Update .....
Now going on 418 days since pimping out the replacement tub spider in our daily driver Amana front loader that I originally posted about in this thread. This machine gets used daily. With myself, a wife, a daughter and a 2 year old mess maker living in this house, this washing machine literally washes 5-6 days a week. I am really curious to find out how the spider I encapsulated with fiberglass and por15 is holding up. My theory was and still is if the chinesium mystery metal that the slider is made of doesn't come in contact with water and washing agents, it would easily hold up past the lifespan of the machine itself. So yesterday I decided to check on the spider and quench my curiosity. After about an hour I had the machine popped apart, separated the outer tub, removed the rear pulley and pulled the inner tub and spider out.
The spider was pristine with a light coat of a powdery white film of washing agents. Found that it wiped right off. The spider bearings and shaft seal are still in good shape so no water getting past to contaminant the bearings. While I had the bearings out I got to use for the first time a needle that you fasten to a grease gun and can stab it thru the rubber grease seal on sealed bearings. It looks just like a hypodermic needle and creates a self closing slit in the rubber seal of the bearing. In doing so I added a fresh squirt of grease to both bearings. I'll take a pic of this grease needle, it works really nice. Great to have one in the toolbox.
So the machine is all back together and running as it should. Maybe in another 418 days or so I'll do it again to see how the spider is holding up. If it is still in good shape by then, I'll be able to wish a great big FU to the washer manufacturers who had thousands of washer spiders self destruct because imho they cheaped out on the spider material. I still think it's absurd that the problem is placed on the user, whereby "not using enough detergent", or "using too much detergent", or "not enough hot washes", or "not leaving the door open after washes to let the machine dry out" or "using fabric softeners" ...... and a half dozen other scenarios that people have mentioned. Manufacturers kept making the slider out of the same mystery metal for years, probably still way after the first spider melt downs that was causing so much warranty work. At this point I'm thinking a hard anodization coating at time of construction would have added a bunch of years to chinesium pot metal. Ok, rant over.
Has anyone else encountered any spider mayhem in the last year or so? Just curious if this is still an ongoing issue? Or have they all self destructed and people simply moved on.
Bud - Atlanta