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-   -   Balancing a washing machine. (https://www.diybanter.com/uk-diy/168070-balancing-washing-machine.html)

GPG July 4th 06 06:04 PM

Balancing a washing machine.
 
Got a 1600 RPM wahing machine. It is awfully heavy, and fits (just) beneath
the draining board. I almost damaged my fingers (I'm 65) manouevering it
into place and trying to balance it. My fingers have recovered, I think,
but it makes an awful lot of noise ant 1600 rpm, plus it walks about a bit.

Any advice on balancing it, sans damaging mg my finger joints yet again? I
need you, if you have !!! So does my wife. It's a Bauknecht, as it
happens.

--
GPG






MikeH July 4th 06 06:27 PM

Balancing a washing machine.
 

GPG wrote:
Got a 1600 RPM wahing machine. It is awfully heavy, and fits (just) beneath
the draining board. I almost damaged my fingers (I'm 65) manouevering it
into place and trying to balance it. My fingers have recovered, I think,
but it makes an awful lot of noise ant 1600 rpm, plus it walks about a bit.

Any advice on balancing it, sans damaging mg my finger joints yet again? I
need you, if you have !!! So does my wife. It's a Bauknecht, as it
happens.

--
GPG


What do you mean by 'trying to balance it'? Is it a new machine? A
lot of washing machines have a big concrete weight and spring
arrangement with some sort of damping mechanism to prevent too much of
the energy from an out-of-balance drum load transferring elsewhere as
vibration and/or movement of the machine. Usually there are shipping
clamps that stabilise the concrete weight and the springs during
transportation. The installation procedure will require any such
shipping clamps to be removed before the machine is used. If they
haven't been removed the machine will almost certainly behave as you
describe. Also there are usually adjustable feet at the front so that
it can be levelled on the floor. If you are able to rock the machine
at all, you need to adjust the feet until it is level and stable.

Hope this helps.

Mike


marvelus July 5th 06 10:52 AM

Balancing a washing machine.
 
On 4 Jul 2006 09:27:16 -0700, "MikeH" wrote:


GPG wrote:
Got a 1600 RPM wahing machine. It is awfully heavy, and fits (just) beneath
the draining board. I almost damaged my fingers (I'm 65) manouevering it
into place and trying to balance it. My fingers have recovered, I think,
but it makes an awful lot of noise ant 1600 rpm, plus it walks about a bit.

Any advice on balancing it, sans damaging mg my finger joints yet again? I
need you, if you have !!! So does my wife. It's a Bauknecht, as it
happens.

--
GPG


What do you mean by 'trying to balance it'? Is it a new machine? A
lot of washing machines have a big concrete weight and spring
arrangement with some sort of damping mechanism to prevent too much of
the energy from an out-of-balance drum load transferring elsewhere as
vibration and/or movement of the machine. Usually there are shipping
clamps that stabilise the concrete weight and the springs during
transportation. The installation procedure will require any such
shipping clamps to be removed before the machine is used. If they
haven't been removed the machine will almost certainly behave as you
describe.



I dont think thats what he means. The vibration is from the machine
not being level.

Also there are usually adjustable feet at the front so that
it can be levelled on the floor. If you are able to rock the machine
at all, you need to adjust the feet until it is level and stable.

Hope this helps.

Mike


How do you adjust the legs at the back? If there is a too little gap
between machine and counter top its tricky to use the rocking
technique also the instructions state it *must* be level. Idealy you
want enough space at the top to get a spirit level on and you want
access to the back legs.

The OP could try adjusting the legs with the machine pulled out of the
kitchen cabinets untill a spirit level says its level on all axis then
push it back in and hope the floor is level.

MikeH July 5th 06 11:41 AM

Balancing a washing machine.
 

marvelus wrote:
I dont think thats what he means. The vibration is from the machine
not being level.

How do you adjust the legs at the back? If there is a too little gap
between machine and counter top its tricky to use the rocking
technique also the instructions state it *must* be level. Idealy you
want enough space at the top to get a spirit level on and you want
access to the back legs.

The OP could try adjusting the legs with the machine pulled out of the
kitchen cabinets untill a spirit level says its level on all axis then
push it back in and hope the floor is level.


Yes, I guessed the OP was probably talking about levelling the machine,
but I thought it worth mentioning the shipping clamps in case they'd
been missed.

In my experience a lot of machines have two fixed feet at the back with
adjustable feet at the front where they are relatively accessible. If
the back feet *are* adjustable then, yes, it can be a pig to get them
set right - especially as they're inclined to rotate and adjust
themselves some more as you try to slide the machine back into place
:-(

Yes, the machine needs to be reasonably level but personally I've never
bothered to use a spirit level - it's not normally an issue unless
you're dealing with very uneven floors in old buildings. Even if the
OP prefers it to be 'spot-on', he should be able to use the top of the
machine as a visual reference without actually having to place the
level on the top of the machine.

Mike


Phil Addison July 5th 06 11:43 AM

Balancing a washing machine.
 
On Wed, 05 Jul 2006 08:52:27 GMT, in uk.d-i-y marvelus
wrote:

How do you adjust the legs at the back? If there is a too little gap
between machine and counter top its tricky to use the rocking
technique also the instructions state it *must* be level. Idealy you
want enough space at the top to get a spirit level on and you want
access to the back legs.


The back feet (I doubt they are long enough to be called legs) are often
non-adjustable. In this case you have to accept any left to right slope
of the floor. In any case it is much more important to have the weight
equally firmly bearing on all 4 feet than to have it absolutely level.

The OP could try adjusting the legs with the machine pulled out of the
kitchen cabinets untill a spirit level says its level on all axis then
push it back in and hope the floor is level.


I would simply leave it where it is and adjust the front feet so it
can't rock. With the machine upright and with its weight on the feet,
screw them in or out (first slackening any lock nut) until both front
feet are equally difficult to rotate. At this point the weight should be
more or less equally bearing on all four. A further slight adjustment
may be needed after running the machine.

A different cause of the problem could be a poorly supported floor, e.g
rotted joist ends or wall plate beneath the floorboards.

marvelus July 6th 06 01:51 PM

Balancing a washing machine.
 
On 5 Jul 2006 02:41:49 -0700, "MikeH" wrote:



Yes, I guessed the OP was probably talking about levelling the machine,
but I thought it worth mentioning the shipping clamps in case they'd
been missed.

In my experience a lot of machines have two fixed feet at the back with
adjustable feet at the front where they are relatively accessible. If
the back feet *are* adjustable then, yes, it can be a pig to get them
set right - especially as they're inclined to rotate and adjust
themselves some more as you try to slide the machine back into place
:-(

Yes, the machine needs to be reasonably level but personally I've never
bothered to use a spirit level - it's not normally an issue unless
you're dealing with very uneven floors in old buildings. Even if the
OP prefers it to be 'spot-on', he should be able to use the top of the
machine as a visual reference without actually having to place the
level on the top of the machine.

Mike


Mine is a 1600 spin speed like the OPs and it has adjustable back
feet. I think the faster the speed the more critical getting it level
is. The instructions even imply being level is a condition of the
guarantee. In leu of me "doing" the kitchen I've turned the speed down
to 1000.


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