Washing machine jumps and bangs on spin: How do I avoid out of balance loads?

If your washing machine bangs and jumps around on spin there could be a fault. The occasional jumping around may not be anything to worry about, but regularl occurrances should be a cause for concern and could cause expensive damage to your washing machine if ignored.

Before deciding there is a fault you need to ensure you are loading the machine properly and that includes making sure you aren't under-loading it.

Most modern washing machines now electronically monitor the motor during the slow distribution section leading up to the spin. If the load is out of balance, the motor shouldn't be allowed to spin. Typically, a modern washing machine will attempt to balance the load a certain amount of times, or for a certain passage of time, but if it can't, it will either reach the end of the program without spinning, or it will abort spin and turn off. (both scenarios leaving the clothes wet through) Some washing machines may allow a slow spin if the clothes are reasonably balanced, but then unless they settle down, it will not allow a higher spin thus leaving the clothes spun, but much wetter than normal.

Some washing machines will indicate a failed spin due to being unable to balance the wash load so check your instruction book to see if your washing machine has this function and what happens if a spin is aborted. Unfortunately some washing machines do not adequately inform the user that it failed to balance the wash load and aborted spin. As an engineer, I have been called out many times because a load was washed but not spun, but there was no fault on the washing machine, just an aborted unbalanced load.

The best way to avoid unbalanced loads in a washing machine

Make sure you fill the drum well and try not to mix items that get very heavy when wet with items that hardly increase in weight at all - especially if there are just one or two heavy items and the rest are light. Heavy bath mats should ideally be washed with other items or they may gather on one side of the drum. I've seen heavy bath mats do a fair bit of damage to a washing machine. However, some people (understandably) don't want to mix the bath mats in with normal washing. If this is the case and you do get problems with the bath mats getting out of balance I suggest you use old towels or sheets to even the load up.

In a washing machine, if you put just a few large towels or a sheet in amongst some very light fabrics, the heavy items could bunch to one side of the drum and the lighter ones won't be able to counter-balance their weight effectively. There should be enough items to fit all around the drum. If there only is enough to fill most of the drum, but a section is empty, then it can get out of balance on spin. If the items are all light, then this may not cause a problem. However, if some items are heavy, they may cause violent banging, or the washing machine out of balance detection may just refuse to allow a spin.

Sometimes you can get an unbalanced load by sheer chance, with loads you have successfully washed many times before. The occasional bad load is inevitable but constant bad loads and violent banging on spin may be caused by a fault on the washing machine. [ Related: Washing machine wont spin | Washing machine won’t spin just one item or very small loads ]

Extra large drums

These days you can buy washing machines with much bigger drums. The average drum size is now 6Kg but you can buy washing machines with 7Kg 8Kg and even 10Kg drums. It's possible that these washing machines could be more prone to refusing to spin some small loads because they need even more items to fill the drum. For example, my 7Kg washing machine will not spin 3 large towels. Last week my wife was extremely frustrated with our 7Kg drum washing machine as she had just washed our son's hoody-top and wanted to spin it in the washer. It simply would not spin, so I advised her that it needed something to balance it out. She put in a couple of towels but still no spin. Eventually 5 towels were needed to balance out the absorbent top and allow a spin. This is a minor inconvenience compared to the benefit of being able to fit more washing in (even our king sized quilt) but it highlights how if you have a very large drum it could be more prone to not spinning small loads [ Washing machine won't spin just one item or very small loads ].

I'm loading the washing machine correctly but it still bangs and jumps on spin

This is unfortunately a difficult fault to diagnose. It could be various things including a faulty connection somewhere on the motor or pcb, especially if intermittent. It can be caused by a part overheating, cutting out and then cutting back in causing loss of control. If this fault isn't caused by the loading you really need to get an experienced engineer to look at it.

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