Baffle Set 285976

The baffles do push thru slots in the drum and by then pulling them towards you, it moves slightly locking them into place. There are screws supplied and they could be installed to aid in the baffles not coming off as ofter but this cannot by done by the average person for you would need special tools and allot of fixet smarts and patience. My washer can be set at a higher spinout speed and this does save on drying costs but the trade off is the baffles break off way too often. There are metal tabs in the drum that are raised up and snap behind tabs on the underside of the baffles as you slid them towards you install them. If you rebend these tabs up with a longnose pliers twice as high as they are, they will have more holding force, keeping the baffles from coming off as often. In my opinion, the baffles should have been designed to slide backwards to lock them in place, not foward. If you look at how they are shaped, they natually have pressure pushing them towards the back of the drum in the spin cycle which just contributes to the problem of them coming off in the first place.

snapped in place

Repair was described as a simple 5 minute job following the enclosed directions. There were no directions included. Customer service replied they could not provide any instructions. I located a technical manual online and determined the steps necessary to replace the baffles. While some may just click them in, a proper repair requires the control pannel and machine housing to be removed. Then the tub assembly must be removed and the plastic tub separated from the basket. Three screws (one for each baffle must be installed. (I recommend using blue loctite to keep the screws from backing out). The entire process must then be reversed. This is a slightly complicated (note the pencil is to mark the locations of clips for ease of reinstallation. I am an Engineer and this process took over 2 hours and required a significant amount of space to lay out the parts as the machine was totally disassembled. This assembly is best accomplished with 2 people and an entire afternoon without interruption. It can be done by anyone with some mechanical skills, but find the consumer services technical manual first and be prepared to keep track of a lot of small and large parts. This is not the simple 5 minute job described by others (unless you just want to snap the baffles on the basket and not lock them down). In that case go ahead and order a few more sets as the clips will break and the baffles will slide off and you will be replacing them about every 6 months.

Easy to install.
Baffles came with 3 screws and no directions.
The screws unnecessary and we easily figured out how to install.
Quick delivery, 1-2 days.

First I removed the remain remaining baffle using a screw driver to gently pry and break the plastic tabs which held it to the drum. I replaced all three in the event that the balance could be affected if I were to only replace the broken ones. The replacements slid in and locked into place easily but I did have to gently apply pressure with a large-shanked screwdriver using the rear of the drum to push off of. The hardest part was being able to see what I was doing inside of the dark tub! I needed an extra hand to hold a flashlight. I then discovered the worth of my black and Decker light bar which has a magnetic base! Perfect for the job!
I agree with an earlier post that there is no need to suffer the effects of a washer with a missing baffle when you can replace it so easily.

The design of the baffle assembly must be a little off. Seems that the baffles must come loose at the screw and it tends to cause the attachment nubs to wear. The parts were delivered in no time, had the screws to replace the old screws (which was cool) all in all, the install went without a hitch. Plus, the site is great, easy to identify parts and the order process is a piece of cake. Maybe your folks could come over and redesign our parts site!

While looking at the new baffle it became evedent that I would need to remove the top of the unit to secure the new baffle to the drum. This was easly done by removing the top of the unit. I removed the three screws from the top back of the unit. Once the top was off I located the inlet tube for the detergent to the drum. I was able to spin the drum and locate the underside of the baffle by looking through the hole where the tube had been attached . I then installed the baffle and snapped it in place. I turned the drum to locate the hole again and installed the screw that was supplied with the new baffle. I then returned the tube back to the location it had orginally been installed. I returned the top and reinstalled the screws to the back of the unit. Whrilpool wanted to replace the entire drum at a cost of $480.00 for the part alone. This is much more cost effective with just a small bit of work. I have contacted Whrilpool for the part number and they would only tell me that I needed a whole drum. I was contacted by a rep from Whrilpool and she told me that I was wrong I could not have done this without replacing the whole drum. My wife will tell all who ask that this unit is working wonderfully.

I wasted 2 years washing clothes in mu Duet before I repaired it in just two minutes. In those 2 years we destroyed numerous articles of clothing because the missing baffle left sharp metal corners that cut holes in to so many of our clothes. The replacement baffle was easy to find on partselect.com as were installation guides. I can't believe how easy it was!

The baffle just slipped on with no tools required. The best thing was that we received our parts the next day after ordering them, and we just paid for regular shipping!