Intermittent Door Unlock Problems
Beko 71442
I've got an intermittent problem with the door unlocking on my machine, and like cars I know the intermittent problems are the hardest to solve!
When starting a programme, the door locks fine, but sometimes after the programme has finished, the door does not unlock. The padlock icon on the display just continues to flash (whereas normally it extinguishes after a minute and the door opens).
When the door won't unlock, what I do is put the machine on a spin or drain programme and then once that finishes, the door usually unlocks ok.
I've done a bit of reading on this and I guess my machine has a door interlock with bi-metallic strip rather than one that's linked to the pump. Nevertheless I cleaned the filter after the first time this happened but it wasn't really dirty and nothing appeared blocked.
Obviously what I can't understand is that it works sometimes, but not others. Could it be the interlock? Or is it more likely the main board?
Solution Summary
AI-generated from this discussion
This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
Beko 71442 intermittent door unlock after cycle
- The problem
- On a Beko 71442 washing machine, the door locks normally at the start of a programme but intermittently fails to unlock at the end. The padlock icon continues flashing instead of going out after about a minute. Running a spin or drain programme afterwards usually allows the door to unlock.
- Likely cause
- Most strongly supported diagnosis was a faulty or occasionally jamming bimetal door interlock. A less likely possibility mentioned was a pressure-system blockage if this model uses door unlocking linked to the pressure system, but that was not confirmed.
- What fixed it
- Suggested diagnosis was to observe what happens when the fault occurs and the machine is switched off at the power. If the door opens within a minute or so after power is removed, something may still have been energising the lock when it should not. If it still does not open after a few minutes with power off, that points more towards the door lock itself jamming. The exact repair was not confirmed in the discussion.
- Checks to try
- Cleaned the filter; nothing significant was found blocked
- When the fault occurs, switching off power and seeing whether the door opens after a minute or a few minutes was recommended
- Running a spin or drain programme after the fault usually allowed the door to unlock
Safety: Do not bypass the door interlock. Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
1 Answer
If by any chance the door interlock was linked to the pressure system to stop the door opening when watered is inside (which used to be common but appears to have been largely abandoned these days) then a blockage in the pressure system would prevent the door from opening until the air pressure had released. Putting the machine back onto spin could potentially help that process.
However, the chances are that most door interlocks now are just simple bimetal devices which should cool down and open after a minute or so. If it is just a normal bimetal door interlock then maybe it is just faulty and occasionally jamming. I suppose the best way to test it would be when it appears to stick if you turn off the power to the machine and within a minute or so the door will open then maybe something was still energising it when it shouldn't have been. But if the power is cut and the door still will not open after a few minutes, then this would imply that something inside the door lock is just jammed.
I have an article on my main site Whitegoodshelp that try to explain exactly how most washing machine door interlocks work, which may help.
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