Washing Machine Drum Not Turning

Washing Machine Drum Not Turning

We get asked this question on a daily basis, my washing machine drum will not turn?

Before you attempt anything please un plug the appliance from the mains supply.

As there are many different makes of machines currently in use in the uk, and they all have there own different faults which can cause your machines drum to stop turning, i will just run through some basics that you could check before calling out a service engineer.

Firstly can you turn the drum by hand from inside the machine, if you can and it feels more free than normal this could indicate the belt has come off, but if it feels the same as it always has then it most probably is still on, but the only real way to check is to take the back off the appliance and have a look. If it has come off there will be a reason for this, either un balanced load worn or loose belt, or possibly the bearings have gone causing the drum pulley to wobble.

If its still in place the next and most common thing would be the carbon brushes that are fitted to the motor, i would suggest you take the motor off the machine so you can easily see, there are 2 carbon brushes fitted in your motor, and are usually in black plastic holders either in place by a couple of screws or in the case of some older Hotpoint washing machines held in by a plastic clip, when you have removed the brushes if they are worn right down and the edge that runs on the motors armature is dull and sooty then replacing them with new brushes will most of the time solve the problem, but if the brushes are shiny on the edge that is in contact with the armature then i would say the brushes are not the problem, there could be a problem with your control panel, module, or sometimes the overload in the motor TOC can fail, or the motor itself is at fault,  and at this stage if you are not competent with a test meter and insulation meter i would suggest you call out a qualified engineer, who will have all the correct test equipment to diagnose the problem, don’t just buy spares hoping it will fix the problem, you will just waste your money.

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