hi i'm josh from espares and in this
video i'm going to be showing you how to
diagnose drum problems with your washing
machine one of the most common problems
that drums can develop in a washing
machine is noise
this can be either when the machine is
on a cycle or if the drum is just spun
by hand now a major factor that can
cause that noise is worn bearings
here i've got two machines this one has
very very badly worn bearings and in
this one the bearings are virtually
brand new
if i just reach into the drum here and
spin it by hand
you can hear it makes quite a noticeable
sort of grinding noise
if i do the same thing on the drum in
this machine
you can hear that it's virtually silent
so that would be the first indicator of
worn bearings
a second way to check for worn bearings
is seeing how much movement the drum has
got that it shouldn't have
if i go to this machine and press
against the top of the drum
you can see
how much the drum
moves
away
from the door seal here
but if we go over to this machine
and do the same thing
you can see there's virtually no
movement between the edge of the drum
and the door seal so again that's
another indicator of worn bearings now
there is one final way you can check for
worn bearings in your machine
and you're going to need to have a look
at the back of it so i'm just going to
turn this machine round
now i've taken the back panel off the
machine
and the first thing i can see here is
there's a lot of rust
here from water that's leaked out and
dripped down onto the back so that's
another sign of worn bearings and if i
just remove
this bolt
and remove this part of the motor
like so
you can see here that there is loads of
rust on the inside and if i just remove
this part of the
bearing assembly in the middle which is
already falling off
you can see that the bearings are
basically falling out anyway and these
should be evenly spaced all around the
inside but they're gathered at the
bottom so again
all very very strong symptoms of worn
bearings
now
the bearings can be changed on a washing
machine but the procedure is quite
complicated it can take a very long time
however there is another espares video
available showing you how to do just
that
now although worn drum bearings are a
major factor in noisy washing machines
they're not the only cause
if you get anything trapped in the drum
such as a bra wire or a zip or in fact
any sort of foreign object it's going to
catch as the drum is spinning round so
do check your drum for anything that
might be trapped and causing the noise
similarly if you're finding that your
clothes are coming out after a cycle and
they're either damaged or even ripped
there's a good chance that the
perforations in the drum have been
damaged by a foreign object such as a
bra wire and it can actually cause the
edge of the metal to lift up and catch
the fabric as it's going over so one of
the ways that you can test is to just
grab a soft cloth or an old pair of
tights
and just rub it very carefully all the
way around the inside of the drum
and just feel for where the fabric is
catching
now in this drum there's
actually a
raise in the metal
here so the perforation is obviously
being caught by some something like a
wire
so you can just get rid of that by
grabbing a cross head screwdriver or a
wooden spatula and very gently pressing
down
onto the metal
just to even out the edge
and then you can check just by
rubbing a cloth
back over the top
also if the paddle in the drum
is damaged it can either be loose or
cracked it's going to catch your clothes
while they're passing over it and you're
going to need to
replace that and you can see how to do
this in another espares video
now one final thing to check is the gap
between the door seal and the edge of
the drum if the gap's too big your
clothes can get caught in it and this
can damage them while they're going
around in the machine
another cause of noise in your washing
machine is from loose weights there are
weights attached to the drum and they
help to control any excessive movement
while the drum is spinning
but if the weights become loose they can
produce a very solid thumping sound
and you're going to need to tighten them
up now i'm just going to take the
top
off this machine
and
here we have a weight on the top
and you can just check whether the
weights loose by looking at these
washers that are holding it down and if
the washers are loose then it means the
weight will be loose as well and if i
just shake the weight
you can hear it makes quite a noisy
sound as well so i'm just going to
tighten
the screws up
and that should
tighten the weight back up and help to
control the noise
now one of the ways in which the washers
and the weights can become loose in a
machine is by washing with an unbalanced
load now this means that you're washing
a light load but you're throwing in
perhaps one heavy item such as a pair of
jeans
and this means that the weight isn't
spread out properly around the drum
which is what causes it to shake so
excessively now you can resolve this by
washing several heavy items in your load
which means that the weight is spread
out or by keeping all of your heavy
items of clothing together
now i should also point out that the
drum is held in place by springs here
and here and there's also dampers
underneath and these all help to control
the movement that the drum is allowed
and you can see how to change your
washing machine damper in another
espares video and finally you should
also make sure that the machine itself
isn't rocking if it is then you need to
level out the feet on the bottom and you
can do this by either unscrewing or
screwing them in as necessary and just
making sure that the machine is nice and
sturdy and it's not going to rock
spares for washing machines and other
appliances are available on the espares
website thanks for watching