How To Replace A Washing Machine Heater ? This article is how to remove the heating element from a front-loading washing machine. It can be very difficult to remove the heater. So, don’t do it unless you’re sure it needs replacing and you’re not adept at repairing things. Often times, once you remove an old item, you can’t get it back in place. This is because of the way they were designed (as will be explained later). If you’ve tested the heating element with a meter and found it’s faulty, read on. Otherwise, check this article first not heating the water is the heater faulty?
Washing Machine Heater Replacement
Where is the heating element in the washing machine?
If you’re lucky, the heating element is behind the main drum and is accessible from behind the rear panel. More commonly, it is just in front of the main outer drum below the door seal. This means that the front panel must be removed. How easy this is varies from model to model and from brand to brand.
How to remove the heater from the washing machine
Every washing machine heater I’ve seen has been fixed in place in the same way. There is a thick rubber gasket under the terminals. Below that is a metal plate. In the middle of the metal plate is a bolt that goes through the center of the rubber seal and comes out between the two electrical terminals. You can see this bolt in the middle of the heater even when attached to the machine. It has a nut on it. This nut is tightened when the heater is placed in the machine, which pulls the plate towards itself and crushes the rubber gasket.
It crushes quite a bit and has it tucked inside the machine to be waterproof. If you look at the picture on the left you can see a brand new heater with a thick rubber gasket. When new, the heater fits snugly in place. However, after the bolt is tightened and left for several years, the rubber can become swollen and hard. This makes it very difficult to get out and sometimes impossible to get back into place. Some will come out and come back easily enough, but don’t remove one unless they need or need to be replaced.
How to install a new heater
How To Replace A Washing Machine Heater ? To install a heater, you need to put it in place, making sure to place the end of the heater in the heater bracket at the bottom of the tub. This bracket is necessary to stop the drum from hitting the heater when turning with a heavy load inside. Either a small bracket must be sticking out or maybe there is a lid designed inside the tub and the heater fits under it. Once in place, the center nut needs to be tightened to pull the metal plate against the rubber. Do not over tighten, tighten just enough to crush the rubber properly. If the metal on the heater starts to bend, you are over tightening. Try to pull it with a firm tug to make sure it doesn’t come off.
Reinstalling an old element
If you need to use WD40 or something similar to replace the heater (you don’t need to buy a new one), you have to be especially careful that it doesn’t come off. If it comes out, it will create a serious flood. I reinstalled an old heater once and had to use WD-40 to get it back. It looked fine but came out halfway through the wash and flooded a kitchen. How much to tighten is something engineers learn through trial and error. Unfortunately, doing something with no prior experience just once can go horribly wrong. If the metal plate on the element is bending, you are over tightening.