Out of balance on spin cycle

[Innovative1]

Thought I’d put in my 2 cents and tell my story about the Samsung WF419 washer and its fatal flaw. We purchased ours on a “Black Friday” special November 2009 expecting to get some good years out of the washer/dryer pair. We don’t run more than 2 or 3 loads a week in the washer, so ours has had relatively little use over the beginning of its anticipated and expected long life-cycle. When the “thumping” started on the spin cycle a few months back, I just blew it off as an occasional out of balance load that wasn’t a big deal. Then the thumping became “very” noticeable and my wife said there was water leaking underneath. Well, nothing like a “leaking” and “thumping” washer to get your attention, so I thought I’d better look into the problem. After just a quick internet search, I found that these units have a “fatal flaw” that happens with a large number of them, even if you use them exactly as directed. We’ve never used anything other than the recommended “high efficiency” detergent and kept loads at a normal to light size, so what we found after taking the unit apart was quite shocking. The “spider” or drum shaft assembly had deteriorated into a metal mush and one of the 3 arms was completely cracked through. Also, the “thumping” we were hearing was the inner wash drum rubbing against the front half of the washers plastic housing and had sliced though the housing in 2 areas creating the leak we were experiencing. Wow, I really couldn’t believe a lightly used Samsung washing machine that was only 6 years old, could self-destruct like this. We had sold our “flawless” Maytag stack-able after 15 years of continuous service (no issues ever) to “upgrade” to this Samsung set. Well, it goes without saying that I’m not real happy with this purchase now, and am only happy that I’m savvy enough to do this repair myself, with the help of the fabulous Appliancepartspros.com guys. Their website, videos, and of course staff have made diagnosis, dis-assembly, parts acquisition, and repair a much more comfortable experience. If you have this model and it starts to consistently spin out of balance, plan on a complete tear down of your washer or a VERY LARGE repair bill if you have a service company do the job.