Front load washer drum support replacement
Texas sure has some hard water. Fortunately for many of our customers “HOWDY!” Appliance Repair has the expertise to tackle the replacement of a broken drum support on their front load washers. LG, Samsung, any manufacturer. “One call… We repair them all!!!”
It’s very hard to pin point the exact cause of a broken drum support. It is my professional opinion that there are several factors that cause these front load washer drum supports to break. Sadly there isn’t much that can be done, practically, to prevent it either, at least not to my knowledge.
This is my theory. First there are several little hollows/”cubbies” in the drum support itself. These “cubbies” together with how the drum sits (tilted towards the back) inside the front load washer cabinet and the dirt, oils, greases, etc. along with the detergent itself floating on top of the water sloshing around during the wash cycle. These impurities gather and begin to form deposits inside the “cubbies” thus slowly corroding and breaking down the cast aluminum drum support. So imagine the strain placed upon these compromised drum supports during a high speed spin cycle with a load of soaking wet towels, jeans or bedding, it’s got to be tremendous! So eventually they do fail.
So here are a few tell tale signs you should look out for.
1. If , when you spin the drum by hand, looking at the edge of the drum, you see it seems out of round, give me a call right away.
2. If during the high speed spin cycle you notice a burning plastic or rubber odor, give me a call right away.
3. This one may be one of a few other factors… If your front load washer during the high speed spin cycle sounds like it’s going to fall apart, after it gets up to speed and the counter balance has had time enough to equalize, at least a few seconds. Give me a call right away.
The sooner you call or schedule a service call online after first noticing any one of these tell tale signs the better off you will be. I’ve seen where pieces of the support have broken off during the spin cycle and gotten wedged between the drum and outer tub, which is plastic, and just perforate the outer tub causing additional charges for repairing or replacing it. It also has rubbed and burned (hence the burning smell noted previously) holes all around the front of the outer tub and rubber boot.
The repairing of a broken drum support typically takes between 2 to 3 hours, depending on the severity of the damage. Unfortunately the extent of the damage doesn’t rear it’s ugly head until the unit has been near fully disassembled. Below I’ve assembled a photo gallery of actual drum support replacement jobs that I have done personally.