Parts Availability, Wasco, American, Maytag

[SudsMan]

I have been using a local appliance parts dealer for my Wasco and American parts. Doing this for many years. I just learned that both Wasco and American will no longer give such a dealer any discount. This means the local parts dealer can no longer afford to stock Wasco and American parts.

I spoke with a Wasco rep and he informed me that Wasco is making this change so that all parts will now be sold ONLY through Wasco dealers, that is to say, only dealers who sell Wasco equipment. This is a real problem for me since my local Wasco dealer doesn't stock much of anything, at least nowhere near as many parts as my original appliance parts dealer did.

Has anyone else come across this problem? The real impact to me is that I now have to increase my personal stock, even more than it is, and I have a lot of parts, or put up with mail order, thereby increasing costs and, most importantly, increasing equipment down time. I've also heard that Maytag either is going this same route or will be doing so soon.

What have you all encountered?

[Ken]

Wascomat is making a big mistake doing business this way.
I don't buy too many Wascomat parts from Wascomat dealer since they sell aftermarket parts,charge OEM price anyway.
You should able to find a lot dealer sell OEM or aftermarket Wascomat parts cheap,some aftermarket stuff are not too bad.

[MSKLAUNDRY.]

Most of the parts being sold out there for wascos are aftermarket and you probably don't even know it.

[SudsMan]

The Wasco rep I spoke with brought up the after market parts 'problem'. As he sees it, it's the appliance parts dealers who are selling the after market parts, NOT the Wasco dealers. Yeah, right!

I tried after market parts for the bearings in 124s. Bought them from Axxon. The first set of bearings was OK, but lasted only two years and didn't come with the sealing grease for the seals that Wasco supplies with their OEM bearings. The second set, I'm a glutten for punishment, came with the outside raceway on one of the bearings being of the split raceway design. I called Axxon on this and they didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about, let alone how the bearing was to be installed, or, for that matter, to be removed in the future. They did take the split raceway bearings back and gave me full credit.

My local appliance parts dealer said that he thought that Speed Queen was the only manufacturer of commercial laundry equipment that was NOT going to play this new game with spare parts. If he's correct, Speed Queen might just be in line for more sales when the word gets out.

To Wasco's credit, when I've needed parts and could spare the lead time, their pricing was OK. And I received the parts in a few days. But as I said in my initial post, only the appliance parts dealers are nearby and can service me in an emergency. They are also the only ones who are open on Saturdays. My guy would even leave a part outside his door for me to pick up after hours! Now that's service.

[Ken]

I have not seen an OEM Wascomat bearing kit for a long time,I and my helper just did over 20 Wascomat bearing job with all SKF bearing aftermarket kit,I hope they last more than 2 years.I did a few with aftermarket kit 4,5 years ago,they are still running.
I know Wascomat dealer sell both OEM and aftermarket,I don't care but don't like dealer charge aftermarket as OEM.Some aftermarket parts just look like original.
The Wascomat W124 has 2 different bearing kit, 990218 and 990219,this maybe your bearing problem.
If no aftermarket parts,the OEM will cost more since you can only buy from the factory,I think aftermarket parts keep the Wascomat OEM price low.
An OEM W184 50# bearing kit cost $200 ,aftermarket with SKF bearing cost $100 but if you have a Primus 50#,bearing kit cost over $1000 ,no aftermarket parts!