drive belt in my Hotpoint “WMBF-944 washing machine disintegrated
The drive belt in my Hotpoint “WMBF-944 washing machine disintegrated while operating. The flailing bits of belt broke all of the wires going to the heater element. While attempting to repair the broken wires I noted there seemed to be an unused earth spade on the (3-phase induction) motor casing. The wiring loom has only a single green-yellow earth wire and this is connected to the earth terminal of the heater element. There is NO other earth wire in the loom or anywhere else for attaching to the motor casing earth spade. However, the wiring loom contains two brown wires – one of which is attached to the heater element. The second brown wire was broken and has a female terminal end. There are two thin blue wires for the heater element thermal sensor. That leaves one terminal post of the heater element with no wire to attach to it – except for a second brown wire! I cannot believe the washing machine was produced (2 years ago) with two brown wires attached to the heater element – OR – alternatively a brown wire attached to the earth spade of the motor casing, which of course I have no intention of doing. What am I not seeing here? Help!
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.
Hotpoint WMBF-944 belt failure damaged heater wiring; motor earth point not used
- The problem
- The drive belt on a Hotpoint WMBF-944 disintegrated in use and damaged the wiring to the heater element. The poster was unsure how the heater and motor should be wired, particularly because the motor casing had an unused earth spade and the loom appeared to include two brown wires.
- Likely cause
- The accepted reply indicates the motor earth spade may legitimately be unused because the motor can be isolated by plastic mountings or a plastic outer tub, so it may not require a separate earth. The heater wiring described by the poster did not match the expected arrangement; the accepted reply states a heater would normally have one brown live, one blue neutral, and a green/yellow earth, so the exact wiring fault beyond belt damage was not confirmed.
- What fixed it
- No complete repair was confirmed. The accepted advice was that the motor should not automatically be assumed to need an earth wire if it is plastic-isolated, and that the heater should normally be wired with live, neutral and earth rather than two brown wires. A photo of the wiring was suggested to identify the correct connections.
- Checks to try
- Drive belt had disintegrated while operating
- Wires to the heater element were broken by the failed belt
- Motor casing had an unused earth spade
- Loom had a single green/yellow earth connected to the heater element
- Two thin blue wires were present for the heater thermal sensor
- Parts or tools mentioned
- Drive belt
- Heater element
- Wiring loom
- Motor
- Heater thermal sensor
Safety: Do not connect a brown live wire to an earth terminal. Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
1 Answer
Hello there. Components with metal casings usually have an earth connection. However, if such a part is connected to a plastic part or is otherwise isolated from the plastic part by plastic fixings there is usually no need for an earth wire. In the past washing machine motors were always earthed because they were fixed to metal outer tubs. But these days almost all of the outer tubs are made of plastic and therefore the motor is totally isolated and not needing earthing.
I have never heard of heating element with two brown wires. Brown is obviously live. So there is normally a brown wire on one heating element connector, and a blue wire on the opposite and because the heating element is metal and submerged in the water it must be earthed so there is a yellow and green earth wire. A photo might be useful. You should be able to easily attach a photo.
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