bearing failure
while it is true that some bearing failure is and can be from oversudsing, most of the time the real culprit is twofold , overloading and poor machine design (cheap undersized bearings) overloading by as little a l lb can put 10lbs more stress on a bearing when in extract. also out of balance loads will add to that stress and cause bearings to fail a lot sooner ,as well as a machine that is not perfectly level. We have had that exact thing happen here 3 times. When one of the 50 lb machines was installed it was not level evenly and the bearings went in less than 2 weeks. Also on a a domestic Frigidaire Gallery the bearings went due to washman over loading and causing a out of balance load. Don't think that just beacuse the out of balance switch will cut the machine out if it is out of balance that that is enough protection any load the caused the tub to "bounce" enough to move the rubber boot to touch is enough to damage the bearings. The bearings in most of todays machines are not heavy duty enough to take a beating that the larger capacity machines have. Some of the problem is caused by them trying to meet energy requirements and makeing the machines spin faster than the bearings can really handle with the extra vibration caused by the higher speeds. Miele is one of the few execptions they have large enough bearings and a good balance system to handle vibration problems , Sure they cost more but you get just what you pay for,
while it is true that some bearing failure is and can be from oversudsing, most of the time the real culprit is twofold , overloading and poor machine design (cheap undersized bearings) overloading by as little a l lb can put 10lbs more stress on a bearing when in extract. also out of balance loads will add to that stress and cause bearings to fail a lot sooner ,as well as a machine that is not perfectly level. We have had that exact thing happen here 3 times. When one of the 50 lb machines was installed it was not level evenly and the bearings went in less than 2 weeks. Also on a a domestic Frigidaire Gallery the bearings went due to washman over loading and causing a out of balance load. Don't think that just beacuse the out of balance switch will cut the machine out if it is out of balance that that is enough protection any load the caused the tub to "bounce" enough to move the rubber boot to touch is enough to damage the bearings. The bearings in most of todays machines are not heavy duty enough to take a beating that the larger capacity machines have. Some of the problem is caused by them trying to meet energy requirements and makeing the machines spin faster than the bearings can really handle with the extra vibration caused by the higher speeds. Miele is one of the few execptions they have large enough bearings and a good balance system to handle vibration problems , Sure they cost more but you get just what you pay for,