It's just a cheap Bush and it had a full load and starting smoking when on spin.
Not something I thought I'd ever type but here we are.
I suspect it's the motor but could it be the belt? Not much smoke but I could smell it nearer the end of the cycle and when I opened the door a slight mist of smoke came out... So we will all be smelling super in the house for a few days.
Cheers!
Take the lid off and see what you can see? It's likely two or three screws.
^^Was that before or after the repair?
Look on the positive side; you've just got yourself a fire pit for the garden*
*plus a couple £100 bill to buy a new tumby and a trip to the tip to dump the carcas of the old one!
We had this scenario with our washer a while back on a full load (old curtains I used as dust sheets) down to the little bit of smoke as I opened the door. I was convinced it was the motor or a belt or something mechanical.
I booked a repair person to come out and told my wife not to use it as I was worried about fire risk.. you know what happened next.. she used it 2-3 times while I was at work.. and it was fine. I think something had got stuck in the door/seal on the spin cycle and got rather hot!
Anyway, IANA washing machine repair man so can’t accept any responsibility for continued use of the washer by you or anyone else in your house!
^^Was that before or after the repair?
During.
It did another 8 or so years after that.
Anyway, IANA washing machine repair man so can’t accept any responsibility for continued use of the washer by you or anyone else in your house!
Sorry but that's not how it works. I'm going to turn the thing on right now and stuck a couple of full Calor gas bottles in front of it. You basically approved it.😉
Joking aside, I'll try it with just a few bits in it tomorrow and see how it goes ok. We've had it since 2017 so that's not bad for a £129 washing machine (when we bought it).
probably bad, right?
Of the three people I've known whose houses have burned down only two were caused by washing machines. (The third was caused by a shaving mirror and a sunny day.)
(actually I've just remembered a 4th and the cause was 'my granddad' burning down a place in the OP's neck of the woods I think)
Of the three people I known whose houses have burned down
You either know a very large number of people or move in scary circles.
4? It gets worse.
Not sure if it’s compatible, probably depends if it’s wire smoke or mechanical smoke.
@jamesoz Just like bike lube, id need to spend days researching it before making a decision to buy the same one I've used for years.😉😁
The machine will be turned off at the walk from now on, luckily, it's only in use when I'm here so I can go up when the house does.
I’d open it up and have a look around, Hoover out any fluff and see where it’s coming from.
It’s just a cheap Bush and it had a full load and starting smoking
Don't skin up while doing the chores then
matt_outandabout, did you find that other sock?
I've got a simmilar problem...
It only smoked at the end of the longest programme, 3.5hrs with extra rinse and spin cycles or whatever.
It seems fine on a 45min or 30min wash, which is fine for my use 99% of the time, I guess as it's not running long enough for heat/friction to build up enough.
My dilemma is if I pull the machine out to have a butchers, it's in a really awkward spot in the corner of the kitchen counter, and will require taking a cupboard door off and removing a drawer to get enough clearence to pull the thing out.
I can't afford a new machine for a few months, so if it's not an easy/obvious repair I'll need to put a new machine in pronto, which I can't currently do... so I'm just going to nurse it on (short cycles & supervised washing) for a few months.
Overloading is really bad for washers, too, you're better off doing several short/cooler cycles than packing it full and running it overloaded for several hours, in terms of wear and tear?
Slight thread derailment, but if/when I buy a new one.. is there any reason not to go for a big drum, as in ~11kg+ capacity over a more standard ~7kg capacity?
I guess my worry is the meat and potatoes of the machine will be the same but just with a bigger drum, so it may fail sooner if it's being run at max load on a regular basis?
I opened the door a slight mist of smoke came out
If there's smoke/mist inside the drum (which is sealed so that water can't get out) could be the drum rubbing on the seal at the front of the machine. There should be sufficient clearance between the seal & the drum so that they don't rub & get hot. There's a number of things that can cause this. Bearing failure, failure of the alloy spider at the back of the drum, seal gone baggy etc.
Does the drum spin freely by hand? If you open the door and try to move the inner drum up and down is there any play? Any noise whilst rotating by hand?
If you open the door and try to move the inner drum up and down is there any play?
Mine has a good inch or two of 'bounce' or lateral movement (without using a huge amount of elbow grease) as if it's suspended by tight bungee chords. It spins freely though.
I only paid £100 for it though, as a deal when I moved into the house, it's a fairly new machine (less than 3 years old, I was 'told' so it's probably circa 5 years old now ).
So part of my thinking is... if it's not a super easy fix, I should probably just drop £400ish on a new machine, as an engineer call out will probably cost me more than what the current machine is worth.
Add some essential oils to the next load. If the house burns down at least you’ll be relaxed about it and it will smell nice.
This seems like the perfect opportunity for the anagallis arvensis repair approach, take it apart, find what’s wrong and then fail dismally to put it back together again, then buy a new one.
You're tongue-in-cheek perhaps but you're absolutely right, if you're prepared to buy a new one anyway then it's the ideal time to attempt a repair. What's the worst outcome here (aside from "death"😁), it winds up more broken?
Slight thread derailment, but if/when I buy a new one.. is there any reason not to go for a big drum, as in ~11kg+ capacity over a more standard ~7kg capacity?
None.
Particularly if you read the instructions and discover most of the machines and wash programmes are actually half the capacity stated. The full capacity and maximum water and energy saving is usually for one wash programme.
I'm intrigued about our new Samsung washer and new LG drier. We now end up doing maybe another couple of (smaller) loads - and I wonder if this reduced the energy 'saving' of a spiffy new efficient machine? Same when we use the drier, something we avoid doing, as it now runs for 3 hours and sometimes needs an air dry to finish anyway....
