Spider Corrosion By Laundry Aids
To combo52
I have no intention of tearing down either of my two washers whilst they are still working satisfactorily. I will wait for the first sign of bearing rumble; it is a pity the bearing housing is not accessible to a stethoscope, or I might catch it a little earlier, or my wife complaining of the smell. Unfortunately I see no practical way of viewing the hub of the spider without tearing the drums apart. An industrial endoscope might be able to get up the back through one of the larger vane holes but I doubt that anything useful would be seen, anyway I do not have one and I do not suppose they are part of the normal appliance repairman’s toolkit.
What is unfair about putting a drop of bleach, not full strength as you claim, the bottle gave it as a 5% solution, not that it matters, on the spider? You stated in your previous post ‘Bleach has nothing to do with corrosion of the spider,’ I believe I have demonstrated that it has that possibility, should its concentration rise sufficiently. How could that happen? By water evaporating from the very small amounts of water, soil, laundry aids and tap water left behind at the end of the last spin cycle. How do you believe the spiders are corroded? Assuming that we can agree that they are, being corroded that is, can we?
Please note that I cannot understand the last sentence of your first post, it appears to contradict itself.
I do not doubt your experience with regard to the rebuilding of washers, you say you have dealt with thousands, I take that to mean in excess of 2,000, at one every working day it would take about 8 years to complete the 2,000, and you like me, have been round long enough to do it. Our difference being I have only dismantled the two front loaders describe on this site and one old ‘Hoover’ with the impeller on the side of the tub and that was about 40 years ago. I did however spend, on and off, most of my working life investigating mechanical failures, I have also, in the dim past, worked as a development engineer for a company that designed and built high speed diesel engines so I do believe that I have some idea as to how an investigation should be pursued. One thing I have learnt during that time is NEVER disregard anything anyone says, out of hand, somewhere in it there maybe the clue that solves the problem. That is why I ask you what you think causes the corrosion.
When you have all the major manufacturers on your side what do you mean? Are they saying that bleach and other laundry aids with a pH in excess of 8.0 are not corroding the spiders? Should this be the case I would have thought they would have said as much to me when I raised the query with them, instead of the wall of silence that I am getting. Additionally have they given you any information as to why the spiders fail close to the hub, or why some brands seem more prone to this failure than others?
The attached photograph is of the spider removed from my machine and it clearly shows very little corrosion on the outer halves of the arms, why do you think this is?
Finally, have you read the penultimate paragraph of my first post? If affirmative, do you understand it?
Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response
