10-09-2024, 07:52 PM
Well done!
I'm a big believer in repairing white goods where possible, and eSpares have certainly come in handy over the years.
Our original washing machine - a 1999 Bosch - was basically working well, but was starting to get noisy. Probably the main bearings. It had a couple of sets of brushes over the years and a new door seal, and also a door lock mechanism. But that's pretty much it, aside from having to clean out the water distributor mechanism above the detergent tray once or twice when we lived in an area with harder water.
As it was getting on a bit, I was half-researching what to replace it with, then one day my wife spotted someone local offering a Bosch washing machine for only £35. Looking closer, she realised it was an old friend, so they were delighted to sell it to us - even delivered it. It was getting on for 10 years old, and they were having a new kitchen with integrated appliances, so didn't need the Bosch any more.
This machine had the brushless motor, so was considerably quieter than the old one. I decided to hang on to the old faithful, just in case, but had no reason to doubt the younger machine would give us any grief.
Until one day, perhaps a year or two later, I noticed a rubbing noise when spinning the drum by hand. Having spent an age checking everything out, it proved to be the inner drum rubbing on the outer plastic drum, as a result of the aluminium "spider" cracking.
At this point I discovered that many manufacturers weld the two halves of the outer drum together, meaning that there's no sensible way to separate them to replace bearings or the spider (in practice the whole inner drum would be needed).
I've no idea why this broke - people suggest a chemical thing (not enough hot washes, etc) or a mechanical cause (overloading or excess vibration from an unstable base, etc) - but at only 10 years old, this was a shame.
No problem - let's just press the old machine back into service while we think about what to do...
Sadly not. The drum no longer turned, as the main bearing had seized. It was in the kitchen, but had been relocated outside to make space (fair enough).
After a couple of hours of pouring over the exploded diagrams on the Bosch website, I found that the vast majority of the current machines use exactly the same drum arrangement as the 10 year old machine. But by chance, there were 2 that used an alternative, and were serviceable in the traditional way. And John Lewis had one of them on special offer, plus Bosch were offering a 5 year warranty. Part of me didn't want to buy Bosch again because of the sealed drum, but they're mostly all at it now. I considered Meile, but as we know, they are very, very expensive, and I couldn't find any service data on any of them, and the spares situation doesn't appear to be as straightforward. But by buying the model I did, that's a half-hearted attempt to show a bit of consumer power - not that Bosch would notice or care!
Perhaps the spider failure was atypical, but there's not shortage of reports of it. Something to consider when buying, IMO...
Of course, before getting rid of it, I stripped it for parts. I haven't checked to see if any of them would fit the new machine, but some will definitely fit Mum's. The motor controller is interesting - most of the power electronics is integrated into a large IC that is bolted to a decent heat sink. To make it easier to dispose of, we removed the concrete blocks - when throwing the machine into the tip, we probably looked a long stronger than we really are. By the way, I was pleased to find that it was an easy fit into a Ford Focus
As I've never replaced an element before, I was keen to try it on the scrap machine. I'd seen the videos, so knew what to expect with that central nut. Very easy to do. Access will vary - on some machines it is an easy job from the rear panel, but with some you have to remove the front panel, which takes a lot longer and requires the door seal to be disconnected from the front. All doable, and easy enough, but white goods repairs can be a bit stressful when you have a family who want the thing working ASAP. If I ever come into money, I'd build a house with space and plumbing in the utility room for dual-redundant washing machines!
I'm a big believer in repairing white goods where possible, and eSpares have certainly come in handy over the years.
Our original washing machine - a 1999 Bosch - was basically working well, but was starting to get noisy. Probably the main bearings. It had a couple of sets of brushes over the years and a new door seal, and also a door lock mechanism. But that's pretty much it, aside from having to clean out the water distributor mechanism above the detergent tray once or twice when we lived in an area with harder water.
As it was getting on a bit, I was half-researching what to replace it with, then one day my wife spotted someone local offering a Bosch washing machine for only £35. Looking closer, she realised it was an old friend, so they were delighted to sell it to us - even delivered it. It was getting on for 10 years old, and they were having a new kitchen with integrated appliances, so didn't need the Bosch any more.
This machine had the brushless motor, so was considerably quieter than the old one. I decided to hang on to the old faithful, just in case, but had no reason to doubt the younger machine would give us any grief.
Until one day, perhaps a year or two later, I noticed a rubbing noise when spinning the drum by hand. Having spent an age checking everything out, it proved to be the inner drum rubbing on the outer plastic drum, as a result of the aluminium "spider" cracking.
At this point I discovered that many manufacturers weld the two halves of the outer drum together, meaning that there's no sensible way to separate them to replace bearings or the spider (in practice the whole inner drum would be needed).
I've no idea why this broke - people suggest a chemical thing (not enough hot washes, etc) or a mechanical cause (overloading or excess vibration from an unstable base, etc) - but at only 10 years old, this was a shame.
No problem - let's just press the old machine back into service while we think about what to do...
Sadly not. The drum no longer turned, as the main bearing had seized. It was in the kitchen, but had been relocated outside to make space (fair enough).
After a couple of hours of pouring over the exploded diagrams on the Bosch website, I found that the vast majority of the current machines use exactly the same drum arrangement as the 10 year old machine. But by chance, there were 2 that used an alternative, and were serviceable in the traditional way. And John Lewis had one of them on special offer, plus Bosch were offering a 5 year warranty. Part of me didn't want to buy Bosch again because of the sealed drum, but they're mostly all at it now. I considered Meile, but as we know, they are very, very expensive, and I couldn't find any service data on any of them, and the spares situation doesn't appear to be as straightforward. But by buying the model I did, that's a half-hearted attempt to show a bit of consumer power - not that Bosch would notice or care!
Perhaps the spider failure was atypical, but there's not shortage of reports of it. Something to consider when buying, IMO...
Of course, before getting rid of it, I stripped it for parts. I haven't checked to see if any of them would fit the new machine, but some will definitely fit Mum's. The motor controller is interesting - most of the power electronics is integrated into a large IC that is bolted to a decent heat sink. To make it easier to dispose of, we removed the concrete blocks - when throwing the machine into the tip, we probably looked a long stronger than we really are. By the way, I was pleased to find that it was an easy fit into a Ford Focus
As I've never replaced an element before, I was keen to try it on the scrap machine. I'd seen the videos, so knew what to expect with that central nut. Very easy to do. Access will vary - on some machines it is an easy job from the rear panel, but with some you have to remove the front panel, which takes a lot longer and requires the door seal to be disconnected from the front. All doable, and easy enough, but white goods repairs can be a bit stressful when you have a family who want the thing working ASAP. If I ever come into money, I'd build a house with space and plumbing in the utility room for dual-redundant washing machines!
