old washer needs repairs; worth the fix?

[notharry]

Motors pumps bearings switches transmissions are and have always been the same part numbers, on similer sizes domestic machines. Shocking i know but in most cases ane nothing more than a domestic machine that has the ability to accept coin.

What I ment to say is similer sized commercial machines.

I am not familier with the TR line differances myself.

 

[repairman54]

2x, the Whirlpool top loader and matching dryers are just domestic with coin mechs. I side serviced a few of them 5 yrs ago.
SQ front loaders I ran across at work were small capacity and took longer to get parts back then, even the big S had delays.

 

[Chris142]

We had a Kenmore dryer my mom bought in the 90's I guess. It lost a roller for the belt around 2010. I bought a kit with a belt and new rollers for cheap.... $25 ish.

I fixed it which was very easy. We used it up till a couple years ago when we upgraded to a stackable set.

I sold it for $75.

 

[notharry]

We had a Kenmore dryer my mom bought in the 90's I guess. It lost a roller for the belt around 2010. I bought a kit with a belt and new rollers for cheap.... $25 ish.

I fixed it which was very easy. We used it up till a couple years ago when we upgraded to a stackable set.

I sold it for $75.

We have rental property that has a kenmore gas dryer from 1971. All ive done to it in all these years was cleanings, oilings and a few belts filter and a few catches. 3 Tenant used everyday. Cleaning of the blower housing and the holes where the air gets sucked from the tub inside the drum area is crucial. Overheating the burners and elements shortens the life of whats around it. Did you use oem parts?

 

[Paco Pena]

My 42 year old Kenmore dryer shat the bed. After pulling it apart I decided it didnt owe me anything and bought a new Whirlpool. I wont get 42 years out of that one.

paco

 

[Wolfshead]

Made in USA, USA !

 

[Carmudgeon]

We had a Kenmore dryer my mom bought in the 90's I guess. It lost a roller for the belt around 2010. I bought a kit with a belt and new rollers for cheap.... $25 ish.

I fixed it which was very easy. We used it up till a couple years ago when we upgraded to a stackable set.

I sold it for $75.

Whirlpool has been building the same front-load dryer since forever.

I replaced a 1970 Kenmore with a 2020 Whirlpool, and not only is the basic design and structure the same, so are a lot of the parts.

The only reason the Kenmore was retired was because it was prematurely shutting down mid cycle, and the control panel/sensors were long discontinued. Hot wired, it would have worked fine. It came with the house, and the only thing I ever did to it was the typical overhaul -- new belt, rollers, drum seals. I wouldn't be surprised if the heating element was original.

The heating element on the new one is a lot more effective, so it dries faster, as well as having different heat levels; the old one was only heat or air.

 

[repairman54]

Whirlpool has several versions of their dryers. Top lint screen and the inside the door ones. Top screen one is the design from the '60's and the best of any one on the market for durability hands down.
Heat levels are controlled by a heater in the fixed thermostat that ''fools'' the thermostat into tripping open lower than its 160 deg. point. Same design in gas fired ones also.
Multi wattage / stage heat elements have been used over the years and are more failure prone than the standard 5200w heat element controlled by a bias thermostat.

 

[melk]

I doubt a brand new washer purchased today would last 20 years without needing repair.

 

[notharry]

The dryers with the lint screen in the front are a problem as lint gets by the screen more than the dryers with the screen in the back.
The whirlpool dryers of this design are argueably the best. Mostly because of the lenth of the screen. All of them need frequent cleanings of lint and the screen material gets clogged with soaps, debris and fabric softener residue. High quality turbine, or silicone oils are needed on bearings and motors once in a while. The Whirlpool duet w/d LG and samsung are good as well. Watch the sand and dirt. Shake the cloths out good if needed before puting them in machines. The sand grit will wear seals and materials much quicker. 20 years can be done but 6 to 10 without issue is typical.

 

[Carmudgeon]

Whirlpool has several versions of their dryers. Top lint screen and the inside the door ones. Top screen one is the design from the '60's and the best of any one on the market for durability hands down.
Heat levels are controlled by a heater in the fixed thermostat that ''fools'' the thermostat into tripping open lower than its 160 deg. point. Same design in gas fired ones also.
Multi wattage / stage heat elements have been used over the years and are more failure prone than the standard 5200w heat element controlled by a bias thermostat.

Yes, I'm referring to the huge top screen design. Not the most elegant (the old one had a trap door to cover the screen handle and fluorescent light bar on the control panel to spiff it up), but pretty much bulletproof and easy to fix.

Less enamored by the "Shredmore" washer, though IIRC, it, too, had a clever design by reversing the direction of the motor to determine the function. I believe the gearboxes, or couplings are what fail in that design.

 

[Speedbird001]

Older, so hopefully some kind of unobtanium circuit board is not in play. Worth a shot seeing how most of the new ones are over a grand. Fixing more than one in the past I was able to find a cross reference (Don't quote me, but it was like a Whirlpool part was readily available and worked for my GE).

 

[Speedbird001]

I put a new heating element in the matching dryer in late 2017. The part was expensive, around C$280 all-in.

It seemed like a gamble at the time, but it's been a bit over seven years now.

Same, fixed a well used GE electric dryer for less than $100 and it ran fine for several more years.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

I think some dryers are a lot like cars. Some are ok and others just have bad engineering doomed to failure over and over again.
If our washer isnt a trouble child I would fix it and keep using it.
New washer may be a trouble child and have constant problems. Sometimes its the luck of the draw.

 

[tcp71]

2007 LG Direct Drive Front Loader washer here. Replaced the spider, bearings and seals a couple of years ago (twice, as i left the original pitted spider the first time, which killed the seals quickly). Replaced the pump last Sunday due to some rattling noise. $42Cdn off amazon and its off to the races again.