Hotpoint Balancing Issues

[hooverkeymatic]

Hello!

Well today i was washing a slightly overloaded wash in the Hotpoint. I missed the first interm. spin. However, on the second interm. spin, it spun so unbalanced, the machine nearly jumped. Luckily, it cut out due to a sudslock, Or so i thought. The machine didn't even distribute and spun up to 800rpm. At one point, i had to hold it because it was shaking rather violently. It also managed to spin extremely unbalanced with a 34 load of bedding. On an unbalalnced spin it is like CLUNK,Clunk,Clunk,Clunk,Creak (lol)

I have heard that new Hotpoints are extremely fussy on balancing. Not this one! Although fun to watch, sometimes it can be very violent!

Any thoughts and experiences?

Thanks!

 

[hooverkeymatic]

UPDATE!

Well, within 30 minutes of writing the previous post, it happened again, but alot worse! I had to physically hold it still and push it back in three times! It looked so balanced, obviously not! It sounds like a helicopter and was moving out of it's place at 1000rpm, never mind 1400rpm! It Didn't redistribute once!

 

[ronhic]

Me thinks there is a weee bit of a problem here....

 

[wd440ben]

Mines the exact same, happnens mostly with towels on a 60c wash can spin up to the full speed of 1400 in some cases!
I recored this video of a spin ealier after a rinse ramping up to 1000rpm, is this what your clunk clunk clunk sounded like!

http://www.youtube.com/user/sonyericssonlover09#p/a/u/0/lHwXzLhq7zc

 

[hooverkeymatic]

wd440ben...

Yes! That is exactly what it sounds like!

 

[imperial70]

screeeeeeeeech sound

Why do some front loaders sound like they are screeetching as they spin. That would be annoying, especially in a living space.

 

[gizmo]

that WM has "issues"

There are at least two, if not three wrong noises coming from that machine.

Is that a true UK Hotpoint, ie: does its internals have ancestry that goes back to my old Hotpoint 9560W? (GEC motor mounted on top of the drum?) It certainly sounds like it, boy they are a noisy machine! I am assuming it is a "true" UK Hotpoint, not an Indesit clone.

Noise 1: (possibly the noise you are chasing) - a harsh metallic hammering / clattering, a little at the beginning when first spinning, and more late in the spin - two likely causes - one, the heating element is loose, and when the frequency of vibrations from out of balance spin is right, the element starts hammering against the spinning drum, making a godawful racket. If your machine is similar to mine, the heating element mounts in the front plastic ring, the front edge of the drum with the drum opening in it. The rear edge of the element locates (clips) in a metal bracket above the drain outlet hole in the bottom of the drum. This bracket can be damaged by a coin getting between the drums on spin, the coin becomes a missile, smashes off the rear element mount, and the element is now able to rattle up and down on spin. I made up a new bracket out of a bolt, nuts and washers. The tricky bit is that the bracket stands in the floor of the drum, the heating element is in the drum front ring, so you have to make up a bracket that the element slides into when you reassemble the drum front.
OR: it could be a broken drum spider. The drum attaches to its axle via three metal arms. Over time these corrode, eventually one snaps through, making noises like yours. When a second arm breaks, the inner drum wobbles about madly, destroying the outer drum, heating element, etc. Yours might have one arm broken - unfortunately you need to remove the drum to check, though you can get some idea by opening the door and trying to lift the inner drum, then turn the drum a little and try lifting again, and repeat all the way around. If the drum lifts up noticeably more on one spot that others, the drum spider is probably broken.

2. You have drum bearing noise anyway. (but they can go for ages with noisy bearings.)

3.suspension sounds noisy - a squawk-squawk-squawk noise when the drum is starting to spin, and again when slowing down, when the drum is jumping up and down a bit. This might just be bearing noise, too.

 

[hooverkeymatic]

gizmo..

Noise One and Three sound like ours. I doubt a coin is the problem, but it is a possibilty. When it starts to spin even slightly unbalanced, it seems to Creak,CLUNK,Clunk,Creak and the same when slowing down.

 

[hooverkeymatic]

UPDATE #2...

Well I washed a half load of towels on Fast Wash 60' @ 60c. After the first rinse, it didtributed badly. I thought it was going to re-balance. Not! It spun so unbalanced the drum hit the front hard, with a mighty thud. Luckily befor spinning for a longer period of time, it re-balanced. It was however, still quite unbalanced. Even if we wash our towels and bathmats together, it still manages to get unbalanced somehow!

 

[fl1012]

Could there be a fault with the out of balance sensor? I've seen alot of newer Hotpoints that sound really cranky on spin, banging about all over the place, but as yours seems to have started this only lately, could it not be a component failure?

Id guess if it carries on, thatll be the end of the bearings or suspension aswell.

 

[hotpoint9534]

I guess it could be a fault with the tacho on the motor. The tachometric generator is the device which detects the motor speed and sends it back (in the form of current) to the PCB. The PCB then checks that this speed is within a pair of set values. If the speed is fluctuating outside these parameters an out of balance condition is detected. This will cause the motor to stop, and the machine to attempt a rebalance.

If the tacho is registering the wrong figures, for example if it's not correctly attached to the motor, then the machine could spin out of balance.

Failing that, it could be Indesit electronics holding the wrong data, stranger things have happened.

Tom.

 

[hooverkeymatic]

I'm not sure...

But it manages to get unbalanced very easily.

 

[MrX]

I'd also just add that I won't buy LG because I want to support European jobs right now.

I try to avoid buying non-EU produced major appliances as it ultimately costs European jobs.

Our economies are a mess at the moment, and we need every job we can keep within the EU.

Think of it this way, if the UK, Irish, Italian, Spanish, or any EU economy goes to the wall, it's going to be the rest of the EU helping us out.

Let's face it, none of our economies are looking particularly healthy right now.

So, I would say please consider buying European before you pick up any major appliance.

I would much rather that the money I spend on a washer be going towards someone's wages in German, Italy, Spain, Poland or wherever, rather than going to support ultra cheap manufacturing in the far east.