03-05-2021, 11:31 AM
I did the one in my Bosch last year. The original seal only lasted 21 years. Rubbish!
Sadly, it's getting really noisy now - I'm guessing motor bearing at this point, but it's hard to be sure. Given that there's a lot of rust to the bodywork, I'm probably at the point where I should replace it, but no idea with what. I somehow doubt we'd get 20+ years from anything available today...
It's had a hard life, but apart from the door seal I think the only repairs were new brushes and a new door latch (because the NTC element had gone high). When we lived in Norfolk we had a couple of instances of sludge in the waterways in the soap tray, which meant the fabric softener wasn't taken down - but an easy fix. Not a bad ROI overall.
Just recently I measured the noise it makes on spin, as that's a key specification given in the specs and our machine is in the kitchen/diner. Even with the noisy bearing, it's just over 70dBA, which is what the quieter machines manage. And I wouldn't mind betting they measure in a carpeted room with some other treatment to "massage" the figure, so our hard tiled floor and surfaces would be doing the opposite. But then, my 20 year old car measured the same as the replacement (at the same speed and same stretch of the M5!), but the noise is different and slightly less intrusive, so the raw number is not the full picture by any means.
Changing the seal was a lot easier than I expected - I don't remember the outer wire+spring being a problem, but it was probably one of the trickier parts.
Last time I changed a door seal was in 1992. The repair shop selling me the seal did their best to persuade me not to try as that particular machine (can't remember what it was) was apparently one of the hardest to do. That, of course, made me all the more determined to try - plus we were students with no cash! It took all afternoon, but I got there in the end. The machine had been destroyed by being taken to the student house in a borrowed trailer with no transit bolts (not my idea!). It didn't wash very well, so I took the top off and discovered the concrete block had smashed up the pressure switch. I replaced that and the machine started filling up to the right levels, but the seal was torn by the journey so it leaked water all over the place. But as it was outside in a lean-to, we ignored it until the pump objected to the constant dousing by catching fire (then extinguishing itself, of course!). No RCD in that house - there was quite a bang and a lot of smoke. Luckily, the repair shop also had a set of transit bolts, and at the end of the year it safely came home with me and did another 10 years in another house with no issues.
Fixing white goods is generally easy, or doable at least, and very satisfying, but I don't enjoy the pressure. If we had space, I'd keep spares. We have spares of just about everything else, after all...
Sadly, it's getting really noisy now - I'm guessing motor bearing at this point, but it's hard to be sure. Given that there's a lot of rust to the bodywork, I'm probably at the point where I should replace it, but no idea with what. I somehow doubt we'd get 20+ years from anything available today...
It's had a hard life, but apart from the door seal I think the only repairs were new brushes and a new door latch (because the NTC element had gone high). When we lived in Norfolk we had a couple of instances of sludge in the waterways in the soap tray, which meant the fabric softener wasn't taken down - but an easy fix. Not a bad ROI overall.
Just recently I measured the noise it makes on spin, as that's a key specification given in the specs and our machine is in the kitchen/diner. Even with the noisy bearing, it's just over 70dBA, which is what the quieter machines manage. And I wouldn't mind betting they measure in a carpeted room with some other treatment to "massage" the figure, so our hard tiled floor and surfaces would be doing the opposite. But then, my 20 year old car measured the same as the replacement (at the same speed and same stretch of the M5!), but the noise is different and slightly less intrusive, so the raw number is not the full picture by any means.
Changing the seal was a lot easier than I expected - I don't remember the outer wire+spring being a problem, but it was probably one of the trickier parts.
Last time I changed a door seal was in 1992. The repair shop selling me the seal did their best to persuade me not to try as that particular machine (can't remember what it was) was apparently one of the hardest to do. That, of course, made me all the more determined to try - plus we were students with no cash! It took all afternoon, but I got there in the end. The machine had been destroyed by being taken to the student house in a borrowed trailer with no transit bolts (not my idea!). It didn't wash very well, so I took the top off and discovered the concrete block had smashed up the pressure switch. I replaced that and the machine started filling up to the right levels, but the seal was torn by the journey so it leaked water all over the place. But as it was outside in a lean-to, we ignored it until the pump objected to the constant dousing by catching fire (then extinguishing itself, of course!). No RCD in that house - there was quite a bang and a lot of smoke. Luckily, the repair shop also had a set of transit bolts, and at the end of the year it safely came home with me and did another 10 years in another house with no issues.
Fixing white goods is generally easy, or doable at least, and very satisfying, but I don't enjoy the pressure. If we had space, I'd keep spares. We have spares of just about everything else, after all...
