I need some help to find a poly-v belt (for a bread maker)

Is this actually a vee-belt?

The dimensions make it look like a flat timing belt.

Here is a similar product sold by RS Components ( only used because I am familiar with their search optons). Does your belt look like this?

A width of 6.7mm strikes me as odd because it is not a round metric number or the equivalent of a round imperial unit. Allow for the possibility of stretch in the length, and wear on the width.

John

Thanks for trying, but it's a poly-v belt. This shows the type of belt:

Would an O ring do the job?

Years ago, a drive belt failed on our first uWave.

I replaced it with a O ring from the local plumbers merchant, all of 35p. It lasted 5 years. I’d bought 2 so had a spare. The uWave went to the tip - still working - a few years later- as Senior Management wanted a new one after I’d fitted a new kitchen. The old uWave had lasted 17 or so years. The new one lasted 2 years.

Ah. These boys are big belters so to speak...

You have my sympathy. I know that parts are normally expensive compared to the cost of the whole machine, but with Panasonic bread machines the differential seems to be completely absurd.

As an example, a new bread pan costs £107 plus postage, and I can buy a new machine for £110.

I've been using an idle half hour to research this. Is this a ribbed belt or a multi-V belt? I mean are the pulleys toothed, or grooved? Many grooved (serpentine?) belts can be sliced to width for example

It's a poly-V belt, see earlier post for a link. Yes, they can be reduced in width if the pitch is correct (H-section) but (obvs.) the length has to be right. Thanks for looking. I'm still failing to find anything suitable.

Well all the search results for that belt seem to suggest that the belt is actually a timing chain belt and the circumferential ribs are on the outside...I wouldn't use a V belt for a kneader myself. But I would use a timing belt style one.

No, definitely a poly-V. The drive pulley has circumferential grooves to match the belt and the slave pulley is plain (it's plastic, so 20 years ago it may have had circumferential grooves too). There is no reason to synchronise the drive and slave shafts. The drive pulley is fairly small so I suspect the belt's ribbed back is simply to improve life. Given the condition of the pan and the age of the machine I think, with regret, that it might be time to put it out to pasture.

I suppose best you can do is find the traditional kind of motor factors that keeps parts on the shelf and ask if they have anything to match it. Maybe there's a water pump belt or something that matches.

(or ask at your local old-school garage, they maybe have a drawer of spares for long-gone cars and can maybe have a rummage)

If the machine isn't particularly special, you can probably pick up a used machine for the price of a new belt, possibly in a better condition that the current one.

Don't throw good money after bad, in other words.

Theo

I suspect this was a "special" as belt suppliers don't have anything :-(

There's no way to take up a little slack in the belt?

Yes.

The problem is that the belt is damaged because the paddle became jammed so the motor pulley spun against the belt for some time. It hasn't broken, but it's very thin for a short distance. I've made it work by adding several bands to the wheel, but it isn't going to last long. A new machine is in the post.

Aha! "Great minds think alike", as they say. I added several rubber bands to the wheel to get the thing going, but the belt is badly damaged and won't last long. A new machine is in the post.

I was thinking you might get a belt a few mm longer, but these machines do an excellent job, and I'm sure you'll be happy with your new one.