Washing Machine Takes 3 Hours To Wash

A washing machine fills with water, heats it up to the right temperature, and then when the thermostat (or NTC on more recent machines) tells the programme timer that the right temperature is reached the programme timer moves on to start rinsing and spinning.

On the old washing machines, if the heater is faulty, or the thermostat, or the programme timer is faulty, then the washing machine will stick on wash. It will either boil the water and heat for ever, or it will wash for ever, waiting for a signal from the thermostat that never comes. However, most modern washing machines will abort the wash if such faults occur, and usually indicate some error code - Washing machine stops with an error code

With old and newer washing machines alike, if it completes the cycle all on it's own, then there can't be anything not working. This is because any component not working will cause it to stick, or abort with an error code.

If it takes much longer than normal, the main suspect is that it's taking a long time to heat the water but it is still heating it. This could be caused if the machine is taking too much water in on wash (check the water level on wash looks normal (if you haven't observed what normal is, it shouldn't normally be much above the bottom of the door glass on machines made in the last 10 years and even older machines shouldn't be more than half way up the glass on wash)

Another (rarer) possibility is a damaged heater or one caked in limescale which isn’t heating up very well at all.

The final possibility is that the drain hose is pushed too far down the drain pipe and water is siphoning out down the drain causing the machine to be constantly losing water followed by filling up with fresh. This can slow a machine down and can be detected by noticing it fills up in short bursts constantly through out the wash or rinse. Also check that water isn’t trickling down the drain when the machine is not actually pumping water out - Washing machine constantly fills with water and goes down the drain

If you suspect the heating element could be causing the slow wash times, try pouring some hot water into the soap dispenser drawer while it is initially filling up. If this significantly reduces the wash time it could indicate that it is slow due to taking a long time to heat the water.

[uPDATE]

Some washing machines are now capable of getting stuck on wash for hours, where something is clearly wrong, but without triggering an error code. There are certain anomalies (or bugs) which allow this to happen. If this is happening call an engineer.