Blomberg drum seized
On washing a large load of towels, I heard a loud noise on the spin cycle. Now the drum refuses to turn.
I've had the back off, disconnected the drive belt & the drum is virtually seized. I can turn it slightly if I apply a huge amount of force to the pulley. Removing the large pulley showed the bearing, which looked OK (no metal fragments) but it's impossible to tell if it has seized or not without removing it.
My machine is 18 years old & has been faultless up to now, but before I order a new machine (Bosch WAK28161GB I fancy), can anyone please advise if I've missed something simple? I'm certain it's not a bra underwire caught as that would be a scraping issue. No major noise issues on spin before this event.
Many thanks in advance.
Solution Summary
AI-generated from this discussion
This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
Blomberg washing machine drum suddenly seized after spin
- The problem
- After washing a large load of towels, there was a loud noise on spin and the drum then refused to turn. With the drive belt removed, the drum was still virtually seized and would only move slightly with a lot of force on the pulley. The machine was over 18 years old.
- Likely cause
- The strongest diagnosis in the discussion was an obstruction jammed inside the drum/tub, because the seizure happened suddenly and there had not been ongoing loud bearing-type noise beforehand. A seized bearing was considered by the owner but was not confirmed.
- What fixed it
- Forum advice was that a sudden seizure without previous noise most likely meant something was stuck internally rather than a simple external issue. Given the machine's age, the owner decided to replace the appliance rather than investigate further. The exact internal fault was not confirmed.
- Checks to try
- Back removed
- Drive belt disconnected
- Drum checked for free movement with belt off
- Large pulley removed
- Visual check of bearing for metal fragments
4 Answers
If it seized up suddenly and wasn't making any noise for the previous washes the main suspect is something stuck inside jamming the drum. A bra underwire is no way strong enough to cause this. If you can feel a bit of soft give when wrestling with it it's possible it could be something from the laundry.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Thanks Andy.
There's no soft give. It's very hard to move it at all. As I was washing heavy towels, there's nothing that could have come adrift & got stuck IMO.
It feels like something has seized.
Objects can be inside a drum for some time before suddenly being disturbed and cause problems. Especially with a big load. If a drum seizes up suddenly without being very noisy for some time previously then some sort of obstruction is the main suspect. At 18 years old though I think it's probably best to replace it.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Thanks again for your advice, Andy.
At 18+ years old, it's time I bought a new machine.
Cheers
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