It started as a louder spin. Then a knock. Then a bang loud enough to hear upstairs. Getting to the cause meant taking the washer apart down to the drum.
The spider is the three-armed metal casting that holds the drum to its shaft. On many front-loaders it is aluminium. Years of warm water, detergent residue and too much or the wrong detergent can corrode it until an arm cracks, and the drum no longer spins true.
Banging on spin is a common front-loader complaint. Most of the time it is an unbalanced load or worn dampers. A corroded spider arm is less common, but it is a well-known failure on front-loaders that are several years old, and it often shows up alongside a musty smell from residue behind the drum.
We ruled out load balance, shipping bolts and dampers, then found play in the drum by hand. With the drum out, the spider was corroded at a mounting point. After the owner chose repair over replacement, we fitted a new spider, bearings and seal, cleaned the drum and ran a full spin with a heavy load.
It started as a louder spin. A few weeks later there was a knock at the start of every spin, then a bang loud enough to hear from the next floor.
A front-load washer that bangs on spin has a short list of usual suspects: an unbalanced load, worn shock absorbers or dampers, loose counterweights, worn drum bearings, or a problem with the spider arm that holds the drum. Some of these are easy. Some mean taking the whole machine apart.
An unbalanced load was the first thing to rule out, and the owner had already tried small, even loads. The shipping bolts had long since been removed. The dampers had some wear but not enough to explain a bang. Turning the drum by hand with the washer unplugged, there was play at the back that should not be there. That meant the drum had to come out.
This photo is the inner drum lifted out of its outer tub, back side up. The three-armed casting is the spider. It bolts to the drum and carries the shaft that the motor turns. On many front-load washers the spider is aluminium, and over years in a warm, wet space with detergent and water-softening residue, it can corrode. Once an arm cracks or corrodes through at a mounting point, the drum no longer spins true. That is the bang.
You can also see the brown, crusted residue across the back of the drum. That builds up out of sight when a washer sees a lot of cold, short cycles, too much detergent, or detergent that is not made for high-efficiency machines. It is also a common source of the musty smell people notice in front-loaders.
This is a repair where the written finding matters. Replacing a spider, and often the bearings and seal while everything is open, is a big job. Depending on the washer's age, its condition otherwise and the cost of parts, it can make more sense to replace the machine. We set out both options with the reasoning, and the owner decided.
In this case the washer was relatively young and in good condition otherwise, so it was repaired: new spider, new bearings and seal, the back of the drum cleaned, then reassembled and run through a full spin with a heavy load to confirm it ran quietly.
Anything involving live wiring, gas or refrigerant is technician-only.
The photos in this post are from a real RepairWell job. We use them to explain the possible causes of this problem and how it gets fixed. Every appliance is different, so your fault may have a different cause; the diagnostic visit confirms it.
Water sitting in the tub at the end of the cycle, in a closet barely wider than the machine. Stacked laundry centres pack a washer and a dryer into one frame, and that shapes every repair.
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Turn the knob to Normal, press start, nothing. Turn it to Heavy Duty, and sometimes it would go. A washer that picks and chooses its cycles has a fault somewhere between your hand and the control board.
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Towels still damp after two cycles. The drum turned, the timer ran, and there was no heat at all. The part that failed was a two-dollar-looking disc. The reason it failed was a metre of crushed foil duct.
Read the storyTell us what the appliance is doing. $89 diagnostic, waived when you go ahead with the repair, and the finding in writing.
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