In article . com,
John writes:
On 11 Jun, 22:07, Keith wrote:
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 he

http://projectbrown.org/photo_gallery.aspx

The 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).....

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.

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.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]