Washing machine no longer heats up water

You will need to disconnect the heater and measure its electrical continuity with an el cheapo resistance meter.

The reason they pack in is often because they get scaled up which causes them to overheat.

Disconnect the element and measure the resistance between the two terminals.

Yup, the one went on my Bosch, it just resulted in a very long wash cycle as it waited ages for the water to get hot enough, and eventually times out.

Not sure how much of this will be relevant to yours:

snipped-for-privacy@apple-juice.co.uk (D.M. Procida) wrote in news:1n11dip.rw3dx32upipbN% snipped-for-privacy@apple-juice.co.uk:

It does have a thermostat - but if the element has failed it will never detect heat and the progamme will not move on

I think strictly speaking a washing machine has a thermal cutout rather than a thermostat - the heater switches off once it's reached the required temperature but doesn't switch on again when the temperature drops. At least Which? complains that there is a fall off in temperature during the latter part of the washing phase.

Measure resistance between terminals, and from one terminal to its case.

NT

Max Demian pretended :

I suggest most use a temperature sensor, rather than a thermal switch these days, to allow different wash temperatures to be used - At least mine does.

Aside from checking the resistance of the element is within reasonable bounds, I would connect a voltmeter across the element to ensure it does receive power when it is supposed to, as in during the warm up phase.

Our washer during the warm up phase, gives the drum an occasional rotation, once up to temp it then begins the actual wash. It constantly monitors the water level and adds more as needed, as it is absorbed by the clothes.

You, to add numbers to that, you would expect about 25 ohms from one terminal to the other, and should read infinite on the highest resistance range from either terminal to the metalwork.

And, if comfortable working with electricity, see if it gets mains Voltage across the terminals when it should be calling for heat. (Or unplug/isolate, and wire a light bulb in parallel to the heating element, and see if the heating element would work if it could, or could work if it would, well, you know...)

Thomas prufer

The thermostat is not connected to the heater. When the water attains temperature, it advances the programme switch on to the next process (wash).

Some processes are timed some are sensed. eg washing and spinning is timed. Fill and heat is sensed.

Except that in this case, it is happily finishing the wash, so clearly it doesn't bother checking for the temperatur before moving on.

Daniele

I had a washer (Indesit) that would sometimes stop partway through a wash and you would hear a bit of kettling from the heater.

I guess makers use different control logic - and the change from mechanical sequencers to digital logic will have had a big affect.

Temperature is critical to a good efficient wash.

You can't tell when it has advanced. Only by checking the control knob /other device. During the heat phase, the drum revolves (intermittently) to mix the water.

harry submitted this idea :

That was maybe once the case got electro-mechanical, but no longer is.

Modern microprocessor units are much more sophisticated in their actions. They can constantly monitor and top up the water level and the temperature.

In which case the thermostat is still not connected to the heater.

I bought a new element (I couldn't be bothered to drag the machine out to test the old one, I just took a chance), fitted it, and we're back to hot washes.

The old one neither shorts nor is open. In fact it reads 26 Ohms according to my meter, so I'm not sure what was wrong with it. Possibly nothing, and all it wanted was to be pulled about a bit...

Daniele

Result ;-)

You may find it was open, but a bit of mechanical manipulation has fixed it temporarily... or it could have been a lose connection (although that seems unlikely on a high power circuit like that - you would expect wiring harness damage if that were the case)