At what point in the washing cycle is the water heated?
Hi all.
I bought a Haier HW90 washing machine in June this year and had no issues until about 2 weeks ago. My clothes smell foisty after washing yet a couple of weeks ago, I could smell the clean washing throughout my house whilst is was drying.
I used some washing machine cleaner and nothing changed.
I decided to check the temperature of the washing during the cycle to see if it was getting hot and it appears not. I assumed the heating element had failed so I got a replacement sent out. I am still having the same issue of a foisty smell with the new washer. I have a wash on now and I have paused it several times and each time the washing is extremely cold to the touch even though it is on a 40 degree wash. I would expect the washing to be warm if the water washing it is meant to be 40 degrees.
I wondered if the water is only heated for a short period of time during the cycle and I just so happen to be checking outside of those times.
Any help would be appreciated as I cannot stand to have clothes smelling like this.
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.
Foisty smell after washing likely linked to drain hose installation, not confirmed heater failure
- The problem
- A Haier HW90 washing machine began leaving clothes with a foisty smell after washing. The owner suspected no heating on a 40 degree cycle because the laundry felt cold when the cycle was paused, and replacing the heating element did not change the issue. A second replacement washing machine showed the same smell, though slightly less severe.
- Likely cause
- The strongest diagnosis in the discussion is an installation or plumbing fault rather than a heating fault. The drain hose appeared to be connected low down on pipework without a u-bend/trap arrangement, which was said to allow drain smells to travel back into the washing machine.
- What fixed it
- Advice was that water heating should start early in the cycle, but feeling for warmth by touch is not a reliable test on modern low-water machines. The accepted answer suggested checking on a 60 degree cottons cycle after about 20 minutes, or observing whether drained water is warm after cancelling the cycle. After the owner reported the same smell on two machines, the recommendation shifted to correcting the waste pipe/drain hose installation so a proper trap prevents odours returning. The exact repair was not confirmed in the thread.
- Checks to try
- Owner paused washes several times on a 40 degree programme and found the laundry cold to the touch
- Heating element was replaced with no improvement
- A second washing machine had the same smell issue
- Forum identified the drain hose as appearing connected low on pipework without a u-bend
- Accepted advice stated heating should begin virtually straight away and be most noticeable roughly 10 to 25 minutes into the cycle
- Parts or tools mentioned
- replacement heating element
Safety: Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
3 Answers
Hello there. I would say that even if it definitely wasn't heating, it would be unwise to assume it needed a new heating element. There are several other possible causes.
It's very strange because if a modern washing machine fails to heat the water, then they should be able to work that out. They should then abort the wash cycle and produce an error code. This is extremely easy to do because they are all controlled by little minicomputer software programs that can check the temperature of the water every few minutes to make sure it is rising.
So in theory, it should be impossible for a washing machine that completes a full cycle in the normal timeframe to have any fault. However, I have seen strange anomalies where washing machines have bizarrely been unable to detect a fault and therefore carried out bizarre behaviour.
The water should begin to be heated up virtually straight away. After 15 minutes or so, the water should be noticeably warmer. However, due to the fact that the water levels in modern washing machines are extremely low, causing virtually no water to be splashing around the door glass, and the fact that many washing machines have a sort of double glazed door, it is possible to be unable to feel any heat. There is only a short window where the water inside the washing machine is fairly hot and that's roughly somewhere between 10 and 25 minutes depending on the wash cycle. After that the water is stone cold.
The best way to be sure if it is heating up water or not would be to put it on a 60° cottons wash cycle. Then stop the washing machine after 20 minutes and see if you can open the door after the door lock has cooled down. Water levels on modern washing machines are usually nowhere near high enough to spell out if the door is opened. Then check the temperature of the water. Obviously be aware that if by any chance you caught the water when it was above 40° then the water could potentially burn.
Alternatively, a safer, but more involved method would be to just cancel the wash cycle after 20 minutes and then try to observe if the water being pumped away has been heated up or not.
The latter method could be very easy to do, or very tricky to do depending on how it's plumbed in and where it's plumbed in.
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Thank you. I have checked a few times and the water never seems to be hot but this is the second washing machine we have had so I can't imagine both are faulty. The smell isn't quite as bad with the replacement one but it's definitely still there. Could it be anything to do with the waste pipe? I though the waste had to enter the pipework under the sink, above the trap. As you will see from my.picture, mine doesn't.
Hi. Yes if 2 separate washing machines have the same, fault it's very to be something to do with installation.
Your washing machine drain hose seems to be attached to the bottom of a pipe with no u-bend? A u-bend is essential for preventing smells from the drain going back into the washing machine.
My article here explains it, so have a read and see if it helps
https://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/smells-caused-plumbing-faults/
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