| I had an Indesit (WD104?), I bought it to have dryer function, but the dryer part was problematic since the start. The main problem was a screen, most likely supposed to catch the lint which was supposed to be washed by the cooling water. But probably because the water here is quite hard, it tend to get stuck there and clog the air flow. That wouldn't be that problematic, IF it would be at least a bit easier to get to that screen to clean it. It required cleaning about 3..4x per year, but it meant the machine had to be disassembled till you can get to that damn screen.
But it was still an "old school", with stainless steel tub and a separate frame holding the bearing and motor, where the shaft lip seal was in the tub part, the bearing in the frame and inbetween there was a splash ring on the shaft, which when the seal started leaking, it led the water away so it never reached the bearing. Have seen many with that seal leaky (due to the geometry it never leaked that much even when the seal was completely removed, just made a small puddle on the ground, nothing more), but never any with failed bearing. Really loved this design, some even had a bit more complex maze where the shaft was leaving the tub, so did not need any lip seal whatsoever (unless they got overfilled due to a bad water level switch, that was the reason the lip seal was still installed there).
Modern machines with plastic tubs tend to have both the lip seal and the bearing in one common cavity, so once the lip seal passes even a drop of water, the bearing corrodes and fails in no time. Does not matter if it is direct or belt drive. Guaranteed to fail within 3..5 years. Officially nonserviceable, could be replaced, but needs complete disassembly. A half day of work for replacing barely 10 Euro parts...
I had to replace that Indesit because most likely the main controller failed. Started acting really weird, didn't found any obvious fault on it, probably the processor failed or the EEPROM wore out (had an "old analog style" control, mimicking the workings of an electromechanical cam switches controller, so on power off remembering where in the cycle it was and after restoring the power just continuing from there).
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