LG DirectDrive F-series glass bowls

[PatJW]

My LG washer  - F1495KDS - recently fell foul of the mysterious exploding glass fault last week and since then I have had a mighty headache.

The service manual does not show a part number for this in the exploded diagram.  I can replace the outer door frame (MDQ61976901) and the inner door frame (MDQ61281001), I can even buy a complete new door assembly (ADC33666416), but it seems even LG themselves have no clue whether this part exists as a seperate entity or why, if you can buy the inner and outer frame, you can't buy the glass bowl on its own.

It defies logic that this is the case, as I expect the most common door fault with a lot of washers is a broken bowl, unless it's a parts profiteering exercise to make you buy a complete new door when you only need the glass, or pay extortionate fees to their service contractors to call-out.  A new door is £160 + postage on 4lg.

Out of curiousity, I've knocked round a couple of big suppliers and checked these doors on most of these DirectDrive machines.  All the ones with the bigger drum capacities have the exact same doors, with different external trim and the glass bowls inside are all EXACTLY the same.  This is across a wide range of DirectDrive washers, including the F-series.

If it's a universal part, as it seems, why can't I as a 3rd party source one? >:(

Edited September 6, 2016 by Whitegoodshelp (Andy)
Added link to the exploding door glass article

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hello Pat. One of the things that makes the exploding door glass issue so remarkable is that the door glass in washing machines does not normally break. It is relatively thick and shouldn't ever need replacing normally. The fact that they don't supply the door glass as a separate part seems in line with that thought. Many manufacturers only supply a complete door these days, which again is becoming more and more common.

Many parts are now becoming unavailable as separate parts. One of the worst examples is that some fridges have no replaceable door seals and if the door seal becomes torn or worn you have to replace the entire door, which as you can imagine is considerably more expensive.

I would think it impossible to get a third-party door glass. Third-party companies profit by copying parts and are only interested in making parts that will sell big quantities. There are many parts that hardly ever get sold and they would be crazy to manufacture the door glass as they would make no profit whatsoever.