Whirlpool/MT Direct Drive Front-Loaders

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Iowegian

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Sep 20, 2012
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Was researching the newest Whirlpool/Maytag 4.3 CF front-loaders and noticed they have direct-drive motors. While I'm not convinced that in and of itself is a real plus, at least these machines are built in the U.S.

Wanting to get a look inside, I looked up a parts schematic. It looks like WP no longer sells the back half of the outer tub with bearing, or the basket with spider. The entire outer tub, basket, spider, etc. are all one part number with a nearly $600 price tag. That's not very encouraging should I buy one and the bearings go out or the spider fails out of warranty. I wonder what WP's reasoning is for this?

 
I think you're probably right on track.

If you look at Whirlpool's warranty, it's one year, and then you're on your own. Plus they have added some language that to me goes beyond the typical, "Too bad, so sad" 1 year warranty and it's not to the purchaser's favor.

Interestingly enough, the Maytags have some extended teaser coverage on the motor and the wash basket - but they have carefully crafted the wash basket warranty to exclude the spider. And, at least around here, the retailers are pricing Maytag lower than Whirlpool, which makes no sense at all to me - ever since I have bought laundry equipment, Maytag always cost more than Whirlpool. Color me confused.

We have bought plenty of Whirlpool appliances over the years (since 1985) and have had good luck with them - when we bought our current (used) house in 2006 we bought a Whirlpool fridge, and shortly thereafter had to replace the dishwasher and we put in a Whirlpool unit. But it's hard to have warm-fuzzy feelings about Whirlpool even with them building their upper level laundry equipment in the U.S. given their apparent customer support.

I kind of like that Whirlpool filed a fair trade case against Samsung, LG and Electrolux for dumping foreign-made washers, but if they are going to enforce their minimalist warranty, and not sell the individual parts that seem to fail in the field, I'm not sure I can keep my good opinion about Whirlpool. If they're going to play that game, then I guess I should play the, "this washer is $50 cheaper at the big box store so it's the one we're going to buy" game, too.

Actually, what I really want to buy is the Speed Queen front-loader, but I'm really reluctant to do that, since none of the dealers have one in their showroom and I'm a see it before I buy it kind of guy - maybe that's just an old-fashioned viewpoint these days, considering how many people buy everything from books to snow tires from Amazon...

Rant off!
 
I have had similar experiences with European Whirlpool machines. The machines themselves are OK but the spares are so expensive that a lot of faults are not cost effective to fix. At one time I had about 4 fairly new WP washers in my workshop, either with failed spiders or circuit boards. I was hoping to get 2 machines the same with different faults so I could build one good one but they had so many different drums, spiders, bearings etc. that nothing could ever be swapped. In most cases you had to buy a new drum to get a new spider.
 
Not sure, but Whirlpool built their Mexican washer plant in 2005, so it would have been sometime around then, I'd think.
 

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