I have a 9 or 10 year old hotpoint wf860 washing machine whose bearings are obviously going. The relevent spare parts are available and appear to be: hotpoint 35mm bearing kit, 30mm bearing kit, drum spider support, drum seal . Bearing kits are about 10 quid, spider 23 quid, drum seal 8 quid. There is a video on youtube explaining the whole process using a wf machine as an example and it looks straightforward enough, but ... Some questions: Is it worth it ? How likely is the spider to need replacing ? Do I need 35mm and/or 30mm bearing kits (drum and pulley bearings ?) How difficult is it really ?
Unlikely. This normally only needs doing if the bearing has rusted onto the shaft, and you can't get it off. (The shaft is part of the spider.) This is unlikely unless the machine has been running with a knackered bearing and/or water leaking from the beaking drain for a long time. Spiders can break, and that causes the drum to wobble, but in a different way from failed bearing wobble (and I doubt a machine would survive even one attempt to spin with a broken spider).
I think you can buy the spider (which includes the shaft) by itself, or as a kit which includes the bearing kit.
Yes, there are two bearings, the pulley bearing being smaller. It's normally the drum bearing which fails, but you would never go to all the effort and then only replace one of them. The two bearings and the shaft seal come as a kit anyway.
Fit a new drum seal too - you'll expose the current one and there's a good chance it will leak if you don't replace it, as it will by now be permanently compressed.
A bit difficult first time.
When you've got the shaft seal and bearings out, also clear the drain hole behind the shaft seal. This allows any small amount of water which leaks past the shaft seal to drain out without having to go through the bearing and wreck it. It will make the bearing last longer (but it won't protect it if the shaft seal completely fails).
Clean the shaft before putting the drum back in, since the smooth surface on it seals against the bearing seal.
are obviously going. The relevent spare parts are available and appear to be: hotpoint 35mm bearing kit, 30mm bearing kit, drum spider support, drum seal. Bearing kits are about 10 quid, spider 23 quid, drum seal 8 quid.
hine as an example and it looks straightforward enough, but ...
Thanks for the info. However I might have been overruled and it might be a new washing machine a nyway ! We'll see ... Cheers, Simon.
New washing machines are all very low water content, and rely on rubbing wet clothes together to do the cleaning. I strongly suspect the drive for lower energy and water use has probably gone well past the point where the clothes are worn out much faster by the machines. I would try keeping an older machine going.
Oh, and many new machines don't have things like replaceable bearings. When they go, you'll be looking at 10 times the cost to replace the whole outer drum.
In that situation it would probably uneconomic to repair the machine and most people would just get a new washing machine. The issue with repairing, is sometimes other things are wearing out as well and the risk is you fix the bearings, then shortly after you need a new motor, etc.
The annoying thing with washing machines is that even the "quiet" ones soon get louder, so the bearings must start wearing very early. They really need a much larger sturdier central bearing, say, 2 or 3 inches.
Also a common weakness seems to be that if the water seal fails they water gets in the bearings the grease gets washed out and the bearings fail shortly after.
re obviously going. The relevent spare parts are available and appear to be : hotpoint 35mm bearing kit, 30mm bearing kit, drum spider support, drum se al. Bearing kits are about 10 quid, spider 23 quid, drum seal 8 quid.
ne as an example and it looks straightforward enough, but ...
Well in the end for various reasons I got a washing machine repair person r ound, who said the top weight had come detached and the bearings are OK. And that has basically fixed it, although I still think the bearings will n eed sorting eventually. 45 quid for call-out and labour. Grrrr. Next time I will take the top off and have a look before assuming an ything ! Simon.
Good to know. Many years ago, a friend bought a brand new machine, and first time he used it, the bottom weight turned into a pile of sand - not enough cement I guess...
That was supposed to be the case with the 13 month old Zanussi WM we picked up from Freecycle because of bearing failure and being 'written off' and replaced by the POs Ins Co.
In the true spirit of d_i_y I cut the plastic outer drum in half (around the welded seam that was *designed* to be bolted together ), removed the inner drum, replaced bearings and seal and re joined the drum halves using stainless nuts and bolts and washers in the gap to replace the material lost by the saber saw. I used some round section neoprene 'gasket' in the remains of the groove designed to take a seal in the first place and some very good adhesive / sealant [1] (can't remember the name of it now) and bolted it back together.
I think that was over 5 years ago now ... so that repair has lasted 5 times longer than the machine did from the factory! ;-) [1]
Cheers, T i m
[1] The plastic the outer drum was made from was sorta 'non stick' or I could have glued the halves back together.
[2] I'm wondering if some of that could be down to using sealed bearings (I removed the inner seals and used a very waterproof 'marine' grease) and not using the maximum spin speed of 1400 RPM but
900, as that's a speed lower than the "Max 1100 RPM" stamped in the spider?
The Hotpoint ones are GRP. You can often stick that with polyester resin, but the forces on a washing machine outer drum when spinning with a slightly off-balance load are enormous. Makes me wonder if they found they had to glue it, in order not to fail at 1400 RPM spin speed when originally not designed for that, and hence the bearings became non field replaceable items?
Several older machines ran at 1600rpm with 2-part outer drums. However, drum sizes seem to be getter larger, so maybe that is related. On the other hand, maybe they just want to sell more washing machines ... Simon.
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