Hotpoint Washer Dryer (wd71) Eating Clothes

[Curious]

I've just found your web-site whilst looking for help with my hotpoint WD71 washer dryer. It seems to be eating clothes on the standard washing cycles, worse if it is reasonably full. It looks like friction burns on the spin cycle - perhaps rubbing on the hot air inlet/outlet above the door?

It also can make loud banging noises when starting to rotate the drum for the spin cycle. And there is evidence of the main motor hitting the right hand side of the case. Both the shock absorbers in the base are connected firmly and there are two springs at the top providing fore and aft location. Is this the total mounting for the drum assembly? I expected a little more!

Any ideas? As you mention on your web-site, the 5 year parts warranty will likely cost me dear ... Is it worth changing the springs and shock absorbers in the base?

I wish I'd kept my 11 year old machine .. one drum bearing and three sets of brushes and it was still working fine!

Thanks.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Don't change the suspension it will not cure the fault. The machine banging on the sides is a separate issue to eating clothes.

One possible cause of damage to clothes is if you put man-made fabrics such as nylon on a wash with a fast final spin speed. 1200 and 1300 speeds would cause friction burns on man-made items getting caught in the drum gap momentarily where other fabrics would suffer no damage. If the damage is done to all types of fabric then this can be discounted.

Washer dryers have often been associated with tearing clothes because of the hot air inlet for the dryer which is situated at the top of the door gasket. Hotpoint washer dryers got quite a roasting from Watchdog many years ago but Hotpoint always maintained it was customers overloading the washing machines that was the cause. Of course this is a very weak argument, because no washing machine should ever be designed in such a way that overloading – which is always going to happen – causes damage to the clothes. However, there is probably some truth in the assertion that big full loads are more prone to this problem.

The friction burns you describe are caused when an item of clothing gets caught in the gap between the revolving drum and the static plastic backplate at the back of the door seal. Late washing machines like yours though, shouldn’t be damaging clothes, at least not regularly. Hotpoint long-since increased the depth of the door glass to keep clothes away from the gap where they get trapped.

Clearly, if there is a great big load in the drum, then some items can be trapped at the front of the drum where this gap exists. Occasionally, if you are unlucky, a part of clothing can get caught and dragged round to the top of the drum, where it snags on the hot air inlet. This, as I said, should be a rare incident.

If it’s happening regularly then it’s totally unacceptable. One fault that can cause this is if the drum bearings are collapsing due to water getting in to them. This causes excess play in the drum which can be detected by lifting the front lip of the drum up and down. If the stainless drum actually moves up and down by more than a millimetre of so, and the gap can be observed to increase, then it could be the cause. However, this fault should be accompanied with a noisy spin. Don’t mix up the back and forth movement in the tub (which is on springs) with up and down movement in the actual revolving drum.

[Curious]

You mention that the knocking is another problem? Any hints on where to look? It's happened a fair bit ... there are a lot of marks where the motor mounting bracket has hit the side and also a small dent!

Since I posted the first message, I have found someone else who had both the knocking and ripping problems with the same model - they said that hotpoint changed the door seal rubber assembly and it cured both problems - does that sound a possibility to you? Do you have any idea on the price of this rubber assembly? ie. is it cheaper than the £85 hotpoint callout charge? (I live near Reading).

There is no play whatsoever in the drum bearings - the only slightly strange thing is that the drum isn't perfectly round .. the lip is oval by around 4 mm - is this normal? I assume there is some variance on a pressed stainless steel assembly?

It isn't just man-made fabrics such as nylon that are being damaged, it's everything from T-shirts to matress covers. Not every wash but once every 5 washes or so

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

The tub banging on the side of the shell causing dints is common, especially on older (made in 80s and early to mid 90s) Hotpoint washing machines. For some strange reason Hotpoint mount their motors uniquely on the top and to one side of the tub. This, to me, is an inherently unstable position and bound to cause problems. Everyone else mount their motors at the point of the lowest centre of gravity, at the bottom of the tub. (It should be noted that the latest Hotpoint washing machine motors are now mounted at the bottom of the tub)

Double check you are loading the washing machine properly as this is the most common cause of banging about on wash - How do I avoid out of balanced loads in my washing machine?

If loading the machine properly still results in regular banging of the tub against the shell (often quite violent) then the causes can be tricky to determine.

• Faulty suspension normally causes the tub to twist and not be held central inside the cabinet. The gap between one side of the tub to shell would be far greater than the other side which would mean when full of clothes and water the tub would twist and lean so much that the motor would be very close to the shell.
• If the suspension is OK, the problem is likely to be related to the speed of the motor. If it's going too fast or too slow then it can't distribute the clothes properly or it could be surging.

To diagnose this fault we need to establish whether the banging only ever occurs during a proper spin, or whether it occurs during washing and or rinsing. The latter is caused by the motor surging and is tricky to deal with. Possible causes include faulty programmer or speed control module and bad connections or dry joints in the PCB. ( Related: Washing machine timers and PCB repairs and testing )

Since I posted the first message, I have found someone else who had both the knocking and ripping problems with the same model - they said that Hotpoint changed the door seal rubber assembly and it cured both problems - does that sound a possibility to you?

It could be a design fault on that model. This happens from time to time and manufacturers modify the door seal or bring out a device to clip in the machine to close or guard the gap between the drum and door seal.

There is no play whatsoever in the drum bearings - the only slightly strange thing is that the drum isn't perfectly round .. the lip is oval by around 4 mm - is this normal? I assume there is some variance on a pressed stainless steel assembly?

Drums are often elliptical and rarely truly round at the lip. They vary greatly and if one is quite badly elliptical it can increase the chances of clothes getting caught and dragged round.


Considering the faults you have and that fact you have 2 separate problems, I would call in Hotpoint under the 5-year parts guarantee. I would consider complaining about the damage to clothes and using that as leverage.

Finally, if you are covered, consider if it's worth claiming on your household insurance for damage to your clothes (many of which can be expensive) Look into it to see if you are covered for such events. Many are.