Identifying a washing machine.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Mate has a built in washing machine where the drum bearings (and water seal) have failed. The actual drum has about 1" of play at the edge - but the belt pulley on the back seems not to have any.

It was bought as part of a fitted kitchen package from a now defunct local supplier.

Can't find a maker's name anywhere on it.

Otherwise, it looks to be in perfect condition and was working fine before this happened. It will be replaced later this year as part of a kitchen extension project, but it would be good if I could get it fixed for now. Any clues as to how to identify it? It's about 10 years old, and has had little use.

[Graham.]

I would have put a photo on the Web.

[Roger Mills]

There's usually an ID plate or label just inside the door aperture (or somewhere that's accessible without removing the machine from its housing.

If there's play on the drum but not on the pulley, I'd suspect the spider on the back of the drum rather than the bearings.

[Dave Liquorice]

No clues on the rating plate? No lables on major bits like motors, timers, circuit boards?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not that I can find - There are various stick on labels, but nothing with even a part or serial number. Only place I've not looked is underneath.

Right - I did wonder how they are made, not having taken one apart to this extent.

At the moment the machine has been put back in place simply to make the kitchen look tidy. If I could be sure I could get spares, I'd give it a go.

[Bob Minchin]

They will be bog standard bearings available at any bearing factors or the interweb

If the spider is fubar then it not likely to be available as a spare part at a sensible price and the machine is beyond economic repair. With that much play, if it *were* the bearing then water would be getting through and the is usually a weep hole behind the big pulley which will show a soapy telltale stain. Lets hope it is just a loose bolt on the spider. You might be able to feel the problem via the heating element hole.

good luck

[Rick Hughes]

Don't bother .... once they start going wrong you can be chasing faults after fault. I had a CREDA m/c with cracked rear drum 'spider' casting, popular fault. Changed that ... took Hrs of work drilling out rivets ... Then dampers had to be changed, then door seal, then programmer, then water solenoids ..

At that point - scrapped it, and bought a Hotpoint.

Tell your mate 10yrs is probably now past it's expected life .... buy a new one.

In similar vein bought what WHICH magazine rated as top model tumble drier, AEG ...condensing model ... worked great for 6 years ... then started not getting warm. > new sensors ... OK for couple of months then same again > new logic board ... OK for couple of months ... same again

Local domestic repairs (who are very honest guys) took a look, advised the machine is a very complex version of Zanussi model and has sensors & logic for everything. They could not fine one thing for certain ... and would need 3 parts to be sure, and as they don't keep them in stock could not try them out ..... parts would be £160

Gave up and bought a Hotpoint.

[Andrew Gabriel]

There are normally 2 bearings spaced apart on the shaft, and it's almost always the one on the drum side rather than the pulley side which fails. (Bearing seal fails, washing detergent washes out the bearing grease and makes it go rusty, and it collapses.)

Bearing kits for a Hotpoint (original parts) were around a fiver from CPC, including both bearings and the bearing seal.

Spider kits (including the drive shaft) were around £25. Even when the spider hadn't failed, you sometimes had to replace it as it could be impossible to get a badly rusted bearing off the shaft.

That's to let out any tiny amount of water which leaks past the seal without it going through the bearing. In practice, that hole gets blocked with muck when the bearing seal starts letting through any significant quantity of water. If you are stripping down to replace the seal and bearings, you should clear that drain hole too, as it will make the new bearings last longer.

[Jules Richardson]

Depends if it was a good one or not, surely? Our top-loading machine turns 27 this year and still does what it needs to do just fine.

[meow2222]

Not if you diy. Most parts can be had from scrap machines.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

What would be nice is a sort of washing machine breaker's yard - like for cars - were you can actually identify the model by eye and get the bit for it. Although I suppose an expert repairer would know what it was by just looking at it. There aren't that many makers, after all.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They are a childless couple who spend most of the year in Spain, so it's had nothing like even average use.

[SteveW]

Our local repair shop would happily sell spares from scrap machines. 20 years ago, my grandmother's hotpoint had an enamelled outer drum which rusted through after being scratched by an errant coin. The shop was happy to sell us an old but perfect drum for a fiver - in fact he offered to drop it off for us, but when he heard our address, he realised that my sister was his daughter's friend and gave it us for free!

Shops like that are all but extinct now though.

SteveW

[GB]

Owners all went bankrupt. :)

[Bill]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Where I grew up a quick drive around the local leafy lanes would have found you all the spares that you could ever need.

I used to collect discarded TVs and scare the heck out of my mother by getting them working again, sometimes without the cases.

>

[meow2222]

Now its the local tip, freegle, posting wants on online auction sites etc. Some parts can be swapped between makes too.

NT

[Bill]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Or even uk.d-i-y I put a few requests for help out on here a year or so back and someone 15 miles away contacted me as they were scrapping a similar washing machine and I went along with tool kit and picked up the relevant spares. Thank you again!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Hotpoint top-loaders are magic. The few bits that wear out seem to be infinitely replaceable, as long as there's a scrap one somewhere. Eventually all the spared machines will be gone, though

[Andrew Gabriel]

The last ones had to close when WEEE came into effect. Suddenly became prohibitively expensive to be in a business which generates lots of that type of waste, even if you were reducing total waste by increasing recycling. There were a number of organisations which took broken white goods, and would use the parts from several to make a working one for families on hard times, but that all had to stop for the same reason.

[dennis]

There is one on West Brom high street. Run by some eastern europeans.