A vibrating washing machine is a pain. It’s noisy, it can move, it can shake its own inner components free so that it stops working completely… A vibrating washing machine is definitely not something you want. But why does it do it? There doesn’t always appear to be an obvious cause. Well it could be for a few reasons.
First and most likely is that it’s not sitting flat on the floor. Most floors in houses aren’t perfectly level despite a builder’s best efforts, so of course anything sitting on them is not going to be perfectly level. If a washing machine isn’t level, even slightly not level, it can vibrate. To see if this might be the problem you’ll need to get a spirit level and place it on the top of the washing machine casing. If it does prove that your washing machine isn’t level, then simply adjust the feet of the machine until it is. So a nice simple fix there.
However, your machine might be level but it might be that not all of the feet are making good contact with the floor. On a tiled floor this will often result in an annoying buzzing vibration. One at a time turn the feet to “loosen” them and they’ll drop down to make contact.
Another reason might be that the machine isn’t loaded correctly. When putting clothes or linens into the machine try to ensure that they are not all on one side of the drum and don’t overload the machine.
If you’re still experiencing an annoying buzz and your machine isn’t overloaded and it is level, then it could be that the drum isn’t centered properly. Without calling out an engineer there may not be much you can do to correct this one. One solution that is less expensive if this is the problem is to get hold of some anti-vibration pads that you can put under the feet of the washing machine. The pads are small rubber discs that absorb the vibrations from your washing machine. A cheap and simple solution and particularly good for wooden or suspension floors.
Finally, is your washing machine in a cupboard? Fitted kitchens often have a washing machine cupboard and if the door isn’t extremely firmly shut then even a slight vibration can become hugely annoying as the door will vibrate and bang on its hinges. A cheap and easy way to stop this from happening is to screw a small but secure catch onto the cupboard door. If your washing machine is also a tight fit in the cupboard and this is a problem, you can try putting some thin insulation around the washing machine to absorb any buzzing that might occur when the machine’s spin cycle begins.
We hope this helps!
