Leak from washing machine; coming from hole in drum casing; photos!

[Keith]

Hi all

I have an 7-8 year old Indesit washer / dryer. On Saturday, on filling for a washing cycle, it started to leak, from the underside of the machine.

Further investigation revealed it was coming from a hole in the drum casing, photos of which are available here:

questions:

1: The hole doesn't look like it has been caused by accidental damage; what's it for? Is it an overflow or similar?

2: Is it repairable by sealing the hole (mastic, then a patch on top)?

3: If it needs a professional repair, what's it going to cost? (Bearing in mind it's 7-8 years old).....

Thanks for any pointers.

Cheers,

Keith.

[John]

This looks like a rust hole, probably caused by damage to the enamel from inside. I don't think there is any professional repair possibe, except a replacement tub, which would be expensive, and not worth while unless you can do this yourself... You could try patching the hole, epoxy paste, sealant and a pop rivet or a pop riveted patch (the sealed type pop rivet used on boats), or some metal type filler etc. Hope this helps.

John

[Andrew Gabriel]

I can't make out anything in the picture. However, some 20+ years ago when I had an old Hoover washing machine, this suffered rusting through the drum this way. I repaired it with an Isopon car body repair kit, and sprayed the area inside the drum with pure zinc paint to delay it happening again. I think I did this perhaps 2 or 3 times at about 2 year intervals and kept the washing machine going.

In my case, this was at the bottom of the drum where water was left standing. If it's near any structural part such as a mounting bracket, I suspect any such repair would very quickly fail.

[meow2222]

The other possible for holes generally is a stiff sheet steel patch, with a rubber gasket, clamped in place using banding around the drum.

There are also pipe leak sealing epoxies which would presumably be stronger than car filler.

Inside, rust can usually be removed with a die grinder and some paint or underseal used to delay re-rusting. But it will usually rust, as most paints pinhole. A coat of epoxy or grp resin may be more effective.

With epoxies, some turn to putty at boiling point, so you need high temp epoxy.

NT