Whirlpool washer walks across the floor or bangs on spin

Level it properly, and check what is in the drum

Push down on each of the four top corners in turn. Any rocking at all means the feet need setting, and on a tile floor over a slab a foot that has backed out a half turn is enough to do this. Set the feet so the cabinet does not move, then tighten the lock nuts against the base so they stay where you put them. Then look at the load: a bath mat, a single comforter or a rug on its own is what these machines cannot balance. If the drum bangs on a spin with nothing in it at all, stop using the high spin speed and book it.

What it usually means, by the kind of machine

Whirlpool sells one appliance in several forms — a top-loader with an agitator and one without, a front-loader, a stacked pair, a laundry tower and an all-in-one; a vented dryer, a ventless one and a heat pump — and the same behavior points at different things on each of them. A top-load washer has no drain pump filter to open and a front-loader does, which is the whole first hour of the same complaint on two machines.

• Top-load HE — Suspension rods hold the tub from the top corners. When they weaken, the tub hits the cabinet on the way up to speed and the bang is metallic and regular.
• Front load — Heavy concrete counterweights and a high spin speed, so an unlevel front-loader does not vibrate, it travels. Check all four feet and the lock nuts.
• Stacked laundry center — The dryer sits on top of the washer, so everything the washer does is amplified two feet higher. Leveling these needs the whole unit moved out, which is why it gets skipped.

Leveling is not a formality

It is the most skipped step in appliance installation and the one that causes the most avoidable damage. A washer holds a drum of water and laundry that can weigh as much as the machine, and spins it fast enough that a fraction of an inch of tilt turns into an inch of travel across the floor. In South Florida the usual surface is tile over a concrete slab, which is unforgiving: nothing gives, so all of the energy goes into moving the cabinet. Setting four feet and tightening four lock nuts takes ten minutes and prevents a suspension repair.

What banging costs if it is ignored

Every hard contact between the tub and the cabinet goes through the suspension and then through the bearing. A machine that is allowed to slam through a spin twice a week for a year arrives at a bearing job, and a bearing job on an ordinary washer is the point where the repair has to be weighed against the machine. Fixing the balance early is the cheap version of this conversation, and it is why we would rather come out for a noise than for what the noise becomes.