Machine Fills During Spin Cycle
Hotpoint WMA58, about 8 years old. Have just replaced the motor brushes - all is now fine with the motor and spins OK. A little noisy now, but I'm assuming that will settle as the brushes bed-in to the commutator.
Put first load of washing through, but it was quite wet when it came out, even after an extra spin. Have now discovered that during the spin cycle, the cold inlet valve is pulsing (irregularly) and letting water in through the drawer.
I suspect the main board at fault here. Anyone fancy doing some sanity-checking on this?
Valve opens and closes fine during fill cycle, so basic operation is confirmed correct. I assume the valve at rest is closed and therefore requires power to open: there's only two wires connected to the valve, so it must be receiving a power pulse to open (rather than having permanent live & neutral with a control wire - in that case I could believe a valve fault). Power pulse must be coming from main controller. I've ruled out a sensor fault elsewhere, because under no circumstances should a controller be thinking about filling during a fast spin cycle, regardless of whether a sensor says it's overloaded / overfilled / too hot etc. Hence, my thoughts are that the main controller is faulty.
There was a *lot* of fine carbon dust floating around after the old brushes wore out, so there is the possibility that there's an intermittent short around the main PCB somewhere.
Any suggestions?
Cheers,
Ian.
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 WMA58 takes in cold water during spin after brush replacement
- The problem
- A Hotpoint WMA58, around 8 years old, spun again after motor brush replacement but laundry remained wet because the cold inlet valve was pulsing irregularly and letting water in during the spin cycle.
- Likely cause
- The discussion supports an electrical fault rather than a simple valve failure. The accepted reply suggested possible earth leakage or a short affecting the valve circuit, with PCB fault also possible. The original poster noted heavy carbon dust contamination around the motor/spin control area, making leakage there a plausible explanation. The exact faulty component was not confirmed.
- What fixed it
- No repair was confirmed. The accepted advice was to avoid speculatively replacing the PCB and to have the machine properly tested with an insulation meter. The owner chose not to pursue repair and replaced the machine instead.
- Checks to try
- Motor brushes replaced
- Machine confirmed to spin
- Cold inlet valve observed pulsing during spin
- Valve opens and closes correctly during normal fill
- Sump cleaned
- Heating element visually checked and found heavily scaled
- Parts or tools mentioned
- Motor brushes
- Insulation meter
Safety: Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
2 Answers
The valves could be permanently supplied with a live feed during wash cycle and could be energised when a neutral supply connection is made. Some sort of leakage to earth or short could be the cause. Failing that it could be a pcb issue. Some modern machines can do strange things when a component has an earth leakage. Could do ideally with having it tested with a proper insulation meter. I wouldn't advise speculatively replacing the board unless you find out its a specific known fault.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Thanks for the advice. In the end I decided to cut my losses and buy a new one.
After some more thought, it would be more likely that any earth leakage would be happening in the spin controller, which is where the greatest concentration of dust was. Getting that (and the motor) cleaned out properly would have a hit and miss with no guarantees of a repair.
I cleaned out the sump while I was working on it and had a quick check of the element, which was quite badly crusted with limescale. It's also had 8 hard years, so I wouldn't expect a great deal longer from the bearings. Replacing either is a complete rebuild, which is beyond my home capabilities.
A fully-qualified engineer would almost certainly have got it going again, but at a high time cost, and with no guarantees of longevity for the remainder of the machine. Not worth it.
Cheers again.
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