Well done you, and well done Hotpoint (as was owned by GEC) ) only the 1st set of bearings in 16 years? My 22 year old one WM51 has had 4 sets so far, and 2 motors - not - cos they burn out but 'cos the bearings become noisy and you can't replace the one on the commuator end of the rotor.... plus umpteen sets of brushes.
Yep, first set of bearings, and it's first major repair of any sort. It has had relatively light use over the years, by minimising the number of times it needs to be used. I have lots of clothes , so I can afford to just stack them up to await a full load before running it.
I remember having to repair it just out of warranty, when it suddenly began misbehaving - I traced that to a capacitor, which was under rated for the temperature environment it was in, set between two quite warm heat sinks. Lots of others suffered the same fate, and an easy permanent fix, with an uprated temperature capacitor. Then the drain pump was once jammed by a bra wire
Did you see the state of the heater? If you live in a hard water area its advisable to descale the w/m say every 3 months else the heater will burn out, and it's another strip down to change. Later models, , you can't split the drum so you can't replace the bearings, I'd recommend hanging onto yours as long as you can!
Yes and there was a light coating of limescale on it, but not enough to be a real concern, that despite it never having had any descaler since new. None-the-less, I ran some descaler in it after I had rebuilt it and got it working, leaving it to soak for 24 hours.
Girlfriend when I told her what I was busy with, mentioned her 3 year old machine's drum was noisy. She's hoping the insurance she has paid for it since she bought it will replace it with a new one, assuming fitting a new tub will be as much as a replacement machine.
