Water Seeps Into Drum Overnight
My wife complained of an intermittent fault on our washing machine, whereby the clothes were wet on removal from the machine. Mrs G. explained that it only happens if the washing machine is left to run overnight . So now Im suspecting the inlet valves. I dried the whole area around the detergent drawer and within a few minutes detected a drip !!
So it cant be anything else other than the valves, right? Also Ive often wondered why the hot water pipe never gets warm during a fill. Does this machine take in cold water only and heat it? Or does it only use the hot supply for high temperature washes? Sorry for the long post. Great web site and very useful !!
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.
Water seeps into drum when machine is left unused overnight
- The problem
- A washing machine intermittently leaves clothes wet and is found to have water visible in the drum after being left overnight or for a few days. The user also noticed a drip around the detergent drawer area.
- Likely cause
- The strongest diagnosis in the discussion is that one of the inlet water valves is not shutting off properly, allowing water to seep into the machine while it is not in use. A secondary possible cause mentioned was water running back into the machine via the drain hose if it is connected to a sink u-bend, but this was not evidenced on this machine.
- What fixed it
- The advised action was to identify whether a supply-side inlet valve is leaking by shutting the hot and cold supply valves while the machine is not being used, then determining which side is responsible. The exact repair was not confirmed in the thread.
- Checks to try
- Water was seen in the drum after the machine had been left overnight or for a few days
- The area around the detergent drawer was dried and a drip was detected
- Plan stated to close the hot and cold supply valves while the machine was not in use to identify the faulty inlet valve
2 Answers
This sounds like it may well be one of the water valves not shutting off properly.
Most wash programmes fill with hot and cold water simultaneously. Cold water pressure is usually much higher than hot. Also, hot water cools quickly in the pipes from the cistern to the washing machine, so it has to run a while before any hot water comes through. Combine these facts with the fact that modern washing machines take very little water in on a wash and you get a situation where the hot water in a UK hot water cylinder is hardly even used on all but hot-fill-only programmes (most washers only hot-fill-only on Whites) This is why most washing machine manufacturers now make cold fill only washing machines.
(Related: Cold fill washing machines)
Finally: Another cause of washing machines filling with water when not in use is water running down into the washing machine from the sink if the drain hose is connected to the sink u-bend - Washing machine fills with water overnight or when not in use
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
There is water visible in the drum after being left for a few days or sometimes even overnight. During the next few days I will close the valves on the supply pipes whilst the machine is not being used to determine which is the faulty inlet valve. Many thanks for your reply.
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