Are Washers Built to Break? Inside a 1984 Washer vs. Now

in today's video we are tearing down washers old and new but i ran into a few issues here that ended up making me reconsider my career choices so let's get ready to tear apart some machines it's no secret to know that older washing machines last longer than new ones but why is that exactly the case well i got two almost identical machines here are going to tear down from two different generations the one that i'm in front of right now it's a vertical modular washer it's only about four years old three or four years old and the other one we got is a kenmore washer which is actually made also by whirlpool but the one over here is about 20 years old now even though it says it's a kenmore washing machine it's really built by whirlpool as one of their flagship models and the design comes from 1984 so the lineage is about 37 years old they last a very long period of time now if i was going to guess which of these two machines was going to last longer i think the kenmore is actually going to outlive the whirlpool and it may outlive me because well i have heart failure so it doesn't have to last too much longer but let's go ahead and take every bit of these machines apart and i want to show you the differences and let's see what makes them tick first let's look at the most important part of a washing machine which is the control system both old style washing machines and new style washing machines are pretty easy to get into in their respective control consoles the old style has two hidden screws that need removed before the console timer can be revealed whereas the newer style has three or four screws on the back of the washing machine console then two hidden springs that let you access everything inside the console itself here's what each style control system looks like the organized minimalistic electronic washing machine then the way busier electromechanical order style design each unit's design performs very similar functions and have similar optional features on the control knobs like temperature water or soil levels and a number of rinses but they accomplish these tasks in extremely different ways and we'll get into some of that but before we discuss how these units accomplish these given tasks let's take all the pieces off of these units individually to get a closer look removing all these components takes a little bit of time and this part was definitely easier on the newer style electronic washer because there's way less of a wire jungle to trek through in order to liberate each individual part from the control top not to mention there's just way less components lurking underneath the console too even more modern washing machines do away with even the rotary switches here in favor of a unibody touch screen so there's even less components and other units that we're looking at today a modern electronic washer at first look does a lot more with a lot less component-wise the technology within the control board eliminates needs for physical pressure switches and it simplifies many runs of electrical wires going to and from the selector switches the rotary switches are simply there to allow the user to select the options and when it comes down to technology inside these switches well there really isn't much other than the rotary selector now even on the old washer there's one electronic control board that's intercepting and interpreting mechanical signals too even though it's much older when we get up and close with the electronic board there's a beauty and a beast within the system a lot is being asked of these relays capacitors and other components on the board the pressure switch that interprets a physical property air is boarded onto the system and soldered in place among other things relays fire and eventually confuse if they get run too many times and eventually overheat but the biggest problem of an electronic control board is that it's only as good as its worst component you see if any one of these hundreds of bits and bobbles fails the electronic control board's going to stop working entirely because there's a reason to all of this computer madness and we've worked on these boards enough to know personally that hey this capacitor here is undersized and goes out somewhat often that will cause this entire board to fail and this relay here deals with to the drain pump and once in a while could fuse the contacts together now if either these small components break 90 percent of text maybe even 99 percent of text will tell the homeowner to replace the 299 dollar board rather than the 4.99 relay or capacitor like the good book says where there is much given much will be required and that's certainly the case with electronic pcbs on modern washers now on the mechanical side the timer is unquestionably intricate and precise at least when it comes to my camera's lens it takes manual commands on how washers should operate and makes them automatic which freed up billions of housewives around the world almost a century ago these plastic and metal bumps are way less sophisticated than computer which processes way more functions but the connections that deal with voltages here are larger and wider potentially leading to less possible failures on the system and with the electromechanical switches a lot of these operations are segmented away from one central failure point unlike the control board but much like the computer board if the timer fails it's not a cheap fix but you can replace or repair the contacts on the timer too much like the board relay and about the same difficulty really now both systems have advantages and disadvantages here the cpu can perform extremely intricate maneuvers that allow the unit to gain way higher efficiency functions but again it comes at the cost arguably of reliability on a small but expensive piece of real estate it also means the new washer can arguably handle more components in the transmission which we'll look at in just a little bit now one interesting note here is that the parts origin or lack of info as well i was hoping to compare who makes this stuff and the control board on the modern washer is 100 chinese between the board and the rotary switch but for the older style washer only a few parts are actually labeled or at least noted from the camera lens and for my eyes off screen the pressure switch is mexican and the mechanical rotary switch here is clearly chinese but there's no other information on the other styles of rotary switches or surprisingly the timer on the older unit one common area of frustration on the machines is the lack of ability to bypass the lid lock on newer units and here you can see the wires are spliced together with the remaining wires being cut which allows the user to lift the lid of the washing machine while in spin or agitation operation which can be kind of dangerous electrically the newer washing machines send a pulsed on off signal to test the lock for it to operate and force the lid to lock entirely on almost all systems this prevents small hands from getting into the unit and getting damaged you can't bypass the lid lock if it fails on a newer unit but there are workarounds to open the lid in spin mode for diagnosis and analysis though and i do have other videos that will be in the description regarding that now when we take the casing off the older style washer it's extremely easy there's only two clips that hold the entire washer chassis on in place rumor has it that when whirlpool was developing this style washer in the early 1980s they sent their engineers out into the field with technicians so they could understand the tear down process on their older style wigwag machines the result by far i think was the easiest machine to ever take apart in the history of washing machines but that may just be me now with the chassis off of this old style unit we can see all the major components on the washing machine with the drivetrain underneath the unit the drum and then the agitator of the middle of the washing machine on the rear of the unit we have the capacitor and water valves that are hiding in place these water valves are a more advanced version for an older machine like this it has a thermistor which we're circling here which allows the temperature selector switch to interact with the solenoids changing water temperatures and providing feedback to the timer and other components now the water control system on the newer washer it really hasn't changed much in all those years or at least it's the case with this style washer as it simply has another hot and cold solenoid with a temperature thermistor right in the middle this was or is much more easily accessible on the newer style washer and you see that on a lot of new units just like the ge washer which i'm working on for some other new teardown videos notice how similar regarding the control board and water valve placement this system is this is a totally different manufacturer by the way the modern unit does not have the same style access for getting to the drum instead there are two rear screws that remove and then it allows me to pull the washer lid towards me up and then back there are two small handy metal fingers that the washer top slips onto making it pretty easy to access the drum on this new washer now design theories the suspension systems are polar opposites on both the old and new unit the newer whirlpool unit uses four metal rods with dense springs that are suspended on the top of the chassis allowing the tub to freely float this allows the tub drum clothing water or any other component to attempt to self-balance the unit out naturally this style of configuration is actually so popular on new top loading machines that almost every other machine i touch uses this free floating tub design and if you have a samsung lg or ge washing machine among other brands they're identical notice the similarities here i'm not an engineer but my assumption is that this style design allows the washing machine to spin much faster it allows the unit to ring the water out of the clothes much better and when you remove more water from the clothes before you throw it in a dryer it makes it much more efficient because removing heat through a dryer is very costly and it adds up to a lot of expense and this is one way that a new machine is considered high efficiency now on the older system this pacific washing machine has seen a huge amount of rust on the system but it still actually works and the tub rests on this thing called a milk stool or something akin to i guess i'd say a trunnion system the tub mounts using metal plates that holds the tub in place while a system of springs level the washing machine out while it rests on the stool the system is far more robust than my opinion than the modern design but it's more rust prone and arguably as you see here i can't self-level the machine quickly the system also has a rusted rear spring which causes it not to self-level quite fully as well as it should but this is of course the machine being way older both of these systems feature standard agitators that were extremely common on all washing machines up until probably the late 2000s when most manufacturers of the united states went to high efficiency low profile wash plates whirlpool's modular system that came out in 2009 allowed for either the plate style or the central pole agitator to be used on a universal transmission system it also uses some common lineage components let's go ahead and take the agitators out of both systems to make a small comparison between them both of these styles come out with the same 7 16 socket which is also the same kind that's used on the low profile wash plate and even units from other brands too come to find out some of these can have a little difficulty but both agitators came out pretty easy both have two common components with the drive tube and spanner nut which we see here which keeps the wash tub locked into the transmission shaft remember these components later by the way in a direct side-by-side comparison you can see some differences when they are out of the tubs the old style agitator has larger veins and is taller and wider at the top comparatively the more modern agitator has a wider base almost like the agitatorless wash plate again that are very popular on newer top loads this is likely due to less water that is filled in the high efficiency tub during its wash action so more agitation needs to take place at the bottom of the tub now under the wash tubs these have to be removed to pull the transmissions out from both units similarly both disassemble the exact same way taking off the plastic top balancing ring and using a specialty spanner wrench you can see a lot of gunk on the older outer tub once the inner tub comes out which reveals the basic plastic tub with nothing really left other than the drive tube and transmission shaft it's a very unique system in washers that these components are nearly an all-in-one system this also can cause some issues because if the drain pump fails and leaks the motor is right there and it's a prime target for water and moisture and as you can tell on this specific unit that we're tearing down the motor has been hit hard with moisture everything worked though on this washer though comparatively on the modern washing machine the components are spread out and are more easily accessible individually underneath the unit you have the drain pump which is controlled by the computer and can be triggered off and on as needed without using the larger far more electrically expensive motor on the older washer the primary drive motor uses a standard belt which then goes to a pulley system which has a smaller shifting motor that shifts via the electronic computer which commands it to spin or agitate and shift between those modes the results of all these different systems comparatively is a titanic shift in electric usage i've done some other videos and tests through a kilowatt meter on both of these style of units the order direct drive style washing machine can use about 500 watts of electric in its standard agitation mode and up to 650 watts of electricity used during the spin mode now comparatively the same style newer electronic washer here only uses about 80 watts in high speed spin and 30 watts and agitate if you're using a wash plate if you add all the math up it's an average savings of 50 a year for the ag machine between water and electronic savings now depending on how long you use it or how long it lasts it may or may not actually be worth it though going back to the machines let's try to remove that dang transmission the newer style whirlpool washing machine tub is supposed to come out identically to the older style tub but this does not happen there is so much rust on the spanner nut that it refuses to come off even after smacking with a hammer off screen for 30 minutes spraying penetrating oil on the nut and then waiting multiple days off camera i ended up having to take a friggin rotary tool and a metal cut off disc to split the spanner nut and take it off to then get to the tub only to find out that the tub still will not come out from there i screwed on the 20 year old spanner nut from the old kenmore direct drive which went on easily after i took off the new nut i then used a tub puller to try to pull the tub up and out i tried doing this so many times on and off screen that the spanner nut from the old machine eventually exploded and split in half sadly at this point i was basically done with the newfangled washing machines transmission and i was out of any really good ideas which by the way when you put this washer on its side to get the transmission out you're going to find no less than four different mounting screws between the transmission cover motor shifter and transmission finally itself i lost so much time trying to get the stub out it was insane now at this point i simply had no way of getting the transmission out of this machine for the comparison so i did the only thing that i could think of which was just pull the entire dang tub out of the washing machine and the transmission intact outside of explosive charges or maybe some sort of high density airbags i really don't have a way to show you what the transmission looks like separated from the wash tub so here's a picture of steve from partselect smugly holding the transmission by itself don't worry though i still love you steve but anyways and let's go over what's left of my sanity let's try to remove that dang transmission from the classic machine the drive tube keeps the inner tub in place and after a bit of hammering and hand tightening on this tub puller it it actually comes out real fast we have all the components together for the washing machine system the motor motor coupler and transmission system all in one and it can be either taken apart individually or just removed from the washing machine fully intact and that's how i'm going to take it out real quick the old transmission is held in by three half inch screws and here i am using the same socket driver that removes the modern washer's motor it took about 30 seconds to remove the entire transmission system between the screws and pulling out the transmission shaft wow after removing the wire harness from the system we now have the rusty but actually working transmission assembly out this system is in working order but it's in really bad shape the motor is rusted and there's been a clear leak onto the transmission clutch system we can also see a brake system inside the milk stool that slows the spin mode down when needed now as a note a newer washer like the bmw doesn't have a brake system it simply elects to slow down naturally by gravity which could be one reason why newer washers take longer to run a load of clothes because it takes time to shift between the modes even though the new transmission can't be separated from the tub in a way it doesn't matter i can't easily disassemble the new style transmission to show you its inner workings but the old style it's totally rebuildable which is great because it lets me show you what the inside looks like after removing the clutch motor and motor coupler along with some screws you can see now what the old-school transmission has inside i had a few people mention that they thought the plastic was the reason the new washers were so unreliable but you can see here that may not be the whole story because this unit has plastic deep inside the most hardworking area of the machine finally with everything out and separated i'm not sure where to go from here the entire motor and transmission assembly on the old machine is wildly heavy at 37 pounds or 17 kilos for our metric friends the inner tub weighed in 13 pounds for the old unit now by comparison the inner and outer tub and transmission on the new style machine is 47 pounds or 21 kilos now throwing the motor on is another seven pounds making the old unit quite a bit heavier by comparison well guys i hope you liked this video it didn't it didn't go the way i thought the newer fangled machine did not work the way i wanted it to on disassembly beat it half to death and it still beat me kind of goes to show you that machines every single one is different sometimes you have better success with some than others even though this is literally the worst machine i've ever dealt with they're not bad machines overall they will not last that long but they're decent machines and i don't want to throw you know whirlpool under the bus because sometimes you get good ones sometimes you don't of course the old machine was so much easier to deal with um it came apart in three minutes just like i thought now if you like this tear down i do have a 1948 general electric uh refrigerator i can do this kind of a similar thing on hopefully not as too detailed not as nerve-wracking because i'm considering different career options now but if you like this one more than i did then you know maybe like and subscribe and hopefully we can do that one in the near future i hope you have a good day guys see you later oh my gosh

Channel: Bens Appliances and Junk

Views: 518,672

Keywords: washing machine, top load washer, best washer, best washer and dryer

Id: NHrPcx0xkGU

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2022