Washing machine shaking the house

[tommo_79]

Hi all, we're having trouble with our front loader washing machine shaking the whole house during the spin cycle. I've done a bit of searching about this common problem but cant find the answer.

The machine is on a suspended wood floor (highset house), I-beam joists with steel posts (I can provide some extra sizes if necessary). The laundry floor is tiled.

The washing machine is about 2 years old, front loader with 'inverter technology to reduce noise and vibration'!!! but is still feels like an earthquake when it spins. So far we've tried the following:

• Checked the transit bolts are removed
• adjusted the feet and used a spirit level to make it level
• bought a recycled rubber mat from the retailer - no use
• bought anti vibration dampening feet from an online store - little use (they actually reduce friction with the floor so the machine now walks)
• Reduced the spin speed - helps but results in wet clothes.

The user manual recommends bolting the machine to the underlying structure where mounted on a suspended wood floor. This would obviously involve making holes in our new floor tiles, so I thought I'd seek a bit of advice before doing so. I'm guessing since its already shaking the structure, bolting it will only make the situation worse?

If I did bolt it down, would it be worth reinforcing the floor structure around the machine? Would putting an extra support post under the floor below the machine help (the location of the laundry is about 2.4m about ground level)?

Do I even need to do anything? I'd only be concerned if it is potentially damaging the structure of the house.

The other solution would be to move the machine down to the garage where it can sit on a slab. This would be fairly impractical and require a bit of plumbing, but the added advantage would be I could convert the laundry into a homebrew room

[snapman007]

The other solution would be to move the machine down to the garage where it can sit on a slab. This would be fairly impractical and require a bit of plumbing, but the added advantage would be I could convert the laundry into a homebrew room

No doubt about it, it must be moved downstairs. There is a law somewhere that states no washing machines within 10m of a homebrew setup. Honest.

[joe greiner]

Has it always been like this? If not, counterweight(s) may have gotten loose or broken (assuming it has one/them).

Aside from moving it to concrete, try rearranging the load before the spin cycle.

Either way, it isn't doing anything good to the structure.

Cheers,
Joe

[Big Shed]

Our front loader started doing this and I suspected something was loose.

Opened the back and founf the rubber belt that drives the drum had moved at an angle on the drum, in fact it wa sin danger of coming off.

Centred the belt on the drum and all was good again.

[joe greiner]

For a really jolly experience, wait for the drive belt to break - on a dryer IIRC. It's held in alignment by a spring-loaded idler with the drive belt providing the opposing force. When the drive belt breaks, everything including the idler bracket goes into orbit inside the equivalent of a kettle drum.

Cheers,
Joe

[Optimark]

If the fault hasn’t just recently started, then you may try what we did with our new Miele washing machine.

We eventually purchased one of those soft foam blocks with the finger joints to mesh with other blocks, designed for picnics and stuff like that.

The trick was to find a soft one, not a hard one. In time, as in a few days, the machine sunk into the foam mat, been there for a few years now.

I trimmed the finger joints off and it fits like a glove. I think I purchased it from Clark Rubber.

Mick.

[RETIRED]

Sort of like this Joe?

[Mrs Blackie]

Could always come in handy to lose weight? just hug it real tight and let it do its thing you will lose about 2 kilos each load...ok ok sorry I think the antibiotics kicked in shuts up now

[Harry72]

Mrs Blackie knows best... the walking of the machine is being caused by overloading to the point that the internal counter balance(a block of concrete normally)is past its effectiveness.

[joe greiner]

Nowhere near that bad, Ian. Subsides in a few seconds, and easy to repair actually - only needs a new belt. There's probably a lot of unnecessary replacements of machines that aren't really dead.

Cheers,
Joe