six months ago now.
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
What gets me is, how does a bearing fail in the first place?
I had an LG machine which, despite failing prematurely, managed an estimated 3000+ wash cycles before the motor gave out (since advised this is just a sensor that fails, but that the motor stator needs replacing as a result — another piece of built-in obsolescence unfortunately — interesting that that was my initial inexpert diagnosis!!!).
Point being that this machine’s bearings lasted 3000 cycles without fault. Surely if they are encased within the drum, they should in theory last if anything longer?
Even if the whole drum does need to come out, this should surely only happen once or twice in a machine’s lifetime? Since the gods of quality Miele only specify the entire machine to 5000 wash cycles, this bears out these back-of-a-fag-packet calculations.
It is disgraceful that such a simple thing as a bearing should fail in a year. If car manufacturers can make a wheel bearing (a fundamentally similar device, and one that gets a heck of a sight more of a pounding than a mere appliance!) last 100,000 miles and only charge £40 for a replacement, there is something seriously lacking here. It can’t just be the cost of the bearing — this is either designer incompetence or deliberate manipulation of the specs to make a part fail prematurely. The parts are just not that expensive to make.
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
kwatt wrote:Ah, the joys of sealed tubs, this will lead to an inevitable rant. :rolls:
Tim, it’s not repairable unless you happen to have access to plastic welding gear as one of the trade guys was looking at a few months back.
That’s lucky then. 😉
There’s no seal as far as I am aware, at all. The whole premise relies on the fact that the tank is sealed.
Understood.
Currently manufacturers using these include:
And those are the only ones I can recall off the top of my head late on a Saturday evening, there are others. Clicking the links there will show the HUGE range of brand names affected by this “brilliant idea”!
Ba$tard$ … !
As consumers demand low prices, or prices that don’t change as the decades roll by and manufacturers will seek to meet that expectation then will reduce production costs as they see fit. One such measure is sealed tanks. As consumers, people ask for low prices and get them, then complain about a throwaway product.
I suppose *they* do. Some of us expect a product to be able to achieve a certian lifespan and if it doesn’t expect a solution. Had this machine been bought by me from new, had it died inside (minimum) 3 years I would have been straight up the TS demanding some Merchantable Quality.
You can’t have your cake and eat it I’m afraid.
True, but if you bought some cake you’d expect it to still be edible by the time you got it home wouldn’t you? 😉
We despise sealed tanks, lots and with prejudice. We utterly abhor the whole notion as it makes our lives harder and we’re the saps left to explain to people that the machines are a write off at 18 months old. But heh, it was cheap!
So, like folk out there are telling us to move out bank accounts and utility suppliers around to get the best rates, someone needs to educate buyers to undo two screws and if they see a sealed tub to walk away? Or maybe they should be forced to carry a sign .. “The bearings in this machine are highly unreliable and can not be replaced” ?
It is really hard to explain to people that it’s their own fault that they have a pile o poo washing their clothes, they tend not to take it too well as they think that it’s a good brand.
.
As mentioned elsewhere on this site, one can easily draw the conclusion that the XYZ machine that is about to replace our 15 year old XYZ machine will also last 15 years, what with design / material improvements etc … ?
We laugh and cry in equal measure as a lot of people don’t deserve this, yet still expect something for nothing.
Or from what I’ve been reading, something for something at least? Bottom line. It *MUST* do what it says on the tin and for a reasonable time. If it’s unlikely to do so then it’s simply unfit and should be labled so. If they can’t make that happen for a price then they shouldn’t do it at all. They especially shouldn’t remove the option for repairing or cheaply replacing something that is known to be a weak point. Like supplying a car with the wheels welded on?
I keep saying to people, twenty years ago the cheapest you’d buy a washer was £250 for an 800 spin pile of rubbish. Now you can buy a 1200 or 1400 with all the bells and whistles for under £200, how do you really think they do that? Beat 20 years inflation and make it cheaper, it’s not hard to work it out.
Well, whilst you have a point, doesn’t the quantity of scale help with the production cost of things? How many people had washing machines 20 years ago compared with today. How many of the many manufacturers then were using generic parts (even further cost savings). How many were built by robots?
And, this sort of policy does extend to other kitchen appliances as well.
I’m sure you are right.
The flipside is, as you are learning, is that when they do fail it’s not really so cheap is it?
We don’t know yet do we. It could well be 20 quid for the bearings and seal and a couple more for some glue and bolts. 😉
It means you replace the appliance sooner and, well there’s a surprise, the people selling these things are in the business of selling white boxes. It’s hardly rocket science, the public are being taken for a ride and they haven’t even a clue it’s happening but, it’s okay so long as you can buy a new one for a couple of hundred quid eh?
For most maybe, but I’ve never been most. Like our ~15 year old tumble dryer. I could buy ‘A’ new TD for £100 but would rather spend the 36 quid I did repairing this one.
I’ll not rant about the stupidity of it any more and how, very often, the people that buy these machines are their own worst enemy.
You rant away my friend I’m not sure it’s fair to use the term stupidity on this. Ask anyone how long they would *expect* a new washing machine to last, no matter how cheap it was. I guess they would accomodate the new ‘nothing lasts as long as it did’ thought and say 3 maybe 5 years (of typical use). If it wasn’t expected to last that long then it shouldn’t be made, either that or it should be made very clear on the instructions that it might fail in 1 year etc?
Even people in the trade can’t repair these things satisfactorily under pukka workshop conditions with jigs and allsorts at their disposal as well as an intimate knowledge of the machines.
Really?
You have to ask yourself, do you really think that you will be able to do it
Hmm, I generally have a reasonable idea of my chance of success before I attempt these things so I’ll have to answer ‘probably’ 😉 I never think I’m not going to be able to do something until I try and fail. I had never built a complete car before I did so, yet I had done many of the individual components prior to that. I bought my first car when I was 15 with a seized engine and with no help from anyone other than the Haynes manual, stripped / rebuilt the engine and got it running again. Whilst at secondary school we were asked if we wanted to make some book ends or a bathroom cabinet in woodwork. I built a 6′ rowing dinghy.
and, is it worth the hassle trying to repair what started life as a hunk ‘o junk and, despite what you do, will still be a hunk ‘o junk when you’re done?
Ah, now that is the big question and about the only one that would have any damping factor to my goal, should I choose to go ahead. So, is it really a lemon then and if so what makes it so please? From what I can see (and I’m no expert of course) many of the components look the exact same as those found in much more expensive machines? Like the Seat made from VW panels .. do they really make them from cheaper metal if they happen to be going on a Seat not a VW? Or the BMW branded waterpump or the exact same item with the casting ground down where it would have said BMW but sold at 1/4 of the price ?
As we often find ourselves telling people, sure we can repair it… but we can’t make it any better.
Hmmm, if I was to convert this sealed tub machine to a splitable tub model I would think I’d made it ‘better’ 😉
HTH and apologies for the rant.
Yes it has and no need to apologise. I can see how this whole issue can touch a raw nerve (from all sides) but I think the idea of making something so vunerable (bearings) so un-repairable (sealed tub) is simply immoral. But hey, whilst perfectly good stuff is being disposed of because of the cost of the human element it gives us d-i-y reparers things to play with!
Now, I just need to find a scrapped machine with a split tub and a dead motor or controller …. 😉
All the best ..
T i m
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
jjames wrote:What gets me is, how does a bearing fail in the first place?
From my experience often a lack of attention to detail (easily done in a mass production world). A tiny piece of dirt in a dropped bearing, that slightly nicked seal that then leaks water into the bearing behind it, the small burr on the end of the brass bush .. ?
I had an LG machine which, despite failing prematurely, managed an estimated 3000+ wash cycles before the motor gave out (since advised this is just a sensor that fails, but that the motor stator needs replacing as a result — another piece of built-in obsolescence unfortunately — interesting that that was my initial inexpert diagnosis!!!).
Not bad work history and good diagnosis 😉
Point being that this machine’s bearings lasted 3000 cycles without fault. Surely if they are encased within the drum, they should in theory last if anything longer?
Well I think what goes against them may be the temperature range they have to work under and the load they carry over a fairly short distance between bearings. Our tumble dryer for example has a single self-centering oillite bearing at the back because it sits on a large felt bearing at the front. Therefore the load is spread over a much larger distance (and it turns slower etc etc).
Even if the whole drum does need to come out, this should surely only happen once or twice in a machine’s lifetime? Since the gods of quality Miele only specify the entire machine to 5000 wash cycles, this bears out these back-of-a-fag-packet calculations.
Exactly, at 3000 washes that’s over 16 years for us! The AEG Lavamat 6100 lasted 10+ on the first bearings (5 years ago).
It is disgraceful that such a simple thing as a bearing should fail in a year. If car manufacturers can make a wheel bearing (a fundamentally similar device, and one that gets a heck of a sight more of a pounding than a mere appliance!) last 100,000 miles and only charge £40 for a replacement, there is something seriously lacking here. It can’t just be the cost of the bearing — this is either designer incompetence or deliberate manipulation of the specs to make a part fail prematurely. The parts are just not that expensive to make.
Spot on. What is even more disgusting is in the case of this ZWF1431W I highly suspect the tub *could* have been joined using the bolt and seal process! (something I’ll will be able to say more accuratly when I cut it in half!).
All the best ..
T i m
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
Exactly, at 3000 washes that’s over 16 years for us! The AEG Lavamat 6100 lasted 10+ on the first bearings (5 years ago).
The more I read up on this subject, and see the problems people have had, the more I realise that that LG machine wasn’t such a bad old stick after all.
It *did* last the equivalent of 10 years of “typical” use, without so much as a peep of trouble coming from it, and then some. You really can’t complain at that. Not at £470 for a washer-dryer.
Especially, as seems to be the case, if some machines aren’t even making it to two years of relatively light use.
We aren’t using the machine nearly so much now, so it remains to be seen whether the shiny new Miele sitting in the kitchen makes it to ten years without issue 🙂 Seeing as that is the benchmark the “inferior” machine managed.
Some of these horror stories though really are pathetic. It reminds me of the guy at work who bought a brand-new Renault Laguna a few years back, only to have to take it back to the dealer on over 20 occasions over the three years he had it with some pretty major faults (EGR valves, gearbox synchro failure, juddering clutch, electrical failures and finally a diesel turbo failure on the motorway at which point he got totally sick of the car and sold it). Amazing just how bad some products can be — that car was a running joke in the office.
I’d have been looking to get shot after the second failure quite honestly. Ironically the back-breaking straw (that turbo) I don’t think was the fault of the car — he always filled it up with crappy Tesco fuel and would sit in 5th gear at 30mph. Always fatal 👿
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
Now, I just need to find a scrapped machine with a split tub and a dead motor or controller …. 😉All the best ..
T i m
I think you are knocking on an open door with most of what you say but this seems like a sound plan.
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
T_i_m wrote:I suppose *they* do. Some of us expect a product to be able to achieve a certian lifespan and if it doesn’t expect a solution. Had this machine been bought by me from new, had it died inside (minimum) 3 years I would have been straight up the TS demanding some Merchantable Quality.
Hi Tim,
Have a read at this article
The legal system, in practise, holds little that will be of any help in cases like this as it takes into account the cost, useage and is pretty vague around telling you what is considered to be “reasonable”. In short there is no warranty of “durability” and no set timescale by which any goods should last with each taken on its own merits.
I’ve seen TS and Citizen’s Advice trying this before over this sort of thing and the parts prices and the so called parts warranties from the likes of Hoover (Candy) and Hotpoint (Indesit) with no success most often other than perhaps a gratis repair fee.
Caveat emptor I’m afraid in the real world.
K.
Re: Zanussi ZWF1431W bearing replacement?
Candy/Hoover also have taken to producing the sealed tub (welded tank in Candy speak 😉 ) in many of their current model range.
Candy wrote:It’s indeed well renowned that in most economically advanced countries, the present high labour costs, are making less and less convenient the out of warranty replacement of the components of the tank assembly, whenever a comparison is made with the alternative of buying a brand new washing machine
They continue…….
Candy wrote: Moreover, the present high reliability of the previously so called “critical” components of the same tank assembly (such as ball bearings, gaskets, seal retainers etc), is making less and less frequent any service intervention on the tank assembly, during the normal lifetime of the modern washing machine
I personally think it’s quite clear that within the next couple of years most European producers of washing machines (including the Siemens group) will adopt this manufacturing technique. That the technology is now in place to incorporate high specification with high quality and high volume for a much reduced production cost.
Coupled with the need to create larger wash loads with higher and higher spin speeds but yet all contained within the confines of the standard 600 by 600 by 820 box. The one piece welded/sealed drum/tank assembly does all that and for a fraction of what went before it!
The same was thought 20 years ago about the humble drain pump. When the trade first set eyes on the then new ‘magnetic’ pump the sceptics were out in force. Holding fast to the mistaken belief the clumsy big shaded pole pump with it’s 10 or more constituant parts was the only way to go. That the tiny, all plastic, sealed magnetic rotor and glued on impellor was a cheap nasty joke and wouldn’t last. That tiny little device is fitted to all makes of machine these days. Cost a few cents to produce and lasts for years and years.
Engineers,mechanics and fitters will always be sceptical to new manufacturing techniques, it’s in their blood. The “It’ll never last brigade!”
Design engineers on the other hand have a more practical task in solving modern problems with modern solutions to suit all parties at the same time and all in the same equation. Their lastest triumph – the one-piece sealed/welded tank.
Enjoy it – it’s here to stay guys :tup:
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.