Bearings - How Long Have We Got?

[fl1012]

The Zanussi Turbodry 1000 (WDA 1055W) that we have in the house we've been renting for 18 months has been making a 'wowwwww' noise intermittently during tumbling since just before Christmas & the drum sounded abit corse when turning it by hand, but i couldn't detect any unusual movement in the drum so just thought it was getting abit tired.

However, today it's started the Airbus/Boeing-on-the-Taxiway 'waaaaaaaaaa' sound when spinning, so i presume it's the start of the end for the bearings. The machine is one of Zanussi's yellow-button variety (see link) & i think it dates to approx 2000-2001, so it would have a split-tub & be repairable but it's not our machine, it's the landlords, so it's unlikely we'll be repairing it.

The question is, bearing in mind the tell-tale noise began today, how long have we got (doing about 7 loads a week) before the machine starts to really suffer? I assume the noise will get louder & then we may get oil & finally the drum seizing, but i intend to relieve it of its duties before the oil starts leaking, if anyone has ideas as to when that's likely to be? We have a newer (2007) Zanussi Essential in the garage but as it's been in there for 18 months & is electronic i've no idea if it'll work. Even if it does i imagine it'll need to stand for a day or so in the house to let the temperature equalise so that any condensation on the electronics (as a result of coming into the warm) will dry out. I guess these machines are pretty sensitive to that?

Any advice welcome.
Thanks,
Liam

 

[aquarius1984]

How long is a piece of string?

Regardless of the amount of loads your doing the bearings could last one more wash or the next 5 years, you never can tell.

the risk you take im afraid but what I would do is, seeing as the house is 'furnished' with the washer surely the landlord needs to either have it repaired or supply a new one. I suspect he would put a new one in, in which case accept and bite his hand off. Who knows he may get something decent. If he does get you something not particualry great then well does it matter? you could play with it for a while, then re install your Zanussi if what he supplies isnt upto scratch. not like the storage issue is there as it would just be a swap.

Would give you chance to make sure yours is ok and functional and its always a machine to fall back on if one does go wrong.

 

[fl1012]

Cheers Rob

I was leaning towards thinking there was probably no set time-frame for them failing completely once they've started to rumble but thought i'd ask incase anyone knew differently - i'm not very mechanical & we've never had bearing failure on a washer before, which is hard to believe given the use they get, so it's all very new to me.

Unfortunately the washer was left by the landlord as a gift as he said at the time he was suprised it was still going, so i doubt he'd replace it. If he did we'd end up with a Haier or something awful so we'll just put the Essential back in & hope it works!

Now the washing has finished i've spun the drum by hand and it feels like it's spinning on gravel, which is alot worse than i thought it'd be as it spun fine last night, so i think if it's deteriorated that quick i'm not chancing it with another load of washing. Me & Dad will get the Essential out of the garage tomorrow & swap the machines over. Fingers crossed!

Liam

 

[newwave1]

Pesky bearings!!

I always find it is a case of how far do you let it go? See my link of a indesit in one of my dads properties the bearings are completely shot and the drum is loose and i'm pretty confident it was used up until this point!! I would just be a nervous wreck everytime it span! And I was when I filmed it! lol!!

I've a feeling regular full loads and towel loads will help it on it's way to retirement sooner rather than later Liam.

Darren

 

[fl1012]

Retired!

After spinning the drum by hand last night & it sounding like it was spinning on gravel we decided not to delay things & we got the Essential in from the garage this morning at 8am to let it climatise after being in the freezing garage - the water in the dryer condensor tank was frozen last night!

We did one more load in the old machine while we were allowing the other to warm up (just a light rug) and it sounded worse than last night with a full load (though not quite as loud as that Indesit) so it was obviously gonna go down hill rapidly.

Gave the Essential a good clean & then me & Dad plumbed it in. Wasn't very hopeful given it hasn't moved for 17 months but on came the LEDs, the pump, then in came the water and off it purred. Put it on one rinse to check the plumbing, then ran it empty on Cotton 40 SuperQuick to wash it out & all was fine so it's now got its first load in.

It's over 4 years old (November 2007) but has done 2.5 years work as i swapped it for my old Zanussi's on occasion in our previous house & then it's stood since September 2010, so i'm expecting about 6 months out of it but anything after that is a bonus i suppose, given the use it's had & will have (7 loads a week at least) & price new (£230).

But so far very impressed with the Zanny!

Liam[this post was last edited: 2/4/2012-08:33]

 

[limey]

Bearings And/Or Spider

newwave1
That sounds as though you have a fractured spider as well. The regular 'clicking' which seems to be in time with the speed increase would indicate something happening at the same point every revolution. Bearings on their own normally just seem to be a 'roar' of ever increasing volume.
Just my take with my limited experience of 'washers'.

 

[jmurray01]

Well it is hard to really tell you how long it will last.

I would say, in my own opinion, if it has just started whirring, you still have a considerable amount of time left.

But how much time ? Hard to say.

Could be a year, could be ten years.

Just depends how quickly the bearing perishes, which could be relatively quick or take a long time.

Sorry I can't be more specific.

 

[glenfieldmathk1]

My Hotpoint WM31 has had numerous bearing replacements, sometimes they last 6 months, sometimes 3 years.
I think it depends who, and how they were installed. but also the quality of the bearings.
A Bosch bearing is likely to last longer than a Beko or Hotpoint bearing.
A 9kg washer is likely to have a better bearing than a 6kg washer, due to the increased weight of the load.

 

[aquacycle]

A 9kg washer is likely to have a better bearing than a 6kg w

Doubtful. Probably why there is so much bearing failure on modern machines.

 

[fido]

Eventually you tend to get greasy marks on the clothes as the wash water gets into the bearings. I suppose it is difficult when it is not your own machine. The landlord is liable to suggest you carry on until it breaks.

 

[fl1012]

Dead and (probably) buried -

That relates to both the problem and probably the WDA 1055W, since my parents moved a few months ago and it was left in the garage of the property, which is now empty. Bit curious as to why this has been resurrected, but since it has......

We installed the Zanussi Essential (ZWF14170W) that we had bought in November 2007 when the WDA 1055W packed up and it continued to give excellent service for the following 12 months. No sign of bearing or electrical gremlins, though it was starting to make a bit of a sandy grinding noise when beginning to tumble if full. I think perhaps a suspension spring had got tired.

I wanted my Parents to take it with them to the new house but having recently sold a property we had a couple of month old Beko, so decided to use that and leave the Zanussi behind to replace the WDA 1055W that the landlord left for us. Hopefully someone will get some use out of it, though the 3.5-4 years of heavy use we got from it was far from shameful given its low £230 price tag when new.

The Beko is a WMB 71231W, which has much better program choices than the Zanussi and very flexible wash/option selections, but doesn't feel quite as sturdy and has an annoyingly fussy out of balance control compared to the old Zanussi. Overall i'm quite pleased with the Beko so far but since it's only about 6 months old & has been in storage for several of them, the jury is still very much out in terms of whether we'd get another or go back to Zanussi, or indeed another make.

Liam

 

[aquacycle]

Liam, I personally wouldn't touch the majority of the new Zanussi range. The flexidose machines and those horrid cheap chinese made machines are HORRIBLE. The only decent machines are the jetsystems and Zanussi have discontinued the 1600rpm model, which leaves only the 1200 and 1400 models available.

My Mum has the 1600 Jetsystem and it's a great machine, but the rest of the range really don't cut it. The previous style machines weren't great, but had considerably better build quality.

It's such a shame, but Zanussi are really going to rat sh!t lately.

 

[fl1012]

Zanussi are really going to rat sh!t lately...

...agreed!

My biggest problem is there isn't much else that appeals to me. Hotpoint/Indesit have improved in the last couple of years, but I don't feel much attachment to them & these exploding drums and lack of recall action don't make me want to reward them with my custom.

Hoover & Candy still seem a bit iffy for build. Beko are OK but as I like all my appliances to match, they leave me with a dilemma with their previous fire issues with dryers & fridge freezers. Bosch seem pretty decent, but again, just don't interest me a great deal. Obviously this doesn't matter to most people, so it's a bit of a non-issue. Their dryers not reversing seems odd though. LG are alright but some people seem thoroughly disappointed by their washers (whilst others love them), and I can't stand their massive doors so I'd be limited to the cheapest models.

I like Whirlpool but their recent stuff seems woeful in terms of breakdowns, and I still view Samsung and Panasonic as TV manufacturers rather than white goods companies.

That leaves me with Miele, which are fine for washers and dishwashers but there's no way I'd spend Miele money on a fridge freezer or dryer. AEG - possibly my alternative to a Zanussi, though the build quality on the dishwashers I've seen in shops recently was absolute rubbish - there's no way I'd spend 500 quid on something as shoddy when I could get a far sturdier feeling Beko for less than half the price. Gorenje - I'd have no hesitation getting a Gorenje washer & dryer but I'd wanna check out who's making their dishwashers & fridge freezers before buying them, as I think they've outsourced those previously.

Then there's Zanussi, which still seems to make decent fridge freezers (I've got a 2008 frost free one and the current stuff seems near identical) and dryers (got a current ZDC 37200W & it's very good). I'd more than likely get a ZWH 7122J (7kg 1200 Jetsystem) if I were to buy a Zanussi washer, rather than the Flexi Dose stuff, so that just leaves me taking a bit of a risk with one of their flimsy dishwashers. That said a house I rent out has a 2008 Progress AAA dishwasher, which is much the same as the Tempoline Plus available today, and that's pretty decent for the money.

A lot of the issue is down to me being fussy, so many consumers would have no trouble picking an alternative to Zanussi, but I still find that for getting a washer, dryer, fridge freezer and dishwasher, Zanussi fit the bill closest for me. I'd give AEG, Gorenje or Beko a whirl but their inconsistency across models (ie Beko's poor dryers, AEGs poor dishwashers, Gorenje's outsourcing) ultimately put doubts in my head when I've never had a poor experience with Zanussi.

Liam

 

[bertrum]

Its a quality machine, better than the latest offerings from Electrolux, just pay a engineer to fix it!

 

[fl1012]

Too Late....

Too late i'm afraid. It belonged to the landlord so there was no way we were paying for it when we were paying over £1000 a month for the house.

We moved a few months ago and it was left in the garage of the old house along with our own Zanussi Essential.

We have a new Beko now, which I dare say won't last as long as either of the Zanussis. Sign of the times unfortunately.

 

[aquacycle]

Liam, did you go with Beko in the end? Which model? How are you finding it? Appliances Online currently have their 1600, 7kg model for £249 - absolute bargain. If I had to go out tomorrow and buy a new washer, it would probably be one of these!

 

[fl1012]

AquaCycle....

Strictly speaking it's my Parents machine as I'm just living with them at present, but yeah, we have a Beko now. It's a WMB 71231W (7kg 1200rpm). My Parents bought it last October for a property they rented out, to replace a 5yr old integrated Bosch washer dryer that'd developed an unhealthy relationship with the local engineer.

They sold that property early this year and they moved around the same time. They decided that as this machine would otherwise sit un-used, to have it at the new house instead of the Zanussi, which we'd had since November 2007. I would've liked to bring the Zanussi to the new house but there's just not enough space so it's stayed for the next occupants in the old house.

The Beko is decent. Very good machine for the money, so far. The programming is better than the Zanussi. There's a good range of useable programs with little of the nonsence cycles that you'll never use. It has Cottons, Mixed Fabrics, Dark Care, Time Saver in addition to Synthetics, Wool etc. You can select Pre-Wash, Quick Wash or Extra Rinse with most cycles & change the temperature and spin on lots too, unlike the Zanussi which often limited you to certain options on certain programs.

A really good cycle is Time Saver. This allows you to pick any temp from cold (30 mins) to 90c (1hr30mins) and on top of that you can add extra rinses which adds time. The wash cycle is a decent length and the machine saves time by filling halfway up the door during the 3 rinses and rotating 3 times at distribution speed rather than several slow tumbles, in order to flush foam out. Each rinse takes around 2 minutes from fill to drain, it literally flies through them! It performs a distribution drain each time (as it does on other cycles too) and (also in line with usual behaviour) it runs water through the sump at the start and end of each spin cycle to rinse excess foam from the tub to improve rinse performance. The programming is some of the best I've seen on a new machine. Even better than a Hotpoint Aquarius+ (WDF749) that I used in an apartment I rented last year, which I thought was brilliant till I've seen the Beko.

Any downsides? Unfortunately the out of balance system is pretty rubbish and the Zanussi knocked the socks off it in this respect. The Zanussi would perform 3 short tumbles, check the balance and then spin, and it never aborted a spin in all the years we had it. Neither did it appear to risk the rest of the machine by spinning unbalanced. It just seemed to sort itself out & spin. The Beko on the other hand doesn't seem to know what to do when an imbalance occurs. It just keeps slowly turning clockwise, gradually speeding up into distribution, realises it can't balance, then stops and repeats. It does this a few times and then aborts the spin, simply jumping to END and finishing if its the final spin, leaving the load soaking wet.

It doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference between a harmless out of balance load (ie a couple of light items that don't fill the drum) and a harmful out of balance situation like a full load of wet towels. The Zanussi always seemed to figure out that if it was only a light load, the imbalance would be tolerable and the machine would spin without problem. It would only go back into re-balancing if their was excessive 'swing' on the drum and you could visually the see the machine wasn't moving in a true circle. The Beko goes back into re-balance even when you can barely see any off centre movement in the drum, which is very frustrating when you're waiting for a cycle to end so you can get the clothes out & into the dryer, onto the line etc.

That is the main bugbear. It's clearly better than the Zanussi in other aspects of programming, rinsing & water levels. When it does spin, it actually spins just as effectively at 1200rpm as the Zanussi did at 1400rpm, it's near impossible to tell the difference. The option availability is better than the Zanussi too. It's literally just the out of balance sensor and to a lesser extent, the build quality. The drum feels very heavy and well built, but the cabinet does flex and twist and the suspension clicks on the occasional spin. something that wouldn't happen on the Zanussi even when the drum was bouncing out of a first spin burst with a load of wet towels. So overall I'd rate it as just as good as the Zanussi, but it excels in areas that the Zanussi was less good at (programming & rinsing) and scores less well in areas that the Zanussi did well in (out of balance control & sturdiness). Still, for its price, it has the beating of most other offerings. Only its longevity will decide whether we buy Beko again.

Liam

 

[davetranter]

Bearings

Whilst not 'washer related', I have just replaced the rear wheel bearings on my Vauxhall Corsa, which were already whining/rumbling when I got it, 40,000 miles ago. I admit that I have been able to strip them and wash out the powdered metal from time to time, and adjust the preload each time, but it's amazing how long (with a little TLC) even 'shot' bearings can last....

No washing machine I have ever owned has had any sort of 'automatic balancing'. If the load is out of balance, sit on the machine to prevent it from demolishing the rest of the kitchen.

A friend of mine justifies paying 'Miele money' (reply #12) for appliances by reasoning that it will probably be the last example of that particular appliance that he will ever have to buy, as it will probably outlast him!! His washer (no idea of model number, but it was their smallest, cheapest FL on the U.K. market at the time) was bought roughly 20 years ago, and has required no maintenance at all apart from being carefully wiped out after each use.

All best

Dave T