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DADoES

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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.

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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?"
 
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.
 
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.  

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Shame on you Frig for uttering such heresy!

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

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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?

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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.

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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.
 
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...
 
 
$143.01 Tub Front
  83.52 Drum Support
  11.64 Hex Bolt (6)
   6.22 Tub Gasket
   4.90 Bearing Seal
   6.99 Shipping
--------
$254.28


Several online sources for Samsung parts, not difficult to find.  There's an anti-backflow flapper valve on the pump outlet into the drain hose that was deformed to non-functional but is NLA.  Add a set of water supply hoses, some on-hand cleaning materials used, some time/effort and mild bloodshed, LOL.
 
 
Ran the tub clean "Pure Cycle" to see what's the deal.

- 2:01 cycle time.
- Short cold rinse.
- Drain and distribute-spin and more draining.
- Hot fill.  I did not purge the supply first, water heater set at 133°F.  Diagnostic temp reading 82°F.
- Some tumble, then more hot fill.  Reading 89°F.
- Rev to 100 RPM distribution spin with onboard heating engaged.  Spin direction reverses occasionally, continues for duration of heating/cleaning period.
- Heats to 140°F.  Heater off.
- Cools to 130°F.  Heater on.
- Heats to 140°F.  Heater off.  May drop to 130°F and reheat to 140°F once more, not sure, didn't watch the entire time.
- Last cool to 130°F, drains.
- Cold rinse.
- Cold rinse.
- Spin to 500 RPM sustained a couple mins, rev to 950 RPM.  End.
 
That's less than I expected, but not by much.  I thought around $325-350.  $255 for parts isn't too bad to save a $600 washer but in the "normal" household, the service labor is the killer for most machines like this.  I'm sure you put far more time into cleaning and detailing than would be possible in the field for a technician "on the clock" as it were.  

 

I know exactly what you mean by "bloodshed" - every edge in that machine is sharp and seems to bite.  I worked on a Samsung dryer and ended up having to don a long-sleeved shirt to replace the thermal cutoff through the tiny access hole in the back of the machine or I'd have lost an arm for sure.  

Have fun with the Samsung, it's not a bad machine in many ways.  Good washing, rinsing and quiet.  The Pure Cycle is fun to watch, lots of water drama.  I was trying to remove lots of residue from softener and detergents in mine so the 100 rpm tumbling gave much sudsy flopping and swirling.
 
 
Have run three loads.

Definitely do not like the ATC business.  Getting 80°F to 82°F for warm and 89°F to 91°F for hot even with the water heater set at 133°F to 140°F.  All fills start with a cold dispenser flush to a minimal level, then hot is added to top-off after a bit of tumbling.  There's apparently no way to get a reasonable "real" warm or hot fill on any cycle.  Be more truthful to have only two temp selections:  Cold and [color=258408]Less Cold[/color].

However, the heater is used on Heavy Duty.  Light soil boosted to 115°F (or maybe was 118°F if I missed the peak).  Can't say yet if Normal or Heavy soil goes higher.

Interestingly, Woolens may produce a warmer warm since it fills higher.  I didn't check the onboard temp reading but it topped-off with more hot than expected.  Delicates/Hand Wash may also fill higher, haven't yet checked.

Warm/warm is selectable for Perm Press, seems odd.

The drive motor is very quiet.  The pump is noisy.

Not sure what exactly entails the VRT Vibration Reduction Technology other than a balance ring filled with some ballast balls and possibly mineral oil and mounted to front of the drum ... but it seems effective.  There is typically brief galumping of the tub at approx 400 RPM but it settles down quite nicely.

The LED for the selected cycle blinks continuously during the run, which is distracting as if the cycle is selected but not started.

No way I've found except Power Off to exit from the diagnostic mode that accesses the thermistor and RPM reading while a cycle runs so must leave it active for the duration, cannot get back to view the remaining cycle time.
 
 
Sammy is gone to live with the sister or nephew.

Last load I ran was a sheet and couple towels left from when Abby-puppy was ill.  They were dirty but no "sick" soiling.  Heavy Duty cycle, heavy soil, un-selected the default Prewash option.  It ran a full-hot fill but I didn't check the temp reading for heater activity.  The items came out pristine.
 
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