Washing machine sticks with water flushing through - ideas?
 

Hi

Sorry if this has come up before. I've had a look and tried all the
suggestions I can find, but nothing so far has worked.

Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

It normally happens (so I am told by my wife) soon after the programme
starts, and before it is going to do its final spin. I guess, therefore,
when it is filling up at the beginning, and for the final rinse. It
doesn't always do it, though.

I have tried the following:

Removed the programmer switch, filled with WD40 and cleaned as much as
possible without dismantling.

Checked pipe to pressure switch. Seems all clear (cleaned small plastic
pot at bottom of the pipe where it connects to the drum, but wasn't a lot
of scale in it). Pressure switch clicks at different pressures when
blowing in the pipe.

Checked output drain pipe from the bottom of the drum. Completely clear as
far as I can see. Nothing obvious in the pump, which is also clear.

Does anyone have any other ideas? There doesn't seem much more
than can be wrong with it to me, unless the programmer itself is broken
internally. There are a couple of what look like sensors on the front
of the outer plastic drum in the machine (the bit that doesn't spin
round). Don't know what they are, could they cause problems?

Have had no problems with it at all so far, and don't want to waste money
for someone to pull out a paperclip or similar, if possible!

Thanks for any suggestions.

Matthew

"Matthew Newton" wrote in
message
wtoncomputing.co.uk...
Hi

Sorry if this has come up before. I've had a look and tried all the
suggestions I can find, but nothing so far has worked.

Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

It normally happens (so I am told by my wife) soon after the programme
starts, and before it is going to do its final spin. I guess, therefore,
when it is filling up at the beginning, and for the final rinse. It
doesn't always do it, though.

I have tried the following:

Removed the programmer switch, filled with WD40 and cleaned as much as
possible without dismantling.

Checked pipe to pressure switch. Seems all clear (cleaned small plastic
pot at bottom of the pipe where it connects to the drum, but wasn't a lot
of scale in it). Pressure switch clicks at different pressures when
blowing in the pipe.

Checked output drain pipe from the bottom of the drum. Completely clear as
far as I can see. Nothing obvious in the pump, which is also clear.

Does anyone have any other ideas? There doesn't seem much more
than can be wrong with it to me, unless the programmer itself is broken
internally. There are a couple of what look like sensors on the front
of the outer plastic drum in the machine (the bit that doesn't spin
round). Don't know what they are, could they cause problems?

Have had no problems with it at all so far, and don't want to waste money
for someone to pull out a paperclip or similar, if possible!

Thanks for any suggestions.

Matthew


In the past I've solved some really 'odd' faults by simply replacing the
brushes on the motor - at less than £10 it's probably worth a try.

Peter

In article computing.co.uk,
Matthew Newton writes:
Hi

Sorry if this has come up before. I've had a look and tried all the
suggestions I can find, but nothing so far has worked.

Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

If the water level in the drum does not appear to be abnormally
high when this happens, I suspect the problem is that you don't
have the drain pipe clipped up high enough at the back.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Matthew Newton wrote:
Hi

Sorry if this has come up before. I've had a look and tried all the
suggestions I can find, but nothing so far has worked.

Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks
in the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does,
it is letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely
until the control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

It normally happens (so I am told by my wife) soon after the programme
starts, and before it is going to do its final spin. I guess,
therefore, when it is filling up at the beginning, and for the final
rinse. It doesn't always do it, though.

We had this recently, and most people thought it was the programmer -
however on another list someone suggested that it was syphoning, whereby the
output hose was pushed too far down the drain pipe, allowing water to be
drawn out by syphoning. This means that when the machine is filling, it
never fills and so keeps adding water. It also co-incided (looking back
now) with me pushing the hose further down the drain when I was doing
something else.

Ours was intermittant too - but since doing it (week or so) we've not had a
problem.

May be a nice, cheap and easy solution. :)

David

Matthew Newton wrote:
Hi

Sorry if this has come up before. I've had a look and tried all the
suggestions I can find, but nothing so far has worked.

Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks
in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it
is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until
the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

It normally happens (so I am told by my wife) soon after the
programme
starts, and before it is going to do its final spin. I guess,
therefore,
when it is filling up at the beginning, and for the final rinse. It
doesn't always do it, though.

I have tried the following:

Removed the programmer switch, filled with WD40 and cleaned as much
as
possible without dismantling.

Checked pipe to pressure switch. Seems all clear (cleaned small
plastic
pot at bottom of the pipe where it connects to the drum, but wasn't a
lot
of scale in it). Pressure switch clicks at different pressures when
blowing in the pipe.

Checked output drain pipe from the bottom of the drum. Completely
clear as
far as I can see. Nothing obvious in the pump, which is also clear.

Does anyone have any other ideas? There doesn't seem much more
than can be wrong with it to me, unless the programmer itself is
broken
internally. There are a couple of what look like sensors on the front
of the outer plastic drum in the machine (the bit that doesn't spin
round). Don't know what they are, could they cause problems?

Have had no problems with it at all so far, and don't want to waste
money
for someone to pull out a paperclip or similar, if possible!

Thanks for any suggestions.

Matthew

sounds like a sticking water inlet solenoid. The [umping out would be
the machines reaction to excess water level detected.

Easy way to etll if this is it is to hook up a meter to the inlet
solenoid, see what happens when its in this fault mode. If the pwoer to
the solenoid is off at this time, its the solenoid. If its on, its
summat else.

Avoid frying self.

NT

On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 07:59:21 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article computing.co.uk,
Matthew Newton writes:
Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

If the water level in the drum does not appear to be abnormally
high when this happens, I suspect the problem is that you don't
have the drain pipe clipped up high enough at the back.

Thanks to all who replied. I have not tested this yet, but I think it is
probably the case. The hose was not clipped to the back of the machine
(just running along the floor), and was also pushed right down the waste
pipe, into the water at the bottom.

I'll give it a try and see if that fixes it, before checking the
solenoids/brushes, etc. Thanks!

Matthew

On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 00:44:00 +0100, Matthew Newton wrote:
Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

Thanks, all.

It must have been syphoning the water out. Since readjusting the waste
pipe and clipping it up properly it seems to be working fine now! I now
have a happy wife again. :-)

--
Matthew

Though the water level sensor "clicks" when you blow through it (and
incidentally, these
switches can be sensitive so blow *gently*), there is no guarantee that
the switch is
working behind this.
Power down the machine and either use a multimeter or some concoction
of lamp
and battery to prove that the switch is in fact changing over.

At a guess I'd say that the pressure switch isn't working leading to a
"water level low"
state hence the machine keeps admitting more water ad infinitum.

But then I've been wrong before...

Regards

Mungo

"Matthew Newton" wrote in
message
wtoncomputing.co.uk...
Hi

Sorry if this has come up before. I've had a look and tried all the
suggestions I can find, but nothing so far has worked.

Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

It normally happens (so I am told by my wife) soon after the programme
starts, and before it is going to do its final spin. I guess, therefore,
when it is filling up at the beginning, and for the final rinse. It
doesn't always do it, though.

I have tried the following:

Removed the programmer switch, filled with WD40 and cleaned as much as
possible without dismantling.

Checked pipe to pressure switch. Seems all clear (cleaned small plastic
pot at bottom of the pipe where it connects to the drum, but wasn't a lot
of scale in it). Pressure switch clicks at different pressures when
blowing in the pipe.

Checked output drain pipe from the bottom of the drum. Completely clear as
far as I can see. Nothing obvious in the pump, which is also clear.

Does anyone have any other ideas? There doesn't seem much more
than can be wrong with it to me, unless the programmer itself is broken
internally. There are a couple of what look like sensors on the front
of the outer plastic drum in the machine (the bit that doesn't spin
round). Don't know what they are, could they cause problems?

Have had no problems with it at all so far, and don't want to waste money
for someone to pull out a paperclip or similar, if possible!

Thanks for any suggestions.

Matthew


Don't know if it's relevant but I had a similar thing happen a few years
ago.
The old machine's waste was plumbed directly into the household waste pipe -
did the same with the new machine and got similar symptoms to yours. This
only happened on certain programmes which is what confused me - called out
the engineer and he solved it immediately - appears my machine needed the
waste pipe to be hooked into an upright open waste pipe to prevent
'siphonage'. On certain progs (possibly during the rinse) the out going
water caused a siphon effect and the incoming water never reached a level to
cut off and so kept flowing. (Hope that makes sense).
On reflection I now wonder if I'd looped my flexible waste pipe high enough
in the first place things might have been ok.
Just wondered if your flexible waste pipe may have recently dropped down
behind the machine and it's no longer 'looping' high enough to prevent the
siphon effect.
Just a thought ..................................

Matthew Newton wrote:
Hi

Sorry if this has come up before. I've had a look and tried all the
suggestions I can find, but nothing so far has worked.

Problem: Washing machine (Hoover SoftWave, about 8 years old) sticks
in
the middle of the cycle, sometimes more than once. When it does, it
is
letting water flush through the drum. This happens indefinitely until
the
control is clicked around, and then continues as normal.

When I read your post I though I was suffering from severe memory
loss... I too have a Hoover Softwave but wasn't aware of it having any
problems currently, and certainly didn't recall posting about them...

Mathew Newton (just the one 't' but close enough!)

On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 12:08:01 +0100, in uk.d-i-y Matthew Newton
wrote:

Thanks, all.

It must have been syphoning the water out. Since readjusting the waste
pipe and clipping it up properly it seems to be working fine now!

Too late for you now, but I added Ian Tilley's Washing Machine FAQ to
the group FAQ a couple of days ago, and sure enough, it does quote
"syphoning" as your problem.

http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/electrical/...achine_faq.htm

Phil
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