Hit 500 washer drain pumps rebuilt in 5 years today

I was going through my work log this morning and realized I just passed 500 rebuilt drain pumps on Whirlpool and GE washers since I started keeping track in 2019. That number caught me off guard because I never thought I would see that many clogged up with socks and coins. Most of them were on the old direct drive models where the pump housing cracks if you look at it wrong. Anybody else track how many of a single part they have swapped out?

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uma_webb283mo ago

Oh man, 500 pumps is insane! I felt pretty good about hitting 200 swapped washing machine belts last year, but that's small potatoes compared to your count. I still find it funny how a single sock can turn a whole machine into a nightmare. Those old Whirlpool direct drives are definitely the worst though, I swear the plastic gets more brittle every time the weather changes.

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wright.kevin3mo ago

Pop the top panel off those old Whirlpools before you even touch the drain pump, saves you from cracking the plastic housing when you're wrestling with the hoses. I've seen guys snap the pump bracket just by leaning on it wrong, especially in cold weather when that plastic gets brittle like you said. A rubber mallet is your best friend for seating the new pump without putting stress on the mount tabs. And yeah, socks are the devil, I keep a pair of long needle nose pliers dedicated just for pulling sock clumps out of the impeller area. Pro tip too, if you're swapping belts anyway, grab a spare pump pulley at the same time, those things strip out faster than you'd think on the direct drives.

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