New Unit Vibrating or Walking Across the Floor

What it
usually means.

A new laundry machine that dances on its first spin is almost always telling you about its installation. Front-loading washers ship with shipping bolts through the back panel that lock the tub to the cabinet; a machine run with them still in shakes violently, because the suspension cannot move, and it can damage itself within a few cycles. Even with the bolts out, a washer resting on three feet rocks on the fourth, and a machine whose lock nuts were not tightened slowly unwinds its own feet as it vibrates. A stacked pair magnifies any rock in the washer, and pedestals raise the center of gravity. The floor matters too: a washer on a wooden floor that flexes between joists shakes more than the same machine on concrete. A new refrigerator or freezer can hum and rattle when a leg is not touching, a water line touches the cabinet, or the drain pan is resting crooked. A dish care machine not fastened to the counter rattles on its spray cycles. Each of these is corrected by the installation step that was missed. A washer that still shakes hard with its bolts out, its feet set and a balanced load is a question for the maker or our sister repair site.