can't find replacement bearings for Indesit Washing Machine

I suspect it probably is your last two proposals. Repairing main bearings in most machines these days involves literally taking the entire machine apart and at the hourly rate repairers charge you are probably getting near to the replacement cost of a new machine. DIYing makes sense but manufacturers are not in the business of supporting that approach. The only thing you could do is try to remove the bearing and take some careful measurements of diam. and bore and see if a dedicated bearing specialist has something that will fit.

Richard

Hoover rather than Indesit, but removing the watertight drum and then the spinning drum inside that requires a lot of work, and then shows that the slack in the main bearing means that wear is taking place elsewhere too. Reassembly would be even harder than removal, and not worthwhile for Indesit/Ariston/Hotpoint/Merloni.

I think much depends on the age of the machine. Is it going to need a replacement pump/motor/electronics in the near future. If so would a new machine be a better bet than a complete refurbishment. I can see that here there are drum assemblies:-

I had a main bearing replacement done by a local appliance store repair department. They sent a man out, to look at it.

The main bearing for mine, the replacement is a "kit of materials". It includes the right kind of bearing grease (an improved grease, not used originally on the machine, a moly grease). There were banging noises from the basement, as he fitted the kit.

When he diagnosed the washer, it was maybe ten years old. The "bearing kit" and labour charge, was on the order of 25% of the value of the washer. I thought about it for a second, and approved the repair plan. Half an hour of banging noises later, machine was running and spinning again.

The machine today, is now *thirty five* years old. I expect most of the fancy grease is gone by now, but it still spins and I'm not complaining.

A company will only continue to stock materials like that, if they are moving. No company seems to want to stock anything in the area of spare parts. And some companies, they don't actually "make" the item. They "get the item from China", and write some poor documentation for it, and ship it. If they can't even make a proper drawing of the back of the machine ("How to get inside"), then what are the odds their brain-pan can manage a spares supply scheme.

Only if you were a large company, and made all the parts domestically, would you expect to find spares. And a bearing kit, is certainly a high runner for the average bad washer design :-)

The tech who did my repair was right, the new grease lasted a lot longer than the original grease pack.

And that's why you don't just buy the bearing. The repair kit contains all the stuff expected to need replacing (whatever got damaged by the banging noises, presumably).

On my machine, I would expect the bearing kit was "barely available" at ten years of age, and an attempt to buy a kit today would reveal it hadn't been made/stocked, in some time.

The longest spares stocking I ever got, was for a water tap. The cartridge (tap spindle, plus all O-rings), was still available at the branded-store, after *fifty years*. The gentleman blew the dust off the item, and bagged one up for me. No other device I can think of, offered a repair part at the fifty year timespan.

Generally, at the rate companies change hands and get bought out, this tends to "trash" the spares supply chain. As a consumer, you are supposed to enjoy buying a new washer every ten years. I haven't checked the pricing recently, but it's likely about as much as a used car :-)

If the machine has multiple-illnesses, maybe a major repair like this is a signal. But if the machine was well-behaved, it might well be worth just putting a bearing kit in it.

Paul

If you are lucky it will have some sort of serial or manufacturer code.

However when we used to buy FIAT spares from a direct importer once, I was told by a rep that they visited the factory making bearings (GKN from memory) and the bearings that went to the factory were packed before marking. In those days it was easier to keep the connections under wraps.

The bearings are likely moulded into the drum. So instead of buying just the bearing, you buy a complete, replacement drum, at around 7 times the cost.

I did wonder about that, rather than a stainless drum and stainless tub, my latest w/m has a plastic tub (still with a stainless drum). I could see a full tub and drum, or just a rear-half of the tub for sale as spares.

I replaced the bearings and seals on my Panasonic several years ago. It has worked well since then. I later discovered teh bearings couldn't be replaced, but a new drum was the only solution.

Probably teh best solution for the commercial repairer, but we are a DIY group. DIY worked.

jkn <jkn+ snipped-for-privacy@nicorp.co.uk> wrote:

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, jkn <jkn+ snipped-for-privacy@nicorp.co.uk> writes

The spider on one of my old Hotpoint broke twice - ok I think was overloaded. I bought replacements. The 3rd one looked more robust , The guy in the shop said it was because they kept breaking ;-) . They included new bearings which didn't look anything special. I might still have them in my junk mine. (In case they came in handy).

Espares have bearings.

It was quite a difficult job with a lot of dismantling , but the machine lasted for 20 years. It was still working when I replaced it, but starting to leak.

Brian

I think you might be in the "some new design that means I have to replace some complete 'assembly" territory.

I can't reply for an Indesit, but 9 years ago I bought a Bosch washing machine. It was the first Bosch range that had a drum unit instead of separate parts. After 5 years the bearings got noisy but the machine still ran OK. I checked on spares availability and discovered it was included in a trend for manufacturers to install a complete drum unit instead of the previous practice of assembling the drum from separate parts. So I put up with the noise until one day the bearing squeal became a loud clatter when the bearing broke up.

An engineer came and said for that model it wasn't possible to replace the bearing, it had to be a complete drum unit replacement. He quoted a price for the unit and an estimate of the labour charge and it came to just over 80% of the price of a new machine. Bosch were not sympathetic to my complaint that it should have lasted a lot longer because I had used my previous Bosch for over 12 years. I was just "unlucky" to have bought one that failed after 5 years.

So I went along to my local White Goods shop (a private company not associated with any particular make) and the staff in there were very helpful, telling me that Brand A did have a very good reputation but had recently been taken over and the quality had gone right down, and Brand B was a good machine but if I needed spares they might be difficult to get hold of, and so on. Effectively they offered me a choice of Bosch plus 2 brands which they would unreservedly recommend. The choice then made itself because I wasn't happy with Bosch and of the others one had the standard 2-year guarantee and the other was on a promotion that ran out at the end of the month which included a 5 year guarantee. So I bought a Siemens machine with a 5-year guarantee and it has been completely trouble free.

You do know Siemens is owned by Bosch and much of the innards are the same components used in both brands?

I didn't, but I do now.

The saving grace is that the Bosch I could have bought had a 2-year guarantee and the Siemens/Bosch that I bought is guaranteed for 5 years. If I get the same drum bearing problem in less than 5 years (which I had experienced with the previous Bosch) I will get it mended under the guarantee.

Jim