washing machine (take apart or sell as whole)

hello,
our front loader washer stopped spinning yesterday :(
its like 10 years old.

so i'm assuming it will cost more to fix than what its worth... why repair an OLD machine.

so my question:
recycle center will give $7 per 100 pounds for it.

is it worth the time/energy (learning) to take the metals/take apart the washer to get MORE money from it?

thanks
larry



PS. our AC unit went out during the summer and i took that apart --- more time than I thought, but the experience of doing it was good
and yeah, it put more money in my pocket than paying someone to take it away.

Just take the motor and wires off before putting in your pile.

yes, by taking it apart you will do alot better on it than selling it complete. However if you want to do better than scrap you can look up the part numbers of the parts you pull out to see if there worth more than scrap. From my experience theres 4 parts in them that are worth it and a few minor parts. The major parts are the motor, pump, gear box and control panel. If you resell just those 4 parts your gonna be looking in the $100-$300 range. Thats for a top loader, the front loader parts may do better.

If you haven't taken ONE apart, then take it apart. What you will learn will be worth it. At $7.00 per 100 pounds I'm GUESSING you'll get $6.00 for the washer. If you strip it down to motor, wire, aluminum, and steel, you will likely get about $6.00.

A yard by me pays $8.50 per whole washer. I quit tearing them apart and bring them in whole.

I am thinking $6 in shred after it stripped, plus $3 for the motor and another $3 for the insulated wire. That would be 50% more than not doing anything. Or you could just cut the cord and make an extra buck.

Every front load I've scrapped so far has had concrete in it so I make sure to take it out so that I'm not selling rocks to the yard.

if you know whats wrong with it, do a quick look on ebay for the part, you may get lucky. also check craigslist, maybe there is a broken one with a different problem.

last year our $1500 washer broke. We bought another broken one on cl, fixed ours, then sold the reast of it to an appliance place for close to what we spent buying it and in gas.

I would agree, take it apart if you've never taken one apart yet... just make sure if you decide to take apart that thing that looks like it might be a pump that you're outside with a bucket of kittylitter handy. Ask me how I know.

Once you've taken one apart, you'll agree that the best thing to do with a washer is to cut off the cord, then bash off a panel so that you can see the motor, then scratch the windings on said motor. If you see copper, disassemble and retrieve the motor. If you see aluminum, take it in as is.

I would suggest taking it a part before you try and scrap it. It makes it a lot easier for companies and also you will have a better chance at selling more that way because one place might just want a part of it while another might take something else. Hope this helped! :)