Postmortem

[DADoES]

 
Frontloader belonged to friends of my sister.  Drum seized, they said.

Manufacture date:  Feb 2011.

Spider corroded, center/hub/shaft broke loose.

Apparently happened during spin.  Rim of drum wore a groove in the tub front, cut through at one area.

The spider debris is soft, crumbly, slightly greasy, scent of softener.

Bunch of debris was collected in the tub outlet hose.  May have been accumulating over time, in which case the machine was having increasing difficulty draining.

Heavy softener residue in the dispenser housing (and dripped down the door), but there's no significant mold.  I don't know any details about their laundry habits (other than the obvious use of softener).  The machine has a cleaning cycle, don't know if they used it.  It has water heating and Sanitary cycle, don't know if they used it.

 

[thomasortega]

Someone will say that the machien was poorly designed, the F-word designer made a huge mistake to make it cheap, blah, blah, blah...

A spider corroded like that? NO F-word way! It's the consumer's fault.

I can even imagine this poor washer during the wash cycle and someone next to it sayin "oh, is uses so little water that i had to add three scoops of regular Tide otherwise the suds wouldn't even reach 3/4 of the tub. How can a machine wash it the clothes aren't fully immersed in suds?"

 

[frigilux]

What the....I thought Speed Queens were supposed to last 50 years!

 

[cfz2882]

brand

LG,samsung,midea ?

 

[gusherb]

A few clues lead me to believe it was a Samsung. And wow, I wonder just how abused that machine was to fall apart that badly in just barely 5 years. Our Crapsungtag lasted about 9 years.

 

[gansky1]

Yup.  Sam-stunk, Sam-sting, Sam-scrap, Scam-sung, Sams-hung.

 

I just brought home one of these, 3 years old, last week.  Pic of set is in it's original home.  Seems to work fine but owners were softener lovers as well.  No debris in the filter/pump guard but a strong scent of softener that will probably last for years in the machine.   This one was a warranty replacement for an earlier Samsung that the exact same thing happened to.  Their spider had a while-spinning catastrophic failure, banging and loud screeching.  When service person tested machine the drum completely let loose from the spider and made the machine jump and the top panel let loose at the front and pop into the air.  Their now 6 year old Sam dryer stopped running three weeks ago (thermal cutout) so they replaced the pair with a WP Cabrio set.   I brought them both home week before last, will order the therm cutoff for the dryer and donate it to Habitat, washer will make the rounds of washer-boys probably.  

 

[washman]

Shame on you Frig for uttering such heresy!

I hereby condemn you to a life of using powder detergent.

 

[frigilux]

 

[tecnopolis]

That is some nasty remnants in the sump you found. Looks like the nanobots have invaded and taken the raw material for their own designs. mwaaaaa..hahaha!

 

[tecnopolis]

That is some nasty remnants in the sump you found. Looks like the nanobots have invaded and taken the raw material for their own designs. mwaaaaa..hahaha!

 

[combo52]

Three Scoops Of Regular Tide

WAS not the problem, I would bet that this washer never saw HOT water on a regular basis, or Bleach, Or a decent detergent like TIDE.

 

When fabric softener is used clothing MUST be thoroughly washed the next time and every time FS is used, this means HOT water plenty of GOOD detergent and LCB really helps, when you have been in thousands of homes as I have and asked hundreds of customers about how they use their washers and seen the results in the way the machines hold up it is pretty easy to see what works and WHAT does NOT work.

 

I have seen spiders in ten year old machines that look like new and MANY that look like the one posted above that were 3-5 years old.

 

Yes it is all about the way the machine is used, unfortunately most people can not tell clean clothing from dirty clothing, and have NO IDEA how to get great results from their washer, LOL.

 

[DADoES]

Follow-Up

 
Yes, it's a Samsung.  Model WF330AWN/XAA 02.

The plan up-front was to resuscitate it.  Either my sister will use it, or the newly-college-graduated nephew when he find a job and moves out accordingly.  There's a matching dryer which I have not yet seen, nothing wrong with it but probably needs some clean-up.

Couple more pics of one of the support arms, chunk of waxy build-up before and after some scraping.

 

[DADoES]

 
New drum support/spider and bolts.  Samsung sources it as a separate item, no need to replace the entire drum.

Direct-drive, F&P-style pancake motor. The bearings are good.  I replaced the bearing seal.

Anyone want to make a guess on the parts cost?

 

[DADoES]

 
Reassembly.

 

[DADoES]

 
This pic is before any clean-up, notice the residue dripped down the door.

Sanitary cycle heats to 150°F.  Cycle is extended from the default if necessary but doctrine says maximum 30 mins additional.

The Pure Cycle is for cleaning the tub.  Heating is involved but I don't know to what temp.  Default time is 2 hours+.  Per the user manual the indicator light comes on every 40 cycles as a reminder, and cleaning chemicals are not needed but 1/3 the normal dose can be used if desired.

Has a "hidden" spin-only by pressing/holding the Spin button for a few seconds, then select the desired speed.  No Spin is a only a drain.  Maximum selectable speed ties to the cycle choice.

 

[askolover]

I'll guess...

$300 for parts?

 

[vacerator]

Samsung, etc.

I'm not a fabric softener user, but I have heard that certain detergents also react with aluminum spiders and deteriorate them.
Samsungs are top rated, but when I see China stamped on bearings, well, no thanks.
Not for an over $800 machine. My sister has a Samsung top loader and loves it.

 

[stricklybojack]

.
Nice work, great save. I like to see any machine given a second life through skilled, or simply persistent, work.

 

[gusherb]

I'm impressed that you found parts for it. Especially given all the rants about how parts are never available or discontinued very early on for these Korean machines...