Bearings failed after just 15 months

[Smoothy]

I bought a Zanussi washing machine. Well a year and a quarter later, that Zanussi's bearings decided that it was going to wear out, with a loud screeching noise heard during spin.  So on the 7th Jan I booked a fixed-price repair with Zanussi.  Big mistake - they came out today (nearly two weeks later) merely to diagnose the issue, THEN order parts (new drum, motor and bearing assembly).  Next booking - 31st Jan.

So angry!  I can't have no washing machine for nearly a month, especially with kids in the house.

Asked for a refund.  Will only get back £69.99 because the engineer came out.

I've now sent a complaint to them.

It's literally quicker to replace a machine, I can order one and get it out tomorrow.

My advice - if your machine goes kaput out of warranty, buy a new one, even if it's a year and a day later.

[Whitegoodshelp]

This is a is abismal service. Under the consumer rights act aour products must be repaired in a reasonable time. I would say waiting 2 weeks for someone just to come and order parts, and then another 2 or 3 weeks, is not reasonable. 

Also, you can argue with the retailer that the washing machine was not of sufficient quality, and has not lasted a reasonable time as it needs virtually all its insides replacing after such a very short time. 

I would get help and advice from Citizens Advice. Don't bother arguing with the manufacturer as they have no responsibility under consumer rights other than to honour the guarantee. 

I would tell the retailer you need a refund or replacement, because it was of insufficient quality as it has suffered major failure after just 15 months - plus, it cannot even be repaired within a reasonable time. So it has broken the Consumer Rights Act 2015 on 2 counts. 

[Smoothy]

Hi

I return with news.  After negotiating with AO they offered £75 toward the repair costs.  I thought this was not right to have paid £279 for a washing machine + £149 for a repair just to get £75 back, so took it to "Consumer Dispute Resolution Limited".  They finally got back stating this in point 18 and 19 of the decision document:

Quote

18.

As the Claimant bears the burden of proof, it is for the Claimant to initially satisfy the burden of proving that the Washing Machine is faulty due to a latent defect that would have been present at the point of delivery. Due to the length of time that the Claimant has had ownership of the Washing Machine, one would expect that it is more likely than not that such a defect would have been present sooner if it were caused as a result of a latent manufacturing defect. In order to dissuade this view, I would expect the Claimant to have provided sufficient evidence, such as their own independent expert report, to support that the fault with the Washing Machine has been caused by a latent manufacturing defect.

19.

Whilst I acknowledge the Claimant’s submission, as the Claimant has not presented any substantive evidence in support of the cause of the fault, I find that the Claimant has failed to discharge their burden of proof in this case.

So I was denied.  They did uphold the earlier £75 offer though.

So in short, if your white goods breaks before a reasonable amount of time has passed, you're going to have to pay to get an expert in to examine and determine that it's due to a fault inherent with the goods.  The mere fact of it conking out much much earlier than is usual is not enough to obtain your money back.

Unfortunately for me this means three things:

1. I will not deal with that retailer again
2. I now no longer trust that manufacturer
3. Repairs are a total waste of money, as the big company that deals with the majority of repairs can't or won't fix it in a timely manner

[Whitegoodshelp]

Thanks for the update. I feel that you were let down by the consumer group in the sense that your complaint should not have been that it had an inherent fault. It was, as I mentioned in my first reply, that the appliance was not of sufficient quality, having suffered a major and catastrophic breakdown after less than two years. And furthermore, that it could not be repaired within a reasonable timeframe. These two points are also built into our consumer rights under the consumer rights act 2015.

The consumer rights act says that a product should be of sufficient quality, it should not suffer from inherent faults, and it should last a reasonable time – plus if needing a repair, repairs should be carried out within a reasonable time. It sounds like your case was only presented as it had an inherent fault, which no one is going to accept without some sort of "proof".

It's also incorrect for them to say that an inherent fault is likely to occur quite quickly. There could be an argument to say that there is a difference between an inherent fault and a design fault, but for me, if something is sold with a design flaw that causes premature failure of parts, then that is an inherent fault.

If a major part like the drum bearings fail after such a short time (and I've heard of countless cases where they fail after just a few years), then the only explanation is that there is either an inherent design fault that allows water to enter the bearings causing their demise, or that they are simply such poor quality that they do not last. Either case should easily be covered under the consumer rights act 2015.

[Andy D]

Bearings going kaput under 2 years olsd. I`ve had quite a few do that but not Zanussi. Though did have an AEG that did that (AEG is to all and tense purposes a slightly up market Zanussi -same company owned by Electrolux.)

So why is this happening;? Ok, had this happen prematurely on Bosch, Curry`s Logik (a dismantleable tank unit), Hotpoints, Indesit and many others but not Beko and seldom Hoover (but they had plenty of other problems none -the-less just not premature bearing cock-ups! Problem as far as I sussed was no grease on the oil seal. Most but not all were sealed tank models so I had to cut the tanks in half to get at the drum (rendering the machine even more defunt) this was all purely just to see why. So no grease = friction worn oil seal = water gets through = nuked bearing you cannot do anything about.

Since most if not all of these factories are all automated there`s no one to stick 2 fingers worth of grease into the rear tank bearing / oil seal area  on the assembly line so the drum units are fitted dry and so by dry the meaning is without any lub - the actual bearings are all sealed having been bought in parts previously being greased but not the oil seals which is where the problem lies.....so much for automated factories then so looks and sounds very C21st but the basics are missed!

Whether the tank unit is sealed or can be dismantled it is the same problem it even happened to my TCL 1400 except I didn`t let the machine get that far at 15 months old. I dismantled at the first sign it started squeaking on tumble and yes that was bone dry oil seal too. Plenty of gease on the seal and hub ring has solved the problem and now 8months on we are still ok and now out of warranty, 2years warranty but I doubt that means much to be frank which is why I repaired it myself rather than hang about for the repairers who I could almost guarantee would not have any part needed by the time they turned up. TCL oil seal if you ever need one (the bearings will be generic ones) order from China diect via ebay uk. I ordered 2 and inlc postage &packaging it was £8 something, if you bought one from FIXPART one oil seal is just over 40 quid  = robbery - someone there has obviously got a MBA in business Management - you can take what that comment means for yourself!

Always buy a machine you can dismantle the tank so you have a least have a fighting chance, conversely with a sealed tank you`re on a hiding to nothing (other than a massive bill).

[Whitegoodshelp]

On 13/01/2026 at 17:38, Andy D said:

Always buy a machine you can dismantle the tank

Sadly that's just about impossible now. Ebac is the only one I know of

[Andy D]

There are many brands of machines with a dismantleable tank. Boils down to 1)Korean (Lg, Samsung) 2)Chinese  (loads e.g. Willow, TCL and 3 dozen more) and 3) Vestel (even more brand names e.g. Bush, Electra, Royal and dozens more) made machines from Turkey and 1 known Bosch model with very expensive parts ditto a Neff w/dryer I got roped into repairing that cost 500 quid to repair such as the hammering it received after the bearings failed - daft customer! I used to work mostly on the cheaper brands up to 300  quid of which looking on ebay uk there are many under that price. I should imagine you on your own as far as a decent service is involved should it crash out on you even when under warranty which is nearly always done by 3 rd party repairers and a long wait for parts.....out of warranty your in the lap of the Gods..