How to Level a Washing Machine to Stop Shaking

Pull the power cord from the wall outlet. Reach behind the machine and turn both the hot and cold supply valves clockwise until they stop — these are usually red and blue handles or a single lever-style mixer valve. You will not be disconnecting the hoses, but if you knock a hose loose while tilting the machine, you want zero pressure behind it. Place an old towel on the floor in front of the washer to kneel on and to catch any drips.

If your front-loader is less than a year old or you recently moved it, look at the back panel for three or four red-painted bolts (typically 13 mm or 17 mm hex heads) sticking out horizontally. These lock the drum for transit and MUST be removed before any wash cycle. Unscrew them counterclockwise with a wrench or socket, save them in a labeled zip-top bag taped inside the back of the machine, and confirm there are no remaining unlabeled holes. Top-loaders do not have shipping bolts and you can skip to step 3.

With a helper, walk the washer 12-18 inches out from the wall — enough to access all four feet. Set a 24-inch spirit level on top of the cabinet, oriented front-to-back first. Read the bubble: it should be dead centered between the two lines. Now rotate the level 90 degrees so it runs side-to-side and read again. Most unlevel washers are off in BOTH axes — write down (or just remember) which side is high and which is low. The high side is the side you will lower; the low side is the side you will raise.

Get down at floor level with a flashlight. Each of the four feet has a hex-shaped threaded shaft screwing up into the base of the cabinet, and most washers have a jam nut — a thinner hex nut — sitting directly under the cabinet, locking the foot in place. Use an adjustable wrench (or the correct open-end wrench) to turn the jam nut clockwise as viewed from above, which loosens it away from the cabinet. Loosen all four before adjusting any foot — the nuts on a self-leveling rear foot (common on Whirlpool, Maytag, and Samsung top-loaders) may be missing; that is fine, those feet auto-adjust.

Starting with the lowest corner (per your bubble-level reading from step 3), grip the foot itself — not the jam nut — and rotate it counterclockwise as viewed from above. Each full turn lowers the foot relative to the cabinet, raising that corner of the machine. On most washers, half a turn equals roughly 1-2 mm of height change; you will need several turns to fix a noticeable tilt. Stop every few turns, lay the bubble level on top again, and check both axes. The goal is dead-level in both directions simultaneously.

With the bubble level reading 0.0° in both directions, push down hard with both palms on each of the four top corners of the cabinet in sequence. The cabinet must not move when you press a corner — if it does, that corner's foot is not firmly contacting the floor (or the diagonally opposite foot is too high). Adjust the offending foot down a quarter turn at a time until all four corners pass the rock test. A washer can be perfectly level on the bubble and still rock if one foot is in the air; both tests must pass.

Now lock everything in place. With the foot held steady (a second wrench or a pair of pliers helps), rotate each jam nut counterclockwise as viewed from above to drive it up firmly against the underside of the cabinet base. Snug it hard — finger-tight is not enough, the constant spin-cycle vibration will back a loose jam nut off in a week. Repeat on all four feet. After tightening, re-check the bubble level on top — sometimes tightening a nut pulls the foot a fraction and re-introduces a small tilt.