Fate as a Washing Machine (Part Four)

After fourteen years, I'm back in the position of anxiously checking that my washing machine is actually, well, washing and not going berserk and trying to kill me.  If you have a very long memory and have been visiting this blog since the beginning, you might recall the saga of this machine's predecessor, which was always a problem and ended up flooding my kitchen and giving me electric shocks.  Oh, and it regularly used to vibrate so violently on its spin cycle that it would threaten to smash itself and the kitchen to pieces.  Sometimes it would 'walk' itself into the middle of the kitchen while spinning.  For some reason, I put up with it for nearly fifteen years before replacing it with the current washing machine - which has performed magnificently (barring the odd filter blockage).  Until last Friday, when, on its extra spin cycle, it made a thumping sound, then started slowing down, then speeding up. Most alarmingly, I noticed puffs of smoke escaping from the detergent dispenser tray.  Naturally, I switched it off.  When the door released and I opened it, white smoke billowed out and filled the kitchen.  My clothes, however, were unscathed.  There was also no sign of flames or any smell of burning.

A bit of research led me to believe that what had happened was that the belt had started slipping, with the friction causing the smoke.  The most likely cause was an unevenly distributed load: the load was light that day, so I stuck a pair of jeans in on top.  The waterlogged jeans must have bunched up on top of the other clothes, making the drum, in effect, lop-sided, resulting in belt slippage.  As far as I could tell, there was no damage to the bearings and the belt seemed intact, so I decided to risk another load this evening.  This time it is a heavier load, but nothing like jeans or towels, which can soak up water and unbalance it.  I've also done my best to distribute it better.  So far, so good.  There are about fifteen minutes of the cycle to go and no smoking or erratic behaviour.  I think that I'll skip the extra spin, though.  If it all goes OK, I'll keep using this machine for the time being.  But if there is any repetition or anything else goes wrong, then I'll replace it as I strongly suspect that the cost of repairs would outweigh that of replacement.  All of this has led me to reflect on how long I've had this machine - fourteen years.  Which is pretty good considering that the average life expectancy of this type of household appliance is only eight years.  Nothing, it seems, is built to last these days - we throw far too much stuff away.  That said, while I was doing my online research to diagnose the machine's problems, it transpired that there are a significant number of people out there who have happily been running the same washing machine for twenty-plus years.  Hell, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!