GE front load washer has smoke in the drum and sounds very load when it spins

[sbaty]

My GE front load washer sounded really load during the spin cycle a couple days ago. Then we saw smoke in the laundry room. My husband looked at the back of the machine and found some nut? very loose and tightened it back up. We also opened the drain in front and found a large amount of lint/coins/debris. Removed the pump to check for any debris and just found a lot of black residue. Upon another test load he checked the front drain again and there are pieces of plastic! It sounds really load still when it gets to the last few minutes of the spin cycle, but doesn't seem wobbly anymore. And there is a light smoke inside the drum. Anyone know what I should do from here?? Machine is 4yrs old, and I would really like to fix this ourselves if possible. Don't know what to check next!! HELP!!

Model WCVH6260F0WW

[JWWebster]

Might be a bearing gone out: REPAIR MANUAL

[sbaty]

Thanks for the repair manual link

[JWWebster]

This washer is relatively new to the scene. Any info or pictures of your repairs will be appreciated by all.

[ryan111]

My GE front load washer sounded really load during the spin cycle a couple days ago. Then we saw smoke in the laundry room. My husband looked at the back of the machine and found some nut? very loose and tightened it back up. We also opened the drain in front and found a large amount of lint/coins/debris. Removed the pump to check for any debris and just found a lot of black residue. Upon another test load he checked the front drain again and there are pieces of plastic! It sounds really load still when it gets to the last few minutes of the spin cycle, but doesn't seem wobbly anymore. And there is a light smoke inside the drum. Anyone know what I should do from here?? Machine is 4yrs old, and I would really like to fix this ourselves if possible. Don't know what to check next!! HELP!!

First off see what it does because tightening the nut could have very well repaired the problem.

I have seen a few times where the tub would rub the door gasket during a high-speed spin. It wouldn’t do it until the tub was spinning over 800 rpms (last few minutes of spin cycle). When this happens the drum will fill with smoke and it will smell like burning rubber. You will also get small pieces of rubber that may get into the drain. It seems like there is a chance yours is doing the same thing from what you describe. Rotate the drum by hand and see if it wobbles up and down more than a ¼ inch if so this could be the problem. Two things that could cause this and they are a drum out of round or the bearing isn’t holding the drum straight. I personally haven’t seen a bearing bad yet but I have been reading and hearing about them so that is a chance. I have however seen three drums out of round and speaking with GE it sounds like it is somewhat common.

[sbaty]

We tightened the nut but there seems to be a little play in the metal piece(drive pulley?), looks like it has worn the edges where it fits onto the drum.. And when you manually rotate the drum you can see that it is slightly out of round! So I know how to replace the drive piece but how do I fix the drum being out of round??

[ryan111]

Try the pulley first.

You will have to replace the whole drum (very expensive) if it is out of round. Note that all of them will wobble some; they say the allowance is ¼ inch. The ones I saw were wobbling ½ inch or more. But they still didn’t hit until it was spinning at or near full speed. The first two I saw were in warranty. The last one wasn’t but the customer called GE and they sold her a new washer for half price.   

[sbaty]

Thanks! I'll hope for the pulley