On 04/10/06 08:36 pm HiTech RedNeck wrote:

It's important to use the HE stuff. The regular detergents foam/suds
excessively and can get into the bearings, resulting in an expensive
repair. I don't see that simply using a small quantity of regular
detergent will work (despite what another contributor to this thread
says): it's likely to have insufficient cleaning power to do the job.

Frigidaire Gallery's are sensitive to bearing trouble, as I hear from one
repair guy. There is a seal which is supposed to keep the wash water out of
the bearing, but it sometimes doesn't hold up very well.

So maybe it's primarily a Frigidaire problem. Our Kenmore is made by
Frigidaire, and my information about regular detergent causing bearing
failure came from the guy who came to replace our controller unit (free
under service contract; $200+ plus labor otherwise). He said that the
bearing is not available separately, so a repair involves replacement of
the whole drum/bearing assembly, which is a two-person job taking at
least a couple of hours. I.e., it costs more to repair than to buy a new
one.

Perce