How to reduce vibration of a washing machine during spinning

Any modern washing machine vibrates strongly during the operating cycle, especially when it comes to spinning. At this time, the drum can spin up to 800, 1000, 1200 and even more revolutions per minute, so vibration is not unusual. However, in certain situations, the “home assistant” may vibrate too much, or even move around the room due to sudden jumps. In this case, it is very important to quickly remove the vibration of the washing machine during the spin cycle, so as not to damage household appliances and floor coverings. We'll tell you how to do it correctly at home.

Is vibration really excessive?

The drum of the machine is a moving element that rotates at high speed, causing vibration. Vibration usually becomes noticeable during spinning and washing modes with high drum speeds. At the same time, vibration is a natural process, so if during washing small objects placed on top of the washing machine begin to wobble or bounce a little, just don’t pay attention to it.

To reduce vibration, manufacturers place counterweights in the equipment on top or along the perimeter of the drum, as well as shock absorbers that absorb negative impacts.

How can you tell if vibration is excessive? Standards for household appliances can be found in SanPiN of the Russian Federation, but not everything is so simple. The problem is that vibration measurements require special tools that you may not have at home. In addition, even relatively safe levels of vibration can cause harm to the user and his home.

That’s why it’s easier to navigate with a simple inspection of the machine - if it bounces, moves a few centimeters, or works very loudly, then it’s better not to let it happen. Please pay special attention to the maximum permissible noise level during washing and spinning. Most often, the manufacturer indicates this indicator in the user manual, so using your smartphone and a special measurement application, you can check the data and compare it with the standards.

If the results do not suit you, then it is better to try to reduce them by conducting a thorough diagnosis and then eliminating errors. You can carry out the check yourself without calling a service center specialist, but if you are not confident in your abilities, it is better to call a specialist. If you want to save your family budget and do it yourself, then prepare screwdrivers, wrenches and a building level. Finally, find the official instructions, which will give you tips on how to partially disassemble your washing machine.

Mistakes were made when installing equipment

One of the most common causes of increased vibration is improper installation of the “home assistant”. The fact is that counterweights and shock absorbers can only work efficiently in a situation where household appliances are level. If even a slight misalignment was allowed during installation, this will result in imbalance and the formation of excessive vibration.

If this is exactly what happened, then it is very easy to fix the problem - just take a building level and adjust the legs of the washing machine according to it.

For increased accuracy, experts advise temporarily removing the top panel of the SM in order to set the level using the metal frame and not the plastic cover, which can introduce an error.

Also worth mentioning are the popular anti-vibration pads. Such mats and other rubber elements really help, but not always, but in a situation where the user has slippery floors and needs to reduce the movement of equipment during vibration. However, these gaskets cannot reduce the vibration itself, because its source is the drum, which needs to be worked with.

The drum fixing screws are not removed

Most often, the delivery of a brand new “home assistant” ends with lifting it to the required floor, and users do the installation on their own. That's why sometimes new owners forget about shipping bolts - special fasteners necessary for the safe transportation of equipment.

If not for these bolts connecting the drum to the body, the machine could have been seriously damaged during transportation, which is why the manufacturer places such elements.

Starting a washing machine with the shipping bolts in place will void the warranty, so never forget about the fasteners.

These parts must be removed before the first start, otherwise you risk quickly damaging the SM. The washing machine can operate with these bolts, but the vibration of the drum will not be reduced by shock absorbers, so the machine will vibrate with increased force.

We pushed a lot of things into the washing machine

Next, you need to make sure that the housewife has not mistakenly exceeded the maximum permissible load of dirty laundry. In the most common SM models, this figure is 5 kilograms. If the level is exceeded, the bearing and cuff of the hatch door may soon fail. Finally, this directly affects vibration during the operating cycle, which shock absorber bearings simply cannot cope with.

If the problem really is that the drum is overloaded, then just stop the wash and remove the excess laundry. It is also worth checking that small things are not tangled in large ones, for example, in a duvet cover or blanket, because in this way the clothes turn into one big lump, which creates an imbalance. Some machines themselves can detect this with their own special sensors, but if your equipment does not have such a function, you will have to monitor the imbalance yourself.

Concrete block collapsed

Next, you need to check a rare, but still possible cause of the problem - the destruction of concrete counterweights. To check them, you need to dismantle the top or front wall of the case, which depends on the location of the blocks. In the machine they are usually secured with fixing bolts.

Carefully inspect the concrete part - if cracks appear on it, or it is not secured due to faulty fixing bolts, then the element must be replaced. This is due to the fact that even small cracks in a concrete block cause imbalance and increased vibration. You should not try to restore damaged fasteners, as over time, due to increasing vibration, they will deteriorate even more. Therefore, it must be replaced with a similar part as quickly as possible.

Broken dampers

It is quite possible that vibration will be reduced after replacing the shock absorbers.This unit often breaks down earlier than many others, since its service life is usually only 5-7 years. Most often, shock absorbers are located in the lower part of the “home assistant”, where they are paired with suspension springs to reduce vibration.

During operation, the sealing rings in the element wear out greatly, plus the lubricant dries out completely. Because of this, the moving part of the part moves worse and cannot cope with the vibration of the drum.

Dampers should always be replaced as a pair, even if only one part is damaged.

When searching for an analogue, focus on the dimensions so that they correspond to the dimensions of the original dampers, plus the rigidity, which should also be identical to the original parameters of the part being replaced. To replace, you will have to secure the tank with shipping bolts, turn the household appliance over and replace the dampers on the bottom side of the SM. To do this, you need to partially disassemble the equipment, so if you have not done this before, it is better to call a repairman.

The bearing unit is destroyed

If even after all the manipulations it was not possible to reduce the vibration, then you will have to start diagnosing the bearing assembly. When it breaks, several signs of destruction appear at once. What should you pay attention to?

• Serious increase in vibration.
• Formation of a crunch with a metallic clang.
• Poor quality spinning.
• Deformation of the cuff edge.

If everything indicates damage to the bearing, then you should disassemble the washing machine to gain free access to the unit. Usually, this requires disassembling almost the entire “home assistant”, so it is better to call a service center specialist.

In any case, most often it is very simple to reduce vibration - it is enough to correct installation errors, remove transportation bolts, eliminate overloading of the drum with dirty laundry, or replace shock absorbers with counterweights. This is easy and inexpensive to do, so you shouldn’t delay repairs so as not to worsen the situation.

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