I am replacing the dissolved spider support on my washer (yes, I have to buy the whole %$#$ tub.)
I am looking for some advice on coating the aluminum and/or zinc spider support to increase it’s life.
FYI, I do have a can of commercial aluminum etching primer that may be useful for this purpose. I will have to dig for a better product description that that through my garage rubble. I remember seeing lots of warnings on the can. I probably am not qualified to spray it (smile).
Model # will not work, just check. If you have a Duet washer, I think the tub is under warranty for ten years.
The model number is Canadian. The manual will come up if you pop it into the frigidaire (probably Canadian fridgidair, I don’t remember) site.
The stainless drum is guaranteed but the aluminum part that dissolves is not covered…amazingly, you have to buy it as a unit still.
oh..and it’s not a duet. thanks.
Also,
Although I have spent enough having to buy this part and high quality bearings, I am going to splurge another 50 bucks and have the spider support powder coated. It seems to be the finish of choice for this application.
If anyone sees problems with this please let me know. I don’t get the part from Sears for a few weeks. (I guess there is a run on them.) Until then it’s happy hour at the laundromat ; (
cheers
Assembly
It was a lot of work but allowed me to appreciate that other than it’s ‘made to decay’ part, it was well engineered. The motor and drive pulley design and quality are just incredible to view. My only other issue is that they could have put the motor control board a bit higher or protected it better from a water leaking accident.
Spider Shaft
As for making out of an aluminum iron mixture and not protecting it with a coating is just nasty. Older models with steel would have had baked on enamel. How could they possible think that making it out of AL FE would be ok. Metal and water have ‘never never never’ been a good combination in any manner. …and…they still use it.
The Sears Gnome said they have sold over 500,000 of these units with few reported problems. i guess the don’t use Google but only they know how many spare parts they sell. Lots of $$$$ for them. Even if they have a 5 percent premature failure rate, that would be 25,000 customers ripped off. I would guess this rate to be higher than 25 percent..but that’s just a guess. People raising children with heavy usage are the ones to mainly be hit.
Powder coating
I got my spider arm back from powder coating and it looks great. It’s almost a shame to have to bury it in my machine (smile). The guy asked what it was for and matched a coating type to suit. It cost me massive sum of 20 bucks. So, for 20 bucks, Frigidaire could have doubled the life of my machine. thanks for nothing guys.
I sandblasted the spider arm (masking the shaft) and upon further inspection noticed that the casting was quite poor along the mold parting line and required a lot of work to remove the pits and irregularities that would could allow fractures to start.
Balance??
The service gnome at Sears said that the unit had to be sold with the stainless steel drumming as it was balanced. Surprisingly, there were no signs of balancing on the new unit…shocking. As well, I think the balance excuse is dumb for:
a. The spider arm is attached to a far from rigid stainless drum.
b. Clothes will be in this slopping around with water.
I am guessing that they may do a very rough balance check on the unit but they could safely sell the spider arm only without issues. I have some pics of my powder coated spider gear if anyone wants to check them out. If so, point me to a place where I could post em.
Washing Machines Spare Parts - Spider and Drum Support - Page 3
This place looks like it makes an aftermarket spider shaft for an electrolux application. The 3 or 4th one down on page three looks somewhat like the kenmore/friggitaire one.
I know that the spyder on these units HAS been a problem, HOWEVER, If one uses the correct amount(1/4 cap or LESS) of HE soap, and has water with a softness of 2grains or less the spyder will last for 12-15yrs with NO PROBLEMS!!! Powder coating will not survive this type of punishment. the spyder flexes under load and the powder coat will crack and trap water,accelerating the failure of the spyder!!! Let us know how you make out!!!
Sure, I will probably pull it apart in a year to check it out. I do believe that the powder coating is not brittle like a baked enamel or ceramic and should hold up well. Time will tell.
Before assembly, I spent some time scratching the finish from the stainless bolts (left in to protect threads) and saw the desired properties that I was looking for. Very tough with some rubber like characteristics. But,again, time will tell.
cheers
I’m in the midst of changing out the stainless drum and spyder because the spyder cracked apart from 2 of the 3 legs. I wonder if our use of powder HE soap advanced the failure because leftover powdered soap was caked up in the grooves of the spyder where the failure occurred. I’m wondering if the leftover soap always stayed damp, which advanced the corrosion after only 3-1/2 years of use. Perhaps I will now use liquid HE soap instead of powder which I hope will help the unit last longer than the last spyder.
Hopefully the liquid soap may help but if you use it a lot it may not matter. My mother in-law only uses her machine a couple of times a week and its holding up past three years.
I don’t really know what my wife is using these days but its been awhile since I prepared and powder coated my spider arm and all is good.
It was a lot of work to prepare the casting for paint as you really see how poor the casting is when you start the process. It cost me 20 bucks to get it painted. It was easy as the color was not important becasue they run them in batches where I went.
I would love to pull it apart and report on its state but don’t have the luxury of time.
cheers
Hi just reading your posts does this affect the balence of the machine ive changed the shocks since they were broken but the machine still has a balance problem when starting to spin is this the same problem you had:)
I am sure that handworking the casting changed the balance a little but should not be an issue considering the abnormal load of clothes that the washer has to contend with.
Also, I suspect one of the arms on my old spider fractured much earlier than the second and the washer still worked albeit poorly. It was probaly atleast 6 months to a year that way.
Did you spider go and cause your shocks to fail? As I remember, the shocks are more of a friction mechanism rather than a fluid chamber. Is that correct?
cheers
The white powder you see, which does resemble powdered detergent, is most likely aluminium oxide, the main product of corrosion from the aluminium alloy of the spider and the alkaline products in the washing and rinsing water. some of it will adhere very strongly to the donor component (spider). It, aluminium oxide, is very hard and very abrasive, it is in fact the ‘grit’ used in many ‘sandpaers’. Further it is barely soluble in water so any not adhering to the spider will be carried into the ‘water’ where it will, in my opinion, act as a very efficient ‘lapping paste’ and as such will quickly destroy the soft lips of the spider shaft seal thus allowing water and aluminium oxide into the bearings, any guesses on how long they will last, even if they are ‘sealed’?
[QUOTE=greenchair;89285]I am replacing the dissolved spider support on my washer (yes, I have to buy the whole %$#$ tub.)
I am looking for some advice on coating the aluminum and/or zinc spider support to increase it’s life.
FYI, I do have a can of commercial aluminum etching primer that may be useful for this purpose. I will have to dig for a better product description that that through my garage rubble. I remember seeing lots of warnings on the can. I probably am not qualified to spray it (smile).[/QUOTE]
Have you heard of German Made appliances?, mine is 21 years old AEG, no issues with these, spend the money is worth it. Don’t buy North American designed Chinese made TRASH made to last 2 years MAX if you are lucky and thes see the cost of the parts…
I’m resurrecting this old thread, because I am trying to figure out if any of the major brands have made any improvements in their spider arms, to delay/prevent corrosion. Either by using a different material than aluminum, or perhaps by doing some sort of coating at the factory.
Basically, are any front loader brands better in this regard, having longer-lasting, more robust spider arms?