That washing machine with a snapped spider arm caught me off guard last week

I got a call from a lady in Oak Park about her Samsung washer making a loud banging noise during spin. When I pulled the drum out I found the spider arm had completely snapped in half, which is pretty common on those front loaders from around 2016. The plastic coating had worn through and rust got into the metal, making it brittle over time. I quoted her $450 for a new spider arm and labor but she decided to just buy a new machine instead. Honestly I can't blame her with how much those repairs cost and the risk of it happening again. Has anyone else had luck with aftermarket spider arms holding up better than OEM?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia_hill6014d ago

So is it really worth paying OEM prices for metal that's just going to corrode again, or are those aftermarket ones actually a decent fix?

charlie19812d ago

My buddy tried saving money with aftermarket panels on his old Tacoma and they fit like a cardboard box taped to a pickup. Six months later the rust had already started bubbling through the cheap paint they used. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for with metal if you want it to last more than a year.

davidshah6d ago

I used to think "OEM is just a tax for people who don't want to mess with fitment," but then I tried a cheap fender on an old Honda. It lined up about as well as a crooked picture frame, and the paint started peeling before the first oil change. Your buddy's Tacoma story is basically what I saw happen to that car. Pretty hard to argue with rust bubbling through after six months.