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 ?

Thanks,
Simon.

In article ,
sm_jamieson writes:
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 ?

Yes.

How likely is the spider to need replacing ?

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.

Do I need 35mm and/or 30mm bearing kits (drum and pulley bearings ?)

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.

How difficult is it really ?

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.

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

On Friday, July 19, 2013 6:03:42 PM UTC+1, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,

sm_jamieson writes:

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 ?



Yes.



How likely is the spider to need replacing ?



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.



Do I need 35mm and/or 30mm bearing kits (drum and pulley bearings ?)



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.



How difficult is it really ?



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.


Thanks for the info.
However I might have been overruled and it might be a new washing machine anyway ! We'll see ...
Cheers,
Simon.

Thanks for the info.
However I might have been overruled and it might be a new washing machine anyway ! We'll see ...

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.

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

On Saturday, July 20, 2013 9:09:00 AM UTC+1, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Thanks for the info.

However I might have been overruled and it might be a new washing machine anyway ! We'll see ...



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.

Simon.

On Thursday, July 18, 2013 10:17:40 PM UTC+1, sm_jamieson wrote:
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 ?



Thanks,

Simon.

Well in the end for various reasons I got a washing machine repair person round, 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 need sorting eventually. 45 quid for call-out and labour.
Grrrr. Next time I will take the top off and have a look before assuming anything !
Simon.

In article ,
sm_jamieson writes:
Well in the end for various reasons I got a washing machine repair person round, 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 need sorting eventually. 45 quid for call-out and labour.
Grrrr. Next time I will take the top off and have a look before assuming anything !

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...

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

On Sat, 20 Jul 2013 08:09:00 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

snip

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.

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
grrrrr), 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 grrrrr 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?

In article ,
T i m writes:
[1] The plastic the outer drum was made from was sorta 'non stick' or
I could have glued the halves back together.

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?

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

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 2:47:25 PM UTC+1, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,

T i m writes:

[1] The plastic the outer drum was made from was sorta 'non stick' or

I could have glued the halves back together.



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.