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Thread Number: 91604
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
Whirlpool Direct Drive discontinuing more parts |
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| Post# 1161247 10/6/2022 at 20:26 (564 days old) by BlockEight88 (Hobart, IN) | ||
It appears Whirlpool is no longer making the following (very common) timers.
Part #3953156 Part #3955340 Both of these timers are used in my Kenmore Direct Driver washers. Model 11020852990 and 11022942100. Both were available last month. I have also seen that they have discontinued the temperature sensor (Part #3352282) and bleach hose (Part #3948705). The water pump (3363394) has been on back order for the last couple months now. I noticed they also discontinued the drive block (Part #388952) This is VERY BAD. Yes, the timers are still both readily available through retailers, but for how long? These direct drive washers are not going to last forever. This is scary. What determines when a certain part gets discontinued? | ||
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| Post# 1161250 , Reply# 1 10/6/2022 at 20:46 (564 days old) by qsd-dan (West) | ||
Gotta drudge up sales and keep stockholders happy somehow, right? ;)
In all honesty, it appears they followed the 10 year parts availability requirement but given how many of these are still out there chugging away, they seemed to cut the supply off fairly early. It won't be long before they go the way of the Maytag Helical and GE Filter-Flo designs unless another source steps up to the plate. | ||
| Post# 1161253 , Reply# 2 10/6/2022 at 21:44 (564 days old) by Maytag85 (Sean A806) | ||
Complete nonsense that Whirlpool is discounting parts for their direct drive washers. It seems that they simply are forcing people to get new piece of crap machines that don’t work worth a darn and aren’t as environmentally friendly as they claim to be.
Maybe people like me, QSD-DAN, and a few others who are likeminded should all join together in trying to bring back the machines of the past since the appliance tycoons have a virtual monopoly on today’s appliances since there’s no real choice in anything anymore. | ||
Post# 1161262 , Reply# 3 10/7/2022 at 01:02 (564 days old) by chetlaham  (United States) |
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Sad, very sad. Whirlpool doesn't care and of course people care less. You've even got service techs on here blithely defending every decision made by the industry be it good, bad or just down right awful.
I do agree, people need to join forces finding a way to print and manufacturer these parts, including entire washers, independently. I would have absolutely no problem with DDs and Dependable Care machines being brought back into production. There was nothing wrong with these designs. They kept the scrap pile clean by lasting longer in service. Same goes for front loads. European designs like the Indesit L8 revamped for the North American market would catch on as the gold standard. | ||
| Post# 1161272 , Reply# 4 10/7/2022 at 06:06 (563 days old) by BlockEight88 (Hobart, IN) | ||
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| Post# 1161278 , Reply# 5 10/7/2022 at 10:19 (563 days old) by cfz2882 (Belle Fourche,SD) | ||
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save a supply of salvaged parts :) I have junked lots of DDs resulting in boxes of recovered parts-a recently junked '02 KA had a porcelain lid and top which was good and I kept :) | ||
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Post# 1161279 , Reply# 6 10/7/2022 at 10:32 (563 days old) by ryner1988 (Indianapolis) |
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Now this is nerve-wracking... | ||
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Post# 1161280 , Reply# 7 10/7/2022 at 10:35 (563 days old) by ryner1988 (Indianapolis) |
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Also...
I had thought at the time to buy some spare parts for the machine so that I wouldn't be up a creek later. I was told by others, and even told myself, that this was a slight over-reaction. Now I wish I would have followed my instinct. Guess WP has moved faster to discontinue these parts quicker than anyone expected they woud.
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Post# 1161283 , Reply# 8 10/7/2022 at 11:15 (563 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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WP did that with KitchenAid dishwashers, which still had parts available for early models, when WP bought KitchenAid, forcing people to replace dependable older machines. | ||
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Post# 1161288 , Reply# 9 10/7/2022 at 14:25 (563 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 1161301 , Reply# 11 10/7/2022 at 18:04 (563 days old) by ryner1988 (Indianapolis) |
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Reply #10 | ||
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Post# 1161302 , Reply# 12 10/7/2022 at 19:27 (563 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Extra Parts For DD WP Built Washer ? Hi Ryne, I would not buy any extra parts for your DD washer except maybe a timer if you have money burning a hole in your pocket.
There is nothing that machine will need in the next ten years that you will not be able to find easily on the internet, and how likely are you going to keep this washer 10 years, I think I can guess the answer.
John L. | ||
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Post# 1161308 , Reply# 13 10/7/2022 at 20:37 (563 days old) by ryner1988 (Indianapolis) |
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Hi John, of course I'm not sure if this washer will last 10 years but if it can, of course I would prefer that. Our family was going through a lot of personal issues when my Maytag Pitman washer finally became unusable this past summer, so we needed something cheap but also effective. I chose the DD washer because of their reputation of lasting a long time and being easily repairable -- I don't like gambling on something that might or might not work, but yes, I absolutely hope to be done with the washer dance for a long time.
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| Post# 1161334 , Reply# 14 10/8/2022 at 09:42 (562 days old) by BlockEight88 (Hobart, IN) | ||
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I can deal with some of the smaller parts being discontinued by WP, but timers are the brains of the machine.
And buying a few now isn't a bad idea, but still pricey. In July I had to purchase a bleach hose (Part #3948705) and had no issue ordering it. Fast forward to last month, I went to purchase a second, just have and couldn't find it. It was completely gone. I had to go through eBay. When this happens with the timers, gear cases, and motors, the days of the Direct Drive may really be approaching the end. | ||
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Post# 1169925 , Reply# 16 1/19/2023 at 22:52 (459 days old) by GELaundry4ever (Nacogdoches, TX, USA) |
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My reasoning My reasoning is that Whirlpool doesn't want us to have the real machines that do wash and rinse properly. They want us to buy this garbage that's out now. | ||
| Post# 1169979 , Reply# 18 1/20/2023 at 19:40 (458 days old) by panasonicvac (Northern Utah) | ||
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Post# 1169984 , Reply# 19 1/20/2023 at 20:31 (458 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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| Post# 1169985 , Reply# 20 1/20/2023 at 21:24 (458 days old) by qsd-dan (West) | ||
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I thought Whirlpool quit making the parts all together when they ceased production of their direct drive top loaders.
By law, manufactures are supposed to provide parts up to 10 years. Of course, not all of them follow that rule and it's not firmly enforced unless one has deep pockets for lawsuits. This is one of the reasons why Maytag parts were still widely available through 2016 for orbital machines....which a large sum of those transposed to the much older machines sans the transmission in the washers. However, Whirlpool did use the technique to discourage buying those parts/repairing machines by massively increasing prices on parts, some of them right off the bat after acquiring Maytag in 2006. I was chatting it up an old Maytag repairmen back in 2008 (he was in his 60's and starting working on Maytags back in 1962) and he said Whirlpool jacked the price of the rubber feet from $.75 a piece to $4.00 overnight soon after buying Maytag.
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| Post# 1169996 , Reply# 21 1/20/2023 at 23:08 (458 days old) by johnb300m (Chicago) | ||
Apparently many don’t know how companies work.
If they weren’t coerced to do so, they’d stop offering parts soon after the models cease production. We should be so lucky many of the appliance companies still offer parts so long after sales end. It’s certainly not in their capitalist, or employees’, or suppliers’ interests. Because LG and Samsung sure don’t! And forget getting any parts out of any Chinese brand. There will still be some parts floating around in the world probably another decade too, with how prolific the DD platform was. There’s all sorts of stuff in warehouses and little appliance shops. | ||
| Post# 1169999 , Reply# 22 1/20/2023 at 23:51 (458 days old) by panasonicvac (Northern Utah) | ||
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Post# 1170007 , Reply# 23 1/21/2023 at 06:41 (457 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Major appliance parts availability
Whirlpool advertised since the 1950s that they would keep functional parts for a minimum of 15 years after a product was manufactured and non-functional parts a minimum of 10 years
They pretty much stuck to this, for instance, the combination washer dryer was taken out of production in the fall of 71 sure enough in 1986 you couldn’t get any more functional parts for the machine whatsoever There just weren’t enough sales and they drop them. I sure wish I had stocked up on some of the key parts for this machine before they went NLA. Manufactures, often keep parts available for many many years. If they can make money on them whirlpool will continue to keep a lot of Maytag parts as long as they can still make money on them. There’s even some whirlpool belt Drive washer parts that you can still get Parts pricing is an interesting business whirlpool went to a minimum dealer cost on a part of $2.52 about 15 years ago, it makes no sense to have parts on your books that only cost $.50. This is why the cost of small things like the rubber foot for a Maytag washer immediately jumped on our dealer cost list that part was 252 as soon as whirlpool took over Maytag. I remember parts in the Maytag books that only cost seven cents that did not make good sense from a business perspective. It wasn’t worth the time to write them up. John | ||
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Post# 1170035 , Reply# 24 1/21/2023 at 11:36 (457 days old) by ryner1988 (Indianapolis) |
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Let's not forget that even though the full-size direct drive washers were fully discontinued in 2011, the stacked sets were produced all the way through 2017. so I would think this means, and someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong, that even though machine-specific parts like timers will continue to become unavailable through Whirlpool, they will still offer their major parts that go in all their Dd machines, i.e., coupler, clutch and gearcase, until at least 2033. That's another decade, as noted above.
That said I heeded the warnings of individuals on here who told me the new gearcases are crap and went with a rebuilt one when my bro-in-law repaired my machine over Christmas. Ryne | ||
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