Wmm59 Hotpoint Dampers

[Cuckoo999]

Hi, bit of a novice on tiny stuff. The old 9 yr old washer was spooling up and started clunking. Not sounding good, had a look and the drum is moving laterally as well as vertically. Popped the top off, and the dampers feel really weak. Gentle push and it bottoms, looks like fine oil at the base too. Should they be this weak? Is there anything to stop the drum moving laterally apart from inertia? Thanks in advance.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Normally the suspension on a washing machine should be fairly stiff but not too stiff. It's hard to describe how stiff but they are quite bouncy. Nothing like as stiff as on a car etc though. Your description does make it sound like the suspension could be needing attention.

[Cuckoo999]

Yeah, had a proper look tonight. Work trousers have knee pads - floors get harder with age! Figuring as it should have 6kg load, it should take more than that before there is any deflection but these are proper wibbly! Figure also the springs keep the drum central rather than having a lateral damper / mounting. Best get some dampers ordered and give it a whirl.... Where did I put those JCB ones???

[Cuckoo999]

Nice. £20 on parts, half an hour on knees. 1 load done and the backlog going down! Thanks for your advice.

[edhorwood]

I hope you got genuine parts? I got cheaper dampers and a month later they were knackered. Rather than keep swapping for new ones, I bit the bullet and purchased genuine hotpoint ones.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Good point Edd, even genuine parts these days aren't so good but any copies designed to undercut will be worse. For reference, these are the genuine Hotpoint suspension parts for WMM59