Faulty Washing Machine

mbeamethyst

Hi, looking for next steps advice please. We have a 2 month old Miele washing machine, purchased from John Lewis. We reported a fault (outwith 30 days) - of a rattling noise when spinning. JL attended and removed transit bars, still same problem, so Miele engineer came out and locked feet in place and ran diagnostics that showed noise at 900rpm.

The engineer report back to John Lewis has said that the machine is noisy due to its environment and that there's no manufacturing fault. Because of this JL are refusing to replace and the only solution they offered was to "buy a mat for it" from Amazon. 

The issue is that they won't accept that the problem we have isn't with noise or vibration, but a metallic rattling that shakes our whole house at certain points in the spin cycle. We took a video of the issue 10 minutes after the engineer left that is clear as day a noisy rattle but JL say they accept the engineer's report not our video.

Would really appreciate any advise on what we can do to resolve this. Thanks.

Aylesbury_Duck

Are you sure there isn't a secondary fault that has arisen from using the machine with the transit bolts in place for two months?  Who installed the machine?  If it was a third party, and the damage is a result of the transit bolts not being removed, you may have a claim against them.  If you installed it yourselves, it's a problem.

At this stage, the only way forward I can see is to pay for your own inspection and see if a second opinion finds a fault.

mbeamethyst

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Are you sure there isn't a secondary fault that has arisen from using the machine with the transit bolts in place for two months?  Who installed the machine?  If it was a third party, and the damage is a result of the transit bolts not being removed, you may have a claim against them.  If you installed it yourselves, it's a problem.

At this stage, the only way forward I can see is to pay for your own inspection and see if a second opinion finds a fault.

That's exactly what we think, but John Lewis, who installed it, have said that the installation check confirmed it was installed properly, despite the installer telling us on a follow up visit that he hadn't originally removed the transit bolts - somehow that never made it on to the report.

Miele have also said the machine wouldn't function with the transit bars in place, despite us telling them it was working OK for the first few weeks.

So John Lewis are saying it wasn't an issue with their installation and Miele are saying there isn't a manufacturing fault.

theonlywayisup

You need to commission your own report - citing the bolts have caused this or that the fault is inherent.  

Aylesbury_Duck

Hmm, I had suspected that the technician was covering JL's backside by omitting mention of the transit bolts, but if Miele are certain the machine literally couldn't run with them still in place, it seems he misled you when stating he'd removed them.

You were clearly not given the bolts by the installer, so where were they if they were removed when it was installed? Left to rattle around loose in the cabinet, or is there a pocket or clips for them?  You could check the manual to see.  Whenever I've installed my own machines, the bolts come out and the manual recommends keeping them with the instructions so if you ever need to transport the machine, they can go back in.

Something isn't right here, and my suspicion is that the installers have mucked up and that's being covered up.

Manxman_in_exile

Just to say that when we had our current washing m/c delivered and installed by JL, they did a perfect job and couldn't be faulted.  (It's one of those Bosch ones with the annoying "beep" that you can't disable - unless you turn the m/c off).

But when JL delivered and installed the previous m/c, they made a right pig's ear out of it and it required a further two visits by JL technicians to get it right.  (It hadn't been levelled properly and was making a terrible noise and neither of the two technicians were impressed by how their colleagues had left it.  It had been delivered at about 9pm and I think it was the last drop of the day and they just wanted to go home).

But I find it hard to believe that anybody would leave the transit bolts/struts attached when setting up a washing m/c... 

MattMattMattUK

If the noise only occurs at 900 RPM that would tend to indicate there is some kind of resonance issue, if it were a loose bolt for example the noise would be present all the way through the rotational speed, it would just sound different across the range. My first guess would be that it is not level, or not flat to the ground, but it is hard to tell online. Can you share the video of the strange noise and what the machine looks like when it is doing it?

Aylesbury_Duck

MattMattMattUK said:

If the noise only occurs at 900 RPM that would tend to indicate there is some kind of resonance issue, if it were a loose bolt for example the noise would be present all the way through the rotational speed, it would just sound different across the range. My first guess would be that it is not level, or not flat to the ground, but it is hard to tell online. Can you share the video of the strange noise and what the machine looks like when it is doing it?

Indeed, if it is only present at that one speed then as you say, it must be something resonating, which would suggest a problem with one or more of the levelling of the machine, insufficient clearance around the machine, or poor design that allows something to vibrate undampened at a spin speed the machine uses.