Mid Friday afternoon and..........

[Gibbo2286]

A dull misty morning then the sun came out, chucked a pile of washing in the machine, half way through the cycle crash bang wallop and the machine dies.
It's in a tight position and weighs a ton, struggled to get it out, back cover off, the drive belt is off and part shredded, the shreds are tied firmly in a knot around the motor shaft.
A call round all the local plumbing suppliers gets me the information the Servis went out of business long ago and the only way to find a belt is to search online...........somebody will have one.
So I've tidied up the belt cleared all the shreds and put it back together with just five out of the original seven V's left and it worked, getting it back into situ was even harder than getting it out and I was knackered
So now do I look for a belt or bite the bullet and buy a new machine?

[mickthemaverick]

Belt first if everything else is still going strong!! Try the place Steve used for the drive belt he needed a few weeks ago. It was just up the road from him and he said they had every kind of belt under the sun. I sent him a link to it but I can't remember which thread and I have to shoot out now to investigate an EML for a friend!! Good luck Gibbo

[bobins]

I think I'd go for the middle option - buy some new belts to keep it going for now but have half an eye on any 'Black Friday' deals for new washing machines coming up towards the end of November.... or even nurse it through to the January sales. Whilst 'Black Friday' and the January sales are mostly a bit of a con, there are still some bargains to be had for the diligent. And bear in mind that prices for some new machines might be slightly elevated at the moment in order for them to be magically reduced in price for Black Friday.

When we bought a new washer - drier a good few years ago I narrowed down my search to one or two models, I then found that John Lewis were doing their own exclusive version of one of them - same features, different coloured trim pieces and a different model designation, but the same model underneath..... all for getting on for £100 cheaper. That'll do for me !

[myglaren]

Went to get the receipt, that was under a pile of other stuff, pulled it out and scattered bits and bobs all over and down behind the stereo.

Went for a pee. Started painting an antique childs chair for great-granddaughter, abandoned that to empty the washer and hang up the clothes*, heard water running, forgot to turn the tap off when I washed my hands.

Then remembered the receipt and my tea going cold, so back on track (ish) at last.
The company is Acorn Industrial Services Limited.
Branches

They were very accommodating, very pleasant and helpful staff. The price of the belt was good too.



*indoors as it was dull and rainy. Sun has come out now of course.

[Gibbo2286]

Washed a few more bits this morning they came out soaking wet so I thought sod it and ordered a new Hoover machine from John Lewis, they'll deliver and install it next Friday.
I think the servis machine has to be near thirty years old and this is the first time it's failed.
Looked at a lot of machines they're all made in foreign parts it seems the Hoover in China, Bosch in Poland others in S Korea, etc.

[myglaren]

For quite a while they were from Spain and Italy. My Bosch is Spanish.

[MattBLancs]

Old drum makes a good fire pit if you're feeling creative

Washing machine drum with pulley reversed to make a stand

[mickthemaverick]

Don't you find that soots up your washing though Matt?

[MattBLancs]

Hard to tell what's "sooty washing" and "soot that was washing" after a go in there!

[CitroJim]

I got nigh-on 25 years out of my old Whirlpool washing machine and it was still going strong when I gave it away a coupe of weeks ago. Offered it in our local Facebook group and gone in minutes... Ditto with an old but working microwave... And my old boiler!

I wonder if my new washing machine will last as long? Or any of my new white goods for that matter. My old fridge is still going after 35 years. The door seal has gone a bit but otherwise it's perfect. My old freezer is getting on for 25 years old...

[myglaren]

My fridge/freezer is 21, same birthday as Grandson #3. All the rest a lot younger.

[mickthemaverick]

When I was about 8 my Dad bought Mum a present to help with the laundry. She refused to have a washing machine believing them to not get the clothes clean properly so he bought her an AEG spin dryer. When I got married and they moved out to an inherited bungalow the spin dryer was still doing a good job so we kept it. 23 years later when we got divorced it was still going strong despite being 36 years old so I took it with me and installed it in my workshop where it performed many non laundry related tasks from paint mixing to component de rusting etc until I finally dumped it when I cleared out the workshop a couple of years ago, by which time it was 60 years old. I removed the motor which now lives in the garage 'in case' and finally took the body to our recycling centre as a christening for the new site!!

[Gibbo2286]

This washing machine of mine has been fine and before I would have fixed it but I'm too old now to be scrabbling about on the floor, decided it was time to go so Lewis's are going to take it away when they install the new one, can't imagine it will get refurbed though.

[myglaren]

Had to fit a new pump to mine last week. It had been in the cloakroom with the tumble dryer. Gave the dryer to my son, chucked the dead dishwasher out (too lazy to fix something I had no need for) moved the washer to its place in the kitchen.

Moving it fixed the faults with it. The water distribution was buggered and flowed into all the drawer compartments and wouldn't dissolve the detergent tablets, the 'extra rinses' would turn itself on and some programs (temperatures) would keep pausing and having to be restarted.

All self-fixed but then the pump started growling, bearing going. Looked like a seal had gone as it was full of crud.
Easy enough job but not the ten-minutes that was alleged.

[Rhothgar]

I thought you'd firepitted already but am just skimming.

Getting a belt is not an issue. The old one will have markings something like 8PJ813 or 8P320J. In this example, the 813 is metric and the 320 is imperial.

Hope I'm not repeating what someone else may have said already.

Count the number of V - in my example it has 8 poly-v ribs and J is the rib profile.

Length can be considerable on an household appliance. Maybe 2 metres but even if you can see on markings. Take off what you have and go along it with a ruler marking every 300mm or however long your ruler is and you'll soon know the length then look at typical belts sizes for poly-v belts (which I am assuming it is). If you search t'internet, you'll be able to work out what profile the ribs are easily enough with what remains.