washing machine will not spin/new electricity meter

[Stephen]

Hello,

I have a Hotpoint WMA63 washing machine. It was working fine until this morning. Now if I run a program, the water will run into the soap tray and the drum fills with water but the drum will not turn. After a minute or two, the machine appears to detect that the drum is not rotating and the drum will empty and the machine will switch off.

I unplugged the machine and took off the top and side panels. I could not see any loose wires and the belt is attached to both the motor and the drum. if I turn the drum by hand, the drum will rotate freely and the motor turns with it.

I've had a quick google and the advice seems to be to check the brushes so I will do that next.

By coincidence this morning a man came to fit a new electricity meter and he didn't bother/ask us to turn off the power at the fuse box, he just pulled the main fuse. He didn't give any warning, so it was lucky we didn't have any computers etc switched on. The washing machine was plugged in but not running, I suppose you would say it was in "standby". Do you think that's a coincidence? It's not a power surge that's caused this is it? OTOH if a power surge caused damage, wouldn't it mean the machine would not work at all? If I press all the buttons on the front panel, the display shows the appropriate program, so if there is damage, it appears limited to the motor control.

I shall look at the brushes. Do you have any other advice what I should look at and what could be wrong?

Thanks. Stephen.

[newshound]

I'd check the brushes, but see also the current thread on uk.rec.cars.maintenance about destroying ECUs by jump starting!

[alan]

When I had a Hotpoint this type of problem was always the brushes.

If you take the old ones out they seem to have a lot of carbon left on them and look as though they should work - until you compare them to a new set.

[meow2222]

brushes or controller

turning power off does not cause a 'power surge.' turning power back on does not cause a 'power surge.'

NT

[alan]

Why should a jump start be any different from a starter motor sucking out lots of power and the alternator charging up the battery again.

If the battery goes too low the ECU may forget some settings. The manual for my car has an entry that says something like - if the battery is removed the car will run very rough for up to 5 miles afterwards until the ECU (re)learns about the idle settings and your style of driving.

[Lee]

Of course not, but there could be a *lot* of electrical noise if the fuse is removed/replaced slowly or with a less than steady hand. There is the *remote* possibility that fuse arcing could cause problems with delicate equipment - though equipment is usually designed to be able to survive such incidents without damage.

By way of an anecdote, we had the mains bridge rectifier on an LG washing machine go completely short circuit at the same time as next doors cutout started arcing...Twas the only thing affected though and I don't even know if they are on the same phase.

[Andy Wade]

A meter fitter should always open the main switch before removing the fuse and reinsert the fuse with the main switch open.

[Bill Wright]

Is it coincidence then that many of the call-outs we get to TV distribution amplifiers come immediately after a mains failure? Maybe it's because the amp is allowed to cool for the first time in a long time?

Bill

[John Walliker]

Many switching power supplies have a small electrolytic capacitor which is only ever used to start the power supply. If this dries out, which it often does when placed next to hot components, the power supply willl work indefinitely - until a mains failure.

John

[Stephen]

Update: I found a wire off the motor connector (a plug with 7 leads) had broken. Perhaps vibration caused by the spin cycle over the years may have caused this? So nothing to do with the electrician but I still think he should have switched the power off at the CU or asked us to before pulling the fuse.

[Brian Gaff]

Actually if it was the control that went it would be the first I've heard of that occurred simply by the fuse being inserted. If it was a local power cut you can get surges, but unlikely in the described scenario, unless the machine is incredibly bad!

Some machines display error codes when things are not working, you do not mention it so I assume this one has no helpful hints like Error x 23-1/99 which is the sort of cryptic stuff some tend to give a harrassed housewife!

I'd be suspicious of brushes myself. I had several machines that wore these out just after the warrenty ran out. grin.

Brian

[meow2222]

Some parts in many pieces of equipment handle higher currents during startup than running. I expect both contribute to failures.

NT

[meow2222]

Yes, which isn't a problem.

Either it always is, or its defective by design.

Failures happen at all times. That one happens when its a full moon tells us nothing.

Washing machines are not delicate equipment.

NT

[John Rumm]

Brushes or loose connection would be the obvious ones...

Hmmm rather dodgy, pulling a fuse under load is asking for trouble.

Pure coincidence...

[John Rumm]

quite possibly... still worth checking and replacing the brushes if necessary if the machine is a few years old.

Would have been better certainly.