Why Is My Mashing Machine Noisy On A Fast Spin?

What Causes A Noisy Washing Machine?

Ok, so this is a question we get asked on a daily basis. The short answer is, how long is a piece of string. A noisy washing machine can be something simple like an unbalanced load to something major like drum bearings, until we take it apart, we cannot give a definitive answer. In this post though we’ll cover the worst-case scenario, the drum bearings.

What Are Drum Bearings in A Washing Machine?

Washing machine drum bearings are basically the parts that allow the metal part of your washing machine drum to turn whilst the plastic outer part of the drum stays stationary. The metal part of the drum has something called a “shaft” or “drum support” connected to the back of it, this is often referred to as a “drum spider” because it has three “legs” that screw to the drum and then it has a cylindrical shaft in the centre that is threaded at the end allowing for a securing nut.

Washing Machine Noisy?

The bearings are basically a metal ring that is filled with grease and small ball bearings, there is a washing machine bearing situated at the front of the back half of the plastic tub and one at the rear of the back half of the plastic tub. A rubber seal is the pressed on top of the front bearing which stops any debris or water from entering the bearing housing, keeping them dry and well lubricated..

How Do I Know If My Bearings Have Failed?

Well, it won’t be hard to tell if your washing machine bearings have failed because the machine will sound like a train when it goes into it’s top spin RPM. Sometimes you will just hear a rumbling type noise which means that the washing machine bearings have lost their lubrication, usually by water entering them due to a bad seal. Sometimes you will hear a horrendous banging noise, like the drum is about to explode, this is when there is vertical movement in the metal drum, caused by either a failed shaft, completely failed bearings where the ball bearings inside have fallen out or a loose bearing in the bearing housing.

A Video Of A Failed Noisy Bearing.

This is a job for one of our customers this week where a Samsung 10kg washing machine was noisy, the washing machine had failed drum bearings, there was really loud rumbling from the bearings but also lots of vertical movement in the metal tub. The front bearing had failed causing the rumbling noise and the back one had failed to the point where it had started to move inside the collar and actually widened the seat of the collar where the bearing sits causing lots of movement where there should be none at all.

How Easy Is It To Replace Washing Machine Drum Bearings?

Not very, is the honest answer. Washing machine engineers try to avoid this job like the plague, it is a very labour intensive and time-consuming job to do and can usually deem the washing machine uneconomical to repair.

The washing machine repair starts by being stripped down to the point where the whole tub can be removed from the machine. Once the tub is out of the machine it then needs to be split in two by unscrewing all the bolts that hold the front and back halves together. Once split the retaining nut and pulley wheel have to be removed, the metal inner tub has to be split from the rear plastic half giving full access to the bearings. At this point the bearings need to be pressed out and the new ones pressed in using a bearing press and at this point the seal is pressed in.

Once all this is done the rebuild can then commence starting with replacing the drum seal that seals the two plastic parts of the tub stopping any leaks from the seam.

In the case of this washing machine repair, the rear collar was widened so far that the rear bearing literally just came out in my hand therefore we had to replace the whole rear half of the tub.

Is Your Washing Machine Noisy?

This customer opted for this repair because they had a 10kg Samsung series 5 washing machine. These are still very expensive machines to buy so when comparing the cost of this repair vs the cost to replace the washing machine, like for like, it was more cost effective to replace the rear half drum as it brings it back to a new condition at a fraction of the price.

Obviously, you would need to weigh up the pros and cons for you and your budget/circumstances etc because to be honest, unfortunatley, not all machines would be worth repairing as the price of the parts and labour would cost more than it would to replace the machine.

If your washing machine is noisy on a spin and you want to know if it is worth repairing, then give Able Domestics a call today on 0161 758 7887 and speak to one of our experienced team.