whirlcool
Well-known member
I mentioned in another thread that one of my neighbors had a washing machine with a stuck inlet valve. He gave me the model number and s/n and I ordered the part. He said the machine was a Whirlpool, but when I got there it was an "Estate by Whirlpool". Fortunately the part was the right one. He was going to install it himself, but got screwed up over how to take the cabinet off. So I went over to help.
I have never seen an Estate machine in use before. I always thought that they were BOL machines. I was surprised to find this machine had hot/warm and warm/warm wash/rinse settings, plus a dual action agitator and two speeds. The controls were of the "hard click" variety. They were kind of hard to move and made a loud click noise when you moved them into the desired position.
So I pop the clips off (the guy already had the control panel off) and take the cabinet off. I noticed that the cabinet was very shaky. The sides would flex and it didn't feel like the sturdiest cabinet around. I got the inlet valve replaced (a breeze) but getting this damn cabinet back on took some doing. Anytime you handled it the sides would flex in and out. I used the old "start with the cabinet on your toe and put the front of it in front of the bottom frame member and tilt backwards from there. Sometimes it would be too high on one side or another, or it would go on crooked. We must have played with that thing for an hour before it finally went on the machine properly. It was definitely a two man job. I've had the cover off of our Whirlpool and it was far easier to do than this Estate washer was. Is this usual for Estate machines? Is there some kind of trick that I was missing?
Last summer the owner removed the inlet screens because the machine was filling too slow, but the inlet screens were still in there, and were totally clogged on both sides. So it was the hose screens he removed. We got some new ones and now he has new hose screens as well as inlet screens. The water now flows very nicely while filling.
I have never seen an Estate machine in use before. I always thought that they were BOL machines. I was surprised to find this machine had hot/warm and warm/warm wash/rinse settings, plus a dual action agitator and two speeds. The controls were of the "hard click" variety. They were kind of hard to move and made a loud click noise when you moved them into the desired position.
So I pop the clips off (the guy already had the control panel off) and take the cabinet off. I noticed that the cabinet was very shaky. The sides would flex and it didn't feel like the sturdiest cabinet around. I got the inlet valve replaced (a breeze) but getting this damn cabinet back on took some doing. Anytime you handled it the sides would flex in and out. I used the old "start with the cabinet on your toe and put the front of it in front of the bottom frame member and tilt backwards from there. Sometimes it would be too high on one side or another, or it would go on crooked. We must have played with that thing for an hour before it finally went on the machine properly. It was definitely a two man job. I've had the cover off of our Whirlpool and it was far easier to do than this Estate washer was. Is this usual for Estate machines? Is there some kind of trick that I was missing?
Last summer the owner removed the inlet screens because the machine was filling too slow, but the inlet screens were still in there, and were totally clogged on both sides. So it was the hose screens he removed. We got some new ones and now he has new hose screens as well as inlet screens. The water now flows very nicely while filling.