Washing Machine Grinding Noise: 3 Causes, Stop Now

Last Updated on October 26, 2026 by Umar Farooq

If there is a washing machine grinding noise right now, stop the cycle before you read the rest of this page. Samsung’s own guidance is to stop as soon as this noise occurs, and the reason is not caution for its own sake. Grinding is the sound of hard contact — something solid touching something solid that shouldn’t be — and hard contact carrying the load of a spinning drum does damage every second it continues. A few more cycles is genuinely the difference between a free fix and a bearing job. Stop it, then diagnose it stationary.

That “hard contact” description is the most useful thing to know about this noise, because it separates grinding from the sound it gets confused with most often. A squeal is friction: two surfaces sliding across each other that shouldn’t be, which on a washer means a belt or a bearing surface and very little else. Grinding is different in kind — something is being struck, dragged, or crushed between parts. Different mechanism, different parts, and a very different repair bill. If what you hear is high and thin rather than low and rough, you want washing machine squealing during spin instead.

Here is the part most troubleshooting lists have backwards. The most common cause of grinding is not a failing component at all. Samsung names overloading as the primary documented cause for this noise, and a coin or hairpin caught where it shouldn’t be accounts for a good share of the rest. Both of those you find by stopping and looking, not by testing — which is why the first move on this page is to open the door and inspect, and why an empty spin, which costs nothing, settles more of the question than any part swap can.

This page covers a low-pitched, continuous, metal-on-metal grinding or roaring that rises with spin speed. It does not cover banging or thumping, which is usually an unbalanced load — see washing machine shakes during spin — or the brief hum of the drain pump, which is normal. It applies to washing machines of every brand.

What causes a washing machine grinding noise, in order

The list below is ordered by how often each cause actually shows up, not by how serious it is, and here those two orderings run almost exactly opposite. The two likeliest explanations — an overpacked drum and a loose foreign object — cost nothing, involve no parts, and are resolved in one wash. The least likely, a worn tub bearing, is the one that can end a machine’s economic life. Working the cheap causes first isn’t timidity. It is the only way to avoid paying for a diagnosis you didn’t need.

Form factor decides which of these is even available to you. A front-loader spins the entire outer tub, so the tub bearing carries that load continuously and bearing wear is a live concern — and the noise a worn bearing makes, a low roar that grows with speed, is precisely what people describe as grinding. On top-load machines that is primarily not the story, which changes what the same symptom is likely to mean. Establish which machine you own before you read any cause below as applying to yours.

An overloaded or oversized load. Samsung’s own guidance identifies this as the most common cause of a grinding-sounding noise during spin. It isn’t a mechanical fault at all — reducing the load size is often the entire fix.
A foreign object caught between the inner drum and outer tub — coins, buttons, or hairpins that made it past the pockets. This often sounds more like a clicking or ticking that stops the moment the drum slows, which is a useful distinction from true grinding.
A worn or failing tub bearing (mainly front-load models). The most serious cause: a grinding or roaring that gets progressively worse over time and is loudest at high spin speed, produced by metal-on-metal friction as the bearing deteriorates.
A damaged drive pulley or related drive-system wear, producing a grinding sound tied to the mechanical rotation itself rather than to the load.
A model-specific installation detail — on certain models, Samsung notes that a drip pan installed without its included leg rings can itself produce a grinding sound. A good reminder that model-specific documentation earns its place here.

There is no single universal cause. Because overloading is both the most common explanation and the cheapest to rule out, that is exactly where the checks below start.

Write down the load and the moment the noise starts

Half the checks on this page apply only to certain machines, and the difference between a five-minute fix and a service call often comes down to a detail printed on a label you have never read. Write these down before you test anything. The most valuable item on the list is not the model number, though — it is what the load was doing when the noise appeared, because that is the evidence that separates a machine objecting to an unreasonable load from a machine that is actually damaged.

Timing matters as much as the sound itself. Grinding that starts the instant spin begins, grinding that builds as the drum accelerates, and grinding that only appears at the highest speeds are three different observations, and they narrow the list in three different directions. Note it precisely rather than as “during spin.” A noise that only shows up above a certain speed is behaving like a load-and-balance problem. A noise present whenever the drum turns at all is behaving like something that is permanently in contact.

Model number, on a label at the door frame (front-load) or under the lid edge (top-load).
Form factor: front-load or top-load — tub bearing failure is primarily a front-load concern, since front-loaders spin the entire outer tub.
Exact cycle stage — start of spin, building with speed, or only at the top speeds.
Any displayed code or light pattern.
Load condition — size, weight, and type. This is the single most useful piece of evidence for this symptom.
Water remaining — confirm the tub drained before spin, since undrained water adds weight that makes load-related noise worse.
The result of one controlled test — the empty-spin comparison below is the cleanest way to separate load noise from machine noise.

Normal behavior vs. an actual fault

A grinding-sounding noise from an overpacked drum is not a fault, and per Samsung’s guidance reducing the load usually resolves it. The mechanism is mundane: an overloaded drum asks the drive to accelerate more mass than it was sized for, and packed laundry presses against surfaces it would normally clear. Nothing has broken — the machine is objecting. A genuine fault announces itself differently in one specific way: it persists with a small, reasonable, well-balanced load, or it has been getting louder and more frequent over successive washes rather than only appearing on your heaviest one.

There is a second normal noise worth knowing, because it catches people out on top-loaders in particular. The motor does not run in one direction throughout a cycle — it reverses repeatedly, and each reversal is audible. Maytag documents it plainly: a grinding or rubbing noise “typically occurs only in the agitation/wash or spin portions of the cycle,” and “you may hear the motor sound as the motor alternates directions” (Maytag — grinding or rubbing noise). So a short grinding note that arrives in a rhythm, at the moment the drum changes direction, and stops when the drum settles, is the drive doing its job. A fault does not keep time with the reversals — it rises and falls with speed.

That second pattern is the one to take seriously. A noise that worsens progressively is not something to monitor for a few more washes and see. Progressive is the signature of wear, and wear on a tub bearing does not stop where it is — running it to failure turns a bearing job into a drum-and-bearing job.

Spin it empty, then spin four wet towels

None of these steps involve opening the machine, and one of them does most of the diagnostic work on its own. An empty spin is the highest-value test on this page because it removes the biggest variable for free: with nothing in the drum, load size, load balance and trapped fabric all come off the table at once. Whatever the machine does with an empty drum, it is doing on its own account. That is a far cleaner result than listening hard to a normal wash and trying to interpret what you heard.

Two rules apply to everything below. Unplug the washer before you put a hand into the drum or near the door boot. And do not run a grinding cycle to see whether it clears — it does not clear, and every extra rotation of hard contact is damage you pay for later.

Run an empty spin to separate load noise from machine noise

Run this before anything else, and listen through the full speed range rather than the first ten seconds.

With the drum completely empty, run a spin-only cycle.
If the empty test is completely quiet, the grinding is very likely tied to your load rather than to the washer.
If the empty test itself produces grinding, that is strong evidence of a genuine mechanical issue, and you can skip the towel test below.

The towel test exists because “quiet when empty” is a weaker result than it sounds. A bearing spinning under almost no load can stay quiet and still be worn; load is what puts force through it. Samsung’s documented procedure — roughly four soaking wet bath towels, or a load of similar weight — is a controlled way to apply that force without the imbalance a random wash introduces. If grinding occurs during that test, Samsung’s guidance is to contact its Support Center for service.

!Close-up of rolled bathroom towels

Inspect safely for trapped objects and rubbing marks

Unplug the washer first. Then look, because this is the one cause you find with your eyes rather than with a test. Objects that get past pockets end up in one of two places: loose in the drum, where they click and rattle and go quiet the moment the drum slows, or wedged between the inner drum and outer tub, where they are held against a moving surface and grind continuously. The second is the one that matters, and on a front-loader it is largely invisible from the front — so a clean visual check improves the odds without closing the question.

Check the drum interior and door seal (front-load) or tub interior (top-load) for anything visibly caught — coins, buttons, hairpins, small hardware.
Look for rub marks or scuff patterns on the outer edge of the inner drum, which indicate something is contacting a surface it shouldn’t.
On front-load models, consider whether something could have worked past the door boot into the gap between inner drum and outer tub.
If you find and remove an object, that may resolve a clicking or ticking sound, though it is less likely to explain a continuous grinding noise.

Stop-use warning: Stop the washer at the first sign of grinding. Do not let a cycle finish to see how bad it gets. If you notice heat, a burning smell, or smoke near the base, unplug it and do not run it again until it has been inspected.

If both the empty test and the towel-weight test produce grinding, and no trapped object or rub mark explains it, the problem has moved out of your hands and into the tub bearing or drive system.

Bearing, foreign object or drive pulley — in that order

By this point you have two pieces of evidence the table can use: what the machine does empty, and what it does under a known weight. Add a third — the character of the noise across a single drum rotation. Continuous grinding that tracks speed behaves like something permanently in contact. A sound that arrives once per rotation behaves like one spot meeting one point. A click that vanishes the instant the drum decelerates behaves like something loose that was only being thrown around. Those three signatures point at three different parts.

When and how you hear it	Most likely cause
Only with heavy or oversized loads; empty and towel-weight tests are quiet	Overloading — not a fault, reduce load size
Present even on the empty test, worsens as spin speed increases, continuous	Tub bearing wear (mainly front-load) — treat as urgent
Ticking or clicking that stops the instant the drum decelerates	A loose foreign object, not true bearing grinding
Rhythmic sound at the same point in every rotation, rather than continuous	Possible foreign object rubbing at one spot, or localized drive-pulley wear
Grinding paired with heat or a burning smell near the base	Advancing bearing or drive failure — stop immediately regardless of other findings

Generic troubleshooting stops being reliable past this point, and it is more useful to say so than to write more confidently. Confirming a tub bearing or drive pulley fault requires disassembly that varies significantly by model, and the values you would test against are model-specific. Avoid undocumented voltage or resistance figures found outside Samsung’s own materials. What the table gives you is a well-supported expectation to carry into a service call, which is worth considerably more than a guess presented as a diagnosis.

Before you order a part, check it against your manual

Check what you observed against the official documentation for your exact model before any part is ordered. That reads like a formality and isn’t. Most appliance content is copied from other appliance content, which is how a wrong figure survives for years, and manufacturers retire support pages without redirecting them — a live-looking URL is not proof the sentence everyone quotes is still on it. The sources below were opened and confirmed. Where your own manual disagrees with anything here, your manual wins.

One detail is worth knowing before you price anything. On front-load models the tub bearing is typically part of the rear drum assembly rather than a standalone part, so a bearing repair often means buying the whole assembly and reaching it through most of a strip-down. That is why a bearing on an out-of-warranty machine is frequently the point where repair stops making financial sense, while a pump, door lock or inlet valve almost never is. Verify this against your model’s documentation rather than assuming it.

Samsung’s official reference for a noisy washing machine addresses grinding sounds directly, identifies overloading as the primary documented cause, and gives the exact test procedure using roughly four soaking wet bath towels to determine whether service is needed (Samsung washing machine is too noisy).
If pump debris is a possibility, Samsung’s official pump filter cleaning procedure is the documented way to check and clear it, since debris in the pump housing can produce noise that is easy to mistake for a drum-related grind (how to clean your Samsung washer).
Look up any displayed code against Samsung’s official error code and blinking-light reference before assuming a specific part (Samsung, “Samsung washing machine information and error codes”).
Confirm any replacement part’s compatibility against your exact model number before purchasing.

If your findings point at a specific component — a tub bearing or a drive pulley — verify that against Samsung’s current owner’s manual or an official support article for your exact model before ordering or replacing anything.

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Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana and Kenmore 110: some grinding is normal

These four share a control platform, and Maytag and Whirlpool publish the same guidance for it.

Some grinding is expected. The documented normal case is the motor alternating direction

during agitation or spin, and the gear sounds that come with it.

The noise should be confined to the agitation/wash and spin portions of the cycle. A grinding

noise during fill or drain is not part of that normal pattern and points elsewhere — usually the pump rather than the drive.

Expect F7E1 if the platform logs a motor fault, and LdU if what you are hearing is actually

an unbalanced load failing to settle. An F7E1 that comes straight back after a reset is the platform naming the drive itself, which points at the drive motor rather than at anything you can reach through the pump filter.

Samsung and LG publish no grinding-specific guidance

Neither publishes a grinding-specific article, so treat the general noise guidance as the starting point and rely on the cycle-stage test above. The mechanics do not change with the badge: a noise that tracks spin speed is rotating-assembly, and a noise that tracks direction changes is the drive doing what it is supposed to.

Re-test in the same order: empty, towels, normal load

“It seems fine now” is not a confirmation, particularly for a noise that only appears above a certain speed or under a certain weight. Confirm a fix the same way you diagnosed it: escalating load, listening through the full speed range each time, stopping at the first sound rather than pushing through to the end. The order below matters — if the empty spin is not silent, there is nothing to learn from loading towels into the machine, because you already have your answer.

Run an empty spin cycle and confirm it is completely quiet.
Run Samsung’s documented towel-weight test (roughly four soaking wet bath towels) and confirm no grinding occurs.
Run a normal-sized, reasonably loaded cycle and listen through the full spin range.
Stop immediately and reassess if grinding returns at any point, rather than letting the cycle continue.

If grinding returns — even briefly, or only at certain speeds — treat that as new evidence and go back to the noise timing table and the manual-verification step rather than repeating the same fix and hoping.

The line is the cabinet: bearing and drive are not yours

There is a real line here, and naming it precisely is more useful than “consult a professional.” Everything upstream of opening the cabinet is yours: load size, trapped objects, the empty and towel-weight tests, the pump filter. Everything that means reaching the bearing or the drive is not — not because it is beyond you, but because it is a strip-down performed against model-specific documentation, on a machine that is already making the noise that says parts are touching. On an older front-loader the quote for that strip-down regularly exceeds what a reconditioned machine with a warranty on it costs, so get both figures before authorising the labour.

!Technician’s hands assembling a metal connecting rod

Stop here and arrange service through the manufacturer or a qualified technician if:

Grinding persists on both the empty test and Samsung’s documented towel-weight test, with no trapped object or overloading involved.
The sound has been getting louder or more frequent over successive washes, which is consistent with a worsening bearing rather than a one-time load issue.
You notice heat, a burning smell, or smoke near the base of the washer.
You are not confident inspecting or accessing drive components — on front-load models this typically involves the entire rear drum assembly, not a simple part swap.
The drum, door, or any moving part behaves unexpectedly while you are working near the unit. Unplug the washer and stop.

FAQ

Is grinding the same as a squealing sound?

No. A squeal is high and thin and comes from surfaces sliding — a belt or a bearing surface. Grinding is low and rough and comes from hard contact. They point at different parts, so see washing machine squealing during spin if the pitch is wrong for this page.

My washer bangs or thumps during spin instead of grinding — is that covered here?

No. Banging or thumping is usually tied to an unbalanced load or vibration rather than contact between parts. See washing machine shakes during spin if that describes it better.

I hear a normal whirring or humming sound while the washer drains — is that the grinding this guide covers?

No. A brief hum or whir during draining is normal drain-pump operation, not the continuous, spin-speed-dependent grinding covered here.

Is it ever safe to let a load finish if I hear grinding partway through?

No. Samsung’s guidance is to stop the cycle immediately when grinding occurs. Grinding is parts in contact, and every further rotation adds wear that turns a smaller repair into a larger one.

My washer is also shaking or vibrating badly along with the grinding — are these related?

They can be, since some of the same worn components contribute to both. See washing machine shakes during spin for the vibration-specific checks alongside what is covered here.

Could debris stuck in the drain pump cause a grinding-like sound?

Yes, and it is worth ruling out because it is cheap to check. Debris in the pump housing can buzz, rattle, or sound close enough to grinding to be mistaken for it. Check the pump filter, and if drainage itself seems affected, see washing machine won’t drain.

A 3C code appears along with the grinding noise. That combination narrows things considerably — you now have a named motor fault to work from rather than an unidentified mechanical noise. See washing machine 3C motor error.