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Front-load washing machine does a high-speed 2 second spin intermittently during wash cycle then quits. What is wrong? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The wash cycle is broken. Just after the tub fills, it does a high-speed 2 second spin, as fast as it can get in 2 sec before pausing. Then it pauses for at least a minute. Then it tries again, repeatedly. It’s really strange. Why would it try to do a high-speed spin with a tub full of water? Normally in the wash cycle it just spins very slowly in one direction, then changes direction periodically.

Whatever it’s doing, it gives up and the start button just blinks, which is apparently a blunt non-specific way to say there is a problem. I tried reducing the load to just a couple t-shirts for diagnosis and it still does this even with a nearly empty drum.

The manual does not list this behavior in the troubleshooting section. And I found no chatter about this behavior in web searches. This problem sounds similar but in their case it happens in the spin cycle. In my case it strangely happens in the wash cycle.

Hand wash program (empty drum): it still tries a high-speed spin in the wash cycle. A hand-wash program should probably not even consider doing that.
Spin program (empty drum): indeed there is a whole program just for spinning and draining. When I run it empty, it high-speed spins for 2 seconds and quits just like with the other programs. It looks like a perfect spin and sounds like it always has. It pauses for a minute then tries again, repeatedly.

~~Update: things just got worse. Now it will not do anything. Power on → start spin program (or any other program) and the start button just flashes. It’s detecting a fault of some kind without doing anything.~~ (edit: I forgot to turn the water back on after hooking back up, so the condition did not deteriorate… it’s back where it was [starts to spin then quits]).

I removed the back panel. Belt looks fine as far as I can tell. Removed the top cover. Springs are fine. Nothing looks unexpected. I pulled all the connectors off and re-sat them. Noticed a sticker dated 2009. Plugged it back in and same problem. Blinks like there is a fault and does nothing. The author of this post took various measurements. I have a multimeter but no idea what to check. I’m not even sure what one of the components is.

Apparently what I need most is the service manual at this point. Right to repair laws have been negotiated for the past 10 years and still nothing is enacted. It’s killing me. There should be an r2r infra in place by now so we can get manuals.

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[–] Carvex 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It sounds like something is faulting, meaning a switch not triggered to say it's full of water, a slow drive motor function it can't begin, broken or worn belt drive etc, so it's defaulting to "get the water out" mode. Many washers if there's a water inlet valve fault the whole thing freaks out. Your best resource would be a repair or technician manual if possible, but often those are very hard to find. Are there any parts available for your machine at all?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I appreciate the feedback.

The rapid spin that happens in the wash cycle is with the tub full of water. It does not drain it at that time, which is bizarre. So it’s not trying to dump water. It’s a cheap Beko so I don’t suppose it would necessarily be as smart as other machines. When I forcibly cancel the program by holding the start button for 3 seconds, then it drains as part of the termination sequence. In the spin-only program I can hear the pump for a second between spin attempts, but it’s a dry tub in that test.

No matter what program I am running, it makes 4 or 5 attempts to high-speed spin the quits with a blinking start button light. But every task seems fine. Fills with water without issue, drains without issue, spin looks good until it gives up. It’s just opting to do the wrong task. I guess a sensor of some kind could be the culprit. Youtube is a piece of shit lately with Google’s protectionism but I might try to see if I can reach videos on this machine.

Beko is a popular cheap brand. Not sure about part availability yet. It’s a Beko wmd 26125 T.

Found repairportal.beko.com but it’s broken for me. Though archive.org’s 2022 copy of that site suggests they have spare parts.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I had a front loading washer that would start out fine, but when it came time to rotate the drum while there was water in thr machine, it would just quit. Turns out that the motor driver board was broken, and could only spin the drum wile dry, cause the water would add too much mechanical resistance. The only solution was to get a new driver board or a new washer. I picked up a cheap used unit on the internet instead.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It did not seem to struggle to spin. It seemed to have the muscle to spin with a load and water, but crapped out after ~2 seconds every time. ~~Then after trying a few programs it died harder, so nothing happens and it just blinks. I can’t even start a program now. I wonder if the motor driver board would break progressively like that.~~ (edit: I forgot to turn the water back on after hooking back up, so the condition did not deteriorate.. it’s back where it was [starts to spin then quits]).

Thanks for the tip. I try to focus on that component. I wonder if I can send raw power to a couple terminals to test the motor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I believe that the problem is that the motor is likely a 3 phase one, so it can run on just two, tho it won't be happy about it. It might be trying to spin the drum, and then sensing that it's going too slow, or the wrong direction and shutting down as a fire safety feature.

Good luck with making it run again :)