70 Series Kenmore Spin Speed

[lokringbob]

My friend has a washer dryer set in very good condition but complains the spin speed does not ramp up. She said only during the last half of the spin cycle would it pick up speed, but not anymore. I always thought Kenmore spins were constant. I vaguely remember Maytags jumped up in speed half way through their last spin cycle. Is there really a spin speed change on Kenmores or is my elderly friend loosing it?
She spoke to a repair guy who said it would need a new motor to fix it, but a new set would be cheaper. Is he just trying to sell her a new set or might there be an easier fix?
Any information, suggestion, or advice is greatly appreciated.
[this post was last edited: 6/30/2011-22:36]

 

[strongenough78]

Usually Kenmores ramp up pretty quickly and steadily throughout the spin. What would better help us diagnose the problem would be to find out for us how old the machine is and if it's a belt drive or direct drive. Even a picture would help. If it is a belt drive, it probably needs a new belt. If it's slipping or loose, then it would cause a slow spin as well as the motor. On a direct drive, the motor could be the issue as well. I personally am not very mechanically inclined on direct drives to give you a better answer on that one. But, if the repairman did diagnose it as the motor, then that can be replaced since belt drive and direct drive motors are in plentiful supply and can be found pretty cheap. And to lower the cost even more, if you are able to swap it out for her, would be an even better deal. You can find instructions for that on this site as well as youtube even. He may have been trying to get her into a new set, even though they're repairmen, I'm sure they are still told to try to make a sale for the company anyway.

So let us know what you can find out about the machine so we can further assist you. We would rather see a good machine stay running than to see it go to the junker for something fairly simple.

 

[combo52]

POOR SPINNING KM WASHER

Bob the first thing to do when asking a technical question is to tell the model # age, picture or something to go on. There are just to many possibilities to cause your complaint.

 

One thing for certain in either a BD or DD KM washer it is not a bad motor or bad transmission. But there are many possible clutch and other drive system problems that can cause problems on either style machine. Some fancy KM DD washers did start the spin on the lower speed and then switch the motor to high speed after a minute or two, most KA washers did this also.