Drum not centred, burning rubber surround
Hi, my whirlpool wwdc7210/1 washing machine drum seems to be off centre! Every wash i'm doing stinks of burnt rubber & I have found pieces of rubber in the machine, from the door seal.
Looking online it says it could be a broken spider, spring, damper or something stuck inbetween the drums?
We have checked all of these & they all appear to be fine, cant see anything that could possibly cause it to be stuck off centre.
Any ideas of what else could be the problem before I resort to getting a new one, right before christmas (perfect timing)?
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.
Whirlpool WWDC7210/1 drum rubbing door seal and producing burnt rubber smell
- The problem
- On a Whirlpool WWDC7210/1 washing machine, the drum appeared about 5mm off-centre relative to the door seal. Each wash produced a burnt rubber smell and pieces of rubber were found in the machine, apparently from the door seal. The machine was otherwise washing normally with no unusual operating noises.
- Likely cause
- The discussion most strongly suggests the door seal was being rubbed by the drum because the drum lip may have been distorted or dented, or because an item had become trapped between the drum area and the back of the door seal. Early suggestions of a broken drum spider or collapsed bearings were weakened because the original poster reported the spider looked intact and the drum did not lift up and down on the shaft.
- What fixed it
- Recommended action was to remove the front panel and door seal to inspect the relationship between the inner and outer drums and identify exactly where the seal was being chewed. A new door seal was suggested as a possible repair if seal damage was the main issue, but the exact repair was not confirmed in the thread.
- Checks to try
- Spider visually checked and reported intact
- Drum checked for vertical movement on the shaft and none found
- Outer drum reportedly not leaning towards the door
- Manual drum rotation showed one point of slight resistance
- Rubber debris found in the machine from the door seal
- Parts or tools mentioned
- Door seal
- Front panel
Safety: Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
8 Answers
Sounds like a broken drum spider or collapsed drum bearings. Pretty serious. If so you should be able to lift the front of the drum up and down on the shaft.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Hi Andy, the spider is intact, cant see any signs of damage & the drum does not move up & down on the shaft.
Hi. Is the outer drum being held centrally in the casing and not leaning heavily towards the door seal?
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
I think so Andy, its not leaning towards the door anyway, the only way I can describe it is that the rubber & drum are supposed to line up perfectly (I assume) its as if the drum has moved to the right by approx 5mm.
My husband is convinced something is stuck in the gap between the drum & seal but we haven't been able to get anything out yet!
When manually turning the drum there does seem to be 1 spot that gives a little resistance, not much but more then the rest.
If it’s had something stuck in there then the lip of the drum could have been knocked, and instead of being round it’s now elliptical. The lip of the drum is rarely perfectly round but if it’s obvious out of shape it can catch on the door seal at certain points. Also there may be dints in the drum?
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
If thats the case & its now slightly out of shape, can it be fixed?
Its washing perfect still, no strange noises when in use, if it wasn't for the burnt rubber smell leading us to investigate, we wouldn't have even noticed the drum being un-centred
Slightly out of shape is arguably not abnormal. Obviously it depends how out of shape it is which I cannot see unless you could upload a photo. Can you identify a specific spot where the lip of the drum catches on either the lip of the outer drum opening or the back of the door seal? This sort of thing can also be caused if something like a sock or towel gets caught in between the rotating outer drum and the back of the door seal. This can cause a lot of friction and damage to the door seal. If this has happened then potentially it might just need a new door seal fitting but to be honest I am working blind here.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Taking off the front panel and door seal should be quite easy, plenty of youtube videos on it. With these off, it will give you a better view of the problem. You will then be able to see the relationship between the inner and outer drums and also how the rubber is being chewed off. If you had something going between the drums, it would not have disappeared and still there.
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