maytaglover68
Well-known member
I know I posted things about Whirlpool washers multiple times, but I don’t think I’ve did a full discussion on how much Whirlpool has declined, even during the VMW and VMAX era.
Whirlpool has massively declined recently in most ways. They also made the balance ring smaller on their VMW and VMAX units. Including the 3.8 to 3.9 cu ft machines (first machines they did it with), I believe they put the smaller balance rings on those in 2018, in late 2019 they also did it for their 4.7 to 4.8 cu ft and 5.2 to 5.3 cu ft models.
The 3.8 to 3.9 cu ft washers make this awful popping sound on spin cycle due to the poorly designed balance and are also known to go out of balance at high speeds, putting holes in the wall and sometimes damaging the washer. The smaller balance rings on the bigger units seem to do a better job but they vibrate more than the original balance rings used on VMW/VMAX units. A lot of people report vibrations on newer VMW’s/VMAX’s with the ultra large tubs due to this new balance ring.
The motors even declined a lot, in models made in around 2017 or later have more motor problems than older ones.
The stainless drum style VMWs (especially the smaller drum models) and the VMAXs don’t really get suspension rod failure “as often as the porcelain VMWs. The most common issue I see on VMWs with the porcelain tub is suspension rods, actually.
But that’s not too hard of a fix. On the porcelain tub models when someone says it’s banging usually suspension rods fix it. On the big tub VMWs the bushing often went bad so I put in a bushing.
Honestly, even the newer GE’s are better than the newer Whirlpools. At least when the newer GE’a fail, it’s an easier repair, like it’s often a belt, pump or lid lock. I change more transmissions on Whirlpool units than GE’s when I do change transmissions, but I do get some GE’s with bad bearings.
A washer made on September, 2024 shouldn’t need a control board and this one isn’t even on the recall list because it’s too new so I have to just throw on a board from another machine, I will do that tomorrow morning. All the new older style VMW Whirlpool models that end in “3” are known for this problem. The extra big tub VMWs are known for failing wire harnesses in the pump and I’ve been changing boards in those as well.
As for gearcases, whirlpool has always been prone to this problem, the older VMW models were prone to bad bearings in the gearcase, newer ones seem less prone so that’s one improvement but the newer gearcases seem to squeak more and have other problems, in fact I got in a 2020 Maytag MVW6230HW0 today that was leaking oil. The big drum VMWs rarely got bad bearings but I do get those every now and then. Some days I get a much of washers with bad bearings. The ultra big drum ones with the smaller balance rings I’ve been seeing more and more bad bearings in recent years. The newer VMAX’s seem to have bad bearings too but so did the older ones.
The older style Cabrios always had the bearings fail in them but as long as the bearings were good they were good machines for what they were.
