I was at a salvage yard in Phoenix and saw a whole row of old Whirlpool washers from the 90s

They were all pulled from apartments getting renovated, and every single one had the same worn-out coupler. It's wild how a part that costs maybe $15 can take out a whole machine that lasted 30 years. Got me thinking about which common failure points you guys see the most across a batch of the same model. Is it always something simple like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse7004mo ago

Disagree, I usually find the main bearings are the real killers on those old Whirlpools.

the_kim4mo ago

Yeah, I read a forum post a while back where a tech said the same thing. They had a whole breakdown showing how the main bearing wear lets the drum wobble just enough to chew up the spider arm over time. Made a lot of sense seeing the pictures.

drew_west2mo ago

Yeah jesse700 that "bearings are the real killers" thing rings true. I've seen it myself where the drum gets just enough wobble in it that the seal gives up, then water gets in and rusts the whole spider assembly from the inside out. Once that bearing starts making noise it's already too late most times, the damage is done. And the kicker is you can't even get half those spider arms anymore without buying a whole new inner tub assembly if you can find one. So a machine that ran fine for 15 years gets scrapped over a $25 bearing and some time you could have spent fixing it if you caught it early enough.