Hello,

The spring on our washing machine door handle is worn out. I can't
seem to buy the spring separately and have to buy it as part of a
complete handle.

They have told me that if the spring is worn out, perhaps the door
interlock is similarly old and worn too and that I should replace that
at the same time. It's £10. They say that if the interlock fails due
to age, it will blow the pcb and the pcb costs more to replace than
buying a new machine.

I don't know how true any of that is but if there is a microswitch
that senses whether the door is closed, I guess it could fail
eventually and I guess I bought the machine in 2001-2. Do you think it
is worth changing the interlock?

I was told the same story again: that the pcbs used to be
protected by fused inputs but the manufacturers removed the fuses to
save money. I was told that if the brushes wear out on the motor, this
will blow the pcb too. The brushes are about £12/pair.

It looks like I will have to remove the belt and the motor to get a
look at the brushes. I don't want to do this once to have a look and
then a second time a week later to replace them, so I wonder whether
to just buy a pair and do it all in one go.

Do you think it is worth doing this, or do you think they are just
trying to find extra sales of parts?

Thanks,
Stephen.