[Burong]

Re: Whirlpool AWM1866?

don wrote:Hi Burong

The model number is fine, what`s the problem with the machine?

Don

Hello Don

Thank you very much indeed for yur quick reply.

I am 95{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} sure that the problem is that string is caught inside the machine. (I am female although I am not blonde!) I thought that a kilim – a string rug – was machine washable. I now realise that it was not. When I put the rug on the line, I found quite lot of long string tangled up at the back of the rug, plus holes in the rug when it had no holes before.

I was only in the kitchen when the machine did its final rinse and spin. The machine was ‘wheezing’ – as if life was suddenly too tiring and too much trouble for it – but it was not thumping and although it clearly did not sound 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} healthy, it did not sound desperately ill. The motor wasn’t making any unusual noises and the pump sounded fine but the drum was complaining about life, I reckon.

I didn’t realise that the rug was not machine washable until I hung it up on the line to dry and noticed that it was ruined. The rug was the only item in the machine, so I thought that perhaps it was complaining because the drum was not balanced with just this one item in it – though the rug is quite small (about 40″ by 30″) and when it was wet it would not have weighed more than 2 or 3 pairs of denim jeans belonging to a man 6ft tall.

Having put the rug outside I put a wet double bed mattress protector into the machine next, just to rinse and spin that, having washed it by hand. The drum of the machine started the complaining noise again – when I knew that the mattress protector weighed almost nothing. So I switched the machine off and set it just to drain and spin the second item so that I would be able to open the door. So I did stop the machine as fast as I could when I realised that it was ill.

The machine has never made any unusual noises before and although the sick-sounding noise is quite muted, something is definitely wrong with it. I am sure I am not being neurotic about that. I suspect that more string – maybe 9″ to 1ft long – came off the back of the rug and is in that machine somewhere, causing the unusual noise.

A neighbour admits to knowing a bit about washing machines so I told him what had happened. He said that string is probably wrapped round the drum. He says that a DIY repair is possible but that it would be necessary to “take the machine to pieces” to get at the drum.

A friend of mine is coming to stay, by coincidence. He owns a boat, is a yacht surveyor by trade and is a mechanical engineer by background. He does not call anyone else in in order to do a job that he can do by himself if the item belongs to him – and plenty goes wrong on an elderly wooden yacht built in 1960.

He says that it is 30 years since he dismantled a washing machine and that he knows very little about them, but he said that he can “probably” fix my machine. I’ve never known him not to succeed in fixing something on his boat.

1. Is this sort of repair complicated to do, please?

2. Apart from looking between the drum and the cylinder, should we check anywhere else whilst the machine is in pieces?

I am sorry for rambling but since I don’t know anything about the inside of a washing machine – or about diagnosing a particullar problem with one – I have tried to give you a clear description of what happened instead.

Thank you

Burong

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