Washing machine Expertise requested

Kensington

Hi, wander if anyone can shed some light on this.....

Recently purchased a new build house which included a new washing machine. The first time it was used the it literally went mad jumping up & down and making a huge racket (husband blamed the fact that the washing machine was overloaded?!) so on the 2nd load of washing consulted the husband before turning on and was told the load was just right (by his standards) the washing machine again went mad, jumping up and down again and a huge racket. I queried a couple of times and eventually left the washing machine running when I knew some jobs were being sorted out in the house. I was then told something was wrong and the "bolts were still in the drum"? They have since removed them, but i feel the washing machine is still making a racket.....could someone tell me if the washing machine has been damaged from leaving the bolts in and if it should be something I should raise ie request they install a new washing machine....

your expertise and thoughts welcome
many thanks in advance

Whits

As the house is a new build, everything will be under guarantee. You have no way of knowing how much damage has been done to the machine.

When a machine is manufactured, there are bolts put in from the back to hold the drum still whilst it is being transported to prevent damage. The bolts have to be removed prior to the machine being fitted or you will find it making loads of noise and the drum will not spin.

OK_Sauce

Also make sure the machine is ABSOLUTELY LEVEL front to back and left to right. Use a spirit level if you can. Any slight variation off true level may cause the drum to be out of balance and therefore noisy. However if the bolts were in, some damage may have incurred.

alanobrien

If the transit bolts were left in that would account for the imbalance in the drum and subsequent noise. if you are unlucky it may also have caused other damage to the machine. (damaged the bearings for instance).

Whoever fitted and commissioned the machine is at fault because they simply did not do it to the manufacturers instructions.

If this was part of the deal of your new build, i would call the builder and request a replacement.

Nobleck

It is possable but very unlikely, that your machine was one the Quality Control missed at the factory. Either way it sound to me that the machine will now be damaged (transit bolts unremoved cause bearing to shatter).

Avoriaz

Demand a new machine and don’t take no for an answer.

No competent installer would leave the transit bolts in place.

Even if the machine works ok now, its life may have been considerably shortened by using it a few times with the bolts in place.

Tell the builder or whoever that you only used it once and removed the bolts yourself as soon as you realised there was a problem. Don’t let them say that because you carried on using it even though it was noisy, any damage is your fault.

Strictly seeking you should have not carried on using it but I can imagine you had 100 other things on your mind in a new house.

Check everything else too.

Kensington

Hiya, thanks for the responses! On the 1st visit the customer services manager mentioned something about the noise problem being caused by 'levelling', (as per OK sauce), so I will get this checked out again as maybe this is what is causing the remaining noise..the other thing was they said it was behind a cupboard door, so the machine could been hitting the door, hence the noise(?)....the only way I could convince them that the machine really was going mad (and not me!) was keeping it on when they next visited. (Oh, it was the expert that took the bolts out...I dont know a thing about washing machines..except how to fill them!)

Anyway, the company have been very good, so I dont really want to cause probelms/make an issue, but I do feel that the person installing the machine should not have left these bolts in and I'm afraid that in turn it has damaged the machine....

Many thanks for all your responses again, really appreciated. Think I will go and have a think and perhaps have a word with the customer services manager next week. Will keep you posted on events, thank you again

Avoriaz

Kensington wrote:

…Anyway, the company have been very good, so I dont really want to cause probelms/make an issue, ..

You have paid them to be very good.

Don’t be embarrassed or reluctant to complain just because they are nice people.

Be nice back but insist on getting what you paid for and insist that they remedy any faults in the house or the fittings.