Black debris in washing machine

[bluesofa]

42 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Don't recall but logic would say it would have to loosen in the same direction that tub turns - so if tub moves clockwise you would have to move screwdriver clockwise. 

 

OK getting somewhere-ish now!

Took the top cover off, to look down at the drum. You can see in some of these attached pics there is definitely "crud' between the inside of the outer casing and the outside of the drum itself. It was lopburi3's suggestion that made me look more at the drum - thanks.

Got the central screw loose in the end - after a lot a grunting found that it was a standard thread. However, I can't work out how to lift the drum out from the case. I don't know what's still holding it. You can see that central screw - I've got it really loose now, but there's still something preventing that grey centre piece with the blue bits, from lifting out. I'm guessing if I can get that out, then the drum might follow easily, and I can clean it?

[lopburi3]

This might be the time to pay someone, with experience, to take and clean it.  Expect will have to do a very good job of cleaning everything as if miss any area will still have issues.  

 

Wife has advised we never got it all removed and finally resorted to buying a new washer.  But never had new problems after change to Pao detergents.  This was about 30 years ago so my memory is not too sharp.  

[bluesofa]

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

This might be the time to pay someone, with experience, to take and clean it.  Expect will have to do a very good job of cleaning everything as if miss any area will still have issues.  

 

Wife has advised we never got it all removed and finally resorted to buying a new washer.  But never had new problems after change to Pao detergents.  This was about 30 years ago so my memory is not too sharp.  

 

Lopburi3,

I think you're right on that point, I'll wait for my wife to find a (hopefully) reliable guy. However, while he is fixing it, I'll be watching, just in case I need to attempt it in the future. As you say, someone with experience - but experience I can learn from!

I'll also ask him what he think causes it - too much powder, or the wrong brand?

You say your memory isn't too sharp regarding thirty years ago. I can't remember what I did yesterday!

 

I'll let everyone know the final outcome. Thanks to everyone who took the time to make various suggestions, much appreciated.

[bluesofa]

Update on cleaning the outside of the drum and the outer casing.

I was going to get someone else to take the drum out and clean it, then re-fit it.

 

However, a relation who is a general service engineer for a company looked on youtube and found a video on how to remove the grey/light blue circular panel. I couldn’t find anything – turned out I stupidly searched in English, whereas searching in Thai throws up more relevant videos. Had to unscrew the centre screw only halfway, as the screw is threaded into the circular panel as well as the motor spindle beneath it. Therefore unscrewing it to clear the spindle allows you to grasp the extended screw and pull up the complete plastic unit clear. You can see the pic with the plastic base removed.

 

New problem was how to remove that nut you you can see , in order to lift the drum out. That has been the last major problem. It is so tight, I only had a pair of mole-grips that were large enough to grip the nut. Still couldn’t shift it. The relative was going to borrow a large chrome socket to put over the nut, but his company didn’t have one large enough.

 

Gave up and my wife got an “engineer” to come and do it. He had an exact same size pair of mole-grips as me and was confused when he couldn’t move it either.

Then he tried brute force with a cold chisel and hammer. You can probably see the nicks in the edge of the nut in one photo – they’re at seven o’clock and nine o’clock looking at it. I see he was hitting it clockwise, so I had to assume it’s a reverse thread on it – but who knows in reality?

The guy said he’d come back the next day with a socket for the nut. He never turned up.

 

All subsequent “experts” have insisted it needs the whole machine taking away to “specialist wash” the insides. It caused some argument between me and my wife as I’ve said they can wash it at the house, there’s nothing specialist about it, especially as the machine is disassembled already except the drum.

She reckons maybe they want to take it away to 1) not remove the drum and 2) therefore pressure wash it with the drum in-situ, but still charge for the whole job.

Now waiting for yet another relative who reckons he’s done this before and can remove the drum.

 

 

[tifino]

 

 

here's hoping it's not going to be a humpty dumpty

 

- that you can later reassemble all what has been forced apart...

 

Some nasty bashing in the photos of the spindle area

[chiang mai]

I see a new washing machine in your future and I just had my crystal ball cleaned.

[bluesofa]

14 minutes ago, tifino said:

 

 

here's hoping it's not going to be a humpty dumpty

 

- that you can later reassemble all what has been forced apart...

 

Some nasty bashing in the photos of the spindle area

 

You're absolutely right about the "nasty bashing" by these alledged professionals.

 

The last time, about a year ago we had a different "professional" to do some other repairs on the machine. Now I've taken it apart myself and put all screws, nuts together in containers and know where they go, I can see the prevous guy only re-fitted three out of six screws in the ring that steadies the drum and outer casing. After returning with the "repaired" machine, we only needed to get him to come back a further six times to get the machne to work properly.

[bluesofa]

1 minute ago, chiang mai said:

I see a new washing machine in your future and I just had my crystal ball cleaned.

 

Was that with caustic soda by any chance?

[johng]

That nut is probably so rusted that you'll have to grind it off..just cut one facet off then unscrew...new nut ha ha no hap ! no problem get some epoxy resin and use the old parts to make a hybrid nut in situ only problem probably you can never remove the nut again.

Ps I think the thread is left handed ie right to lose opposite to normal.

[augustwest]

Just a guess of course but the impeller on pump may be deteriorating

[bluesofa]

Part twenty-seven of Another Day Another Washing Machine Problem (end of cynical mode).

 

The first repair guy who said he was coming back “tomorrow” with a chrome socket to put on the centre nut and remove it, didn’t show, as I said earlier. Despite the fact my wife called him, he said “soon”, then four hours later, when prompted again, claimed he was “on the way”. A couple of more hours and he switched his phone off.

While I was waiting, I measured the nut, best as I could - it’s 37/38mm across flats.

 

Wife gave up, and booked someone else for a couple of day’s time. Then the next day, the first guy phoned to say he’d be there “soon”. My wife told him to forget it, as she’d now booked someone else, which seemed to p*** him off. She blamed me, as being a ferang she said I expect people to come when they say, as I’m paying them. It’s not untrue, but it often makes it easier for my wife in those awkward situations. No skin off my nose at all.

 

The latest “expert” who (of course) said when asked on the phone, that the job would be completed within one day. He would take it away, pressure clean the two parts and return the machine.

 

Once it was explained to him over the phone that the machine was partly dismantled already, he said he would re-assemble it before taking it away and test run it, because he didn’t want to be in a position where we might blame him if it didn’t work after he’d finished cleaning it.

 

He couldn’t clean it on site, as he had “specialist equipment” to pressure wash it.

Being cynical, I felt that was perhaps only to justify the 500 Baht he quoted to clean it. To me it didn’t even need any pressure washing, but just the two surfaces wiping clean and then thoroughly rinsing off with a hosepipe. I could rub that black debris off with my finger, at the point where I could get at it near the top. Perhaps he wasn’t even going to remove the wash drum, but put the alleged pressure washer between the drum and outer casing, doing it that way? Not successfully having removed the drum myself, I didn’t know what there was at the base of the drum – how would they get at that to clean it with their pressure washer?

 

Anyway, a few days later two guys arrived at 9:30 in the morning, Despite having said they wanted to re-assemble it and check it worked OK first, they just took all the screws I’d carefully separated and kept, and tipped them altogether into the wash drum and took the machine away. They told my wife they’d bring it back “tomorrow”, not the same day as originally promised on the phone.

 

The two guys came a day and a half later with the machine, reconnected it and switched it on for me to see it was working. Whoa! It still worked and the black debris had gone. I ran it twice on the self-clean program, there were just a few minor flakes in the filter the first time, all gone after the second time.

I have no idea if they did take the drum out, or just washed it in-situ with a pressure hose.

Success, it took took two weeks and many people to look at it, but in the end Lopuri3’s diagnosis was correct.

 

Many, many thanks to everyone who posted with suggestions. Here endeth the 500 Baht lesson.

 

[wpcoe]

Thanks to the OP for this thread, it just saved me a bit of effort.  I just moved into a condo I bought that had an older washing machine that I intended to use until my big move next week when I'd have my own washer.

 

The first load I did was just some dark brown towels and they seemed to come out fine.  Today I did a load including some white T-shirts.  Black spots all over the shirts and black flecks all over the drum in the washer.  I picked out the bigger black flecks from the drum (they are as described in above posts like pieces of black paper) and ran a few clear water wash cycles to try to get rid of the smaller black flecks.  Black flecks kept coming with each empty, clear water wash cycle.  Then I remembered this thread, and realized where the black flecks are coming from.  Undoubtedly the machine needs a cleaning like in the post above this one, but since my washer will be here in a couple days, I'm not going to bother. BUT, I'm also not going to continue to run empty wash cycles hoping the black flecks will stop.

[bluesofa]

9 hours ago, wpcoe said:

Thanks to the OP for this thread, it just saved me a bit of effort.  I just moved into a condo I bought that had an older washing machine that I intended to use until my big move next week when I'd have my own washer.

 

I'm glad my posts managed to help someone out. My attempted literary efforts were not in vain!

 

[Crossy]

3 hours ago, bluesofa said:

I'm glad my posts managed to help someone out. My attempted literary efforts were not in vain!

 

This is exactly why Thaivisa and these practical forums exist, to help our fellow man (or woman or person of indeterminate gender).

 

All us aliens thank you :)