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We have a 7 year old Bosch Washer/Dryer machine. We typically use the dryer cycle only on towels. A complete wash/dry cycle can take over 4 hours so we set the timer at night and have soft warm & clean towels in the morning when we wake up. One night it stopped in the middle of a wash/dry cycle. The circuit breaker to the washer (and fridge) had popped. After resetting the breaker, the washer did not respond until the water was drained. The towels were still wet. A subsequent 2 hour intensive dry cycle made no difference. I like to fix things myself but I gave up trying to find helpful info on the internet. I swear that it is getting more difficult to find good information on the net, the opposite of what one might expect. We called a local washer repair shop. It did not go well. After agreeing to pay €175 to fix the problem, they replaced(??) two Thermal Overload Circuitbreakers (TOCs), declared the problem solved and departed 35 minutes after they arrived. A subsequent test of a two hour intensive dry cycle on a perfectly dry and rather stiff towel produced a limp damp rag. We phoned the repair service back to complain. They actually returned 4 days later to look again. In that timespan, I discovered this site and the cost of the genuine Bosch parts that were supposedly replaced -- €13. On the second visit the repair guys said the dryer fan needed replacement. The new dryer fan would cost €175 but (BONUS) there would be no additional charge for labour. This would put the total cost of the repair at over €320. I had had enough. Instead I asked for the return of the defective parts; suggested they take their replacement parts back and... give us a full refund. After some heated negotiations they gave us a partial refund and left. When the dust settled, we had paid €66 for the diagnosis of a faulty fan. I suspect the TOC's they replaced were the same ones that had removed. They choose to leave their replacement TOCs behind. With the fan seized there was no air flow. The heater would heat up the chamber and the TOCs would pop open and cut the power to the heater. That's how it is designed to work. I could reset the TOCs by pushing the button in. After more research I was impressed by how the drying system was supposed to work. It's a closed system - air is drawn from the bottom of the drum into a plastic chamber that has cold water circulating through it. The cool water condenses the moisture in the air from the drum and the condensed water is pumped out to the drain. The return air from the drum is then heated and blown into the top of the drum. The fan circulates the same treated air repeatedly so no air is vented to the outside. I was impressed. I ordered a replacement fan from Bosch -- €147.45 including delivery in 2 days with a 30 day unconditional return policy. Now other posts have suggested novel ways of accessing the fan that involved using a Dremel tool to cut away obstructing sections of the rear frame cross member that is welded in place. Let me suggest an alternate way if you don't have a Dremel tool. It involves removing the dryer assembly as a whole, like pulling an engine from a car. You have to remove the top, rear and front panels of the washer to achieve this. Here are two different views of the dryer assembly after removal: Here are the steps (more or less): Remove top panel (2 screws) Remove rear panel (14 screws) Remove detergent/rinse/prewash drawer Remove drawer holder on front panel (3 or 4 screws) Remove front control panel - held in place with plastic hook tabs. Disconnect the electrical connector to the control panel. Remove the circular spring clamp around the rubber boot connecting the front panel to the drum. Remove the front panel with door. There are two bolts under the front panel. A wire harness connects to the door and a long plastic pull tab (the emergency door release) slides into a slot the pump access area. Remove the front panel cross member between the control panel and the front panel. Remove the connections to the dryer assembly and the wire harness over the dryer assembly. Remove the rubber hoses to the condenser in the back and the two screws that affix the condenser to the rear cross member. There are two screws and a metal hook tab that hold the fan assembly to the rear panel. Remove those screws Now try to lift out the whole assembly. Deal with any issue overlooked in the above list. If you succeed to lift out the assembly the fan will be easy to replace and all dryer components can be disassembled & cleaned. Reassemble in reverse order. There are many screws to remove so it helps to keep them sorted and labelled in groups as you disassemble and reassemble everything. I wish I had followed this advice when I did it. Good luck. I had two screws left over but everything seems to work. Your mileage may vary. The next post will have pictures of the stripped down washer and more comments.

If there is water in the drum then failure to drain may be what caused the issue, drain the water completely and then see if the pump runs on a spin cycle. If there's water in the drum and it aborted it may not resume normal behaviour until the water has gone. But if there isn't water in the drum and it drained out OK then a different fault is likely to have caused the issue. Unfortunately it could be too many things to be able to advise.

Hello Andy, thank you for your response. To clarify what I meant about the pump impeller is that when pump cap is removed, I can physically turn it Ok with my fingers.As I start to rotate the impeller blades, after about 90 degrees of rotation the impeller then flicks around itself to about 180 degrees.This is repeatable. Apart from this, I do not know if the pump is running or not as with the 'Ready' light flashing and the door unlocked, the machine won't operate. What do I need to do next ?

Hello Rab. When you say the pump impeller rotates okay, do you mean that you can physically turn it okay or that it rotates okay when the pump is supposed be running? In other words is the pump running or not?

Hello, I have a Bosch WFG2420GB washing machine that stopped working during a wash, the' Ready' light started flashing and the door was unlocked. I think it was towards the end of the wash cycle on a 60 deg C cottons+linens setting. It still had all the water in the machine. When selecting and starting the drain function to get the water out of the machine it did not respond so I had to drain the water out of the machine with the drain hose under the front cover.I removed the pump cap and checked the pump for loose debris/fluff etc but did not find much at all. The pump impeller rotates Ok, so the pump cap has been put back on.I removed the drain hose off the back of the machine and gave it a good clean but it wasn't blocked so it has been refitted. I have checked the drain pipe that the drain hose fits into and it is not blocked, so the drain hose is back in the drain pipe. Please help! What is causing the 'Ready' light to flash ?

Hey Andy, thanks for replying to my topic. I’ve read the article and your reply and that makes a lot of sense. I use gel detergent so I will try switching to a powder. I always put the same amount of detergent in the wash but how much laundry goes in is always different, which explains why some washes are fine (as there is enough detergent) but others end up with items getting grease marks on them (probably not enough detergent). I’ll try switching to powder and experimenting with how much I use and see if that makes a difference. thanks again, really appreciate it 😊

Hello Joeleen. Yes you wouldn't expect it would be possible for the insides of a new washing machine to be so dirty and greasy. This looks to me as if it might be redistributed grease and dirt. In other words grease and dirt that has come out of laundry but not been held in the detergent and flushed away, but instead being redeposited on different laundry. Try to read the following article carefully and make sure that you are not overloading the drum and that you are using a good quality detergent (preferably powdered not liquid) and using the proper amount as described on the box. The amount required is determined by how dirty laundry is and whether you have hard or soft water. Contrary to popular belief the detergent companies don't tell you to use way too much. In my experience most people tend to put nowhere near enough detergent in and this can have a very detrimental effect over a few years to the washing machine inside. Grease marks on clothes after washing

Hi everyone, I’ve had my new world washing machine for a couple of months and it has started marking my clothes. It will only mark random items so some come out clean but others come out marked with dark brown/black spots. I’ve had the repairs guy come out and he says the washing machine was fine but that it could be a build up of fabric softener. I’ve cleaned my washer on a 90’c wash and it is still marking my clothes. Does anyone have any suggestions of what could be causing this. Would appreciate any advice or tips thanks joeleen

Hello Sarah. ISE have ceased trading but there is still help and technical advice available online from the people who created it. They have forums for the public and for the trade. Their washing machines were very normal and not too dissimilar from any average washing machine, although they did do a higher quality one that was based on Swedish brand famous for high quality. There is nothing for a local engineer to be concerned about unless they are concerned about getting spare parts, though as far as I know they should still be available. The best thing you can do is to go to the ISE forums where you should find a lot of help for the public as well as domestic appliance engineers.

Thanks for the update. Glad you got it sorted.

Hey - update on the Miele... Another engineer came out today - and found the fault. It was a dodgy suspension spring!

Hi all, we have an ISE W288 ECO, it is 8 years old. It has stopped mid cycle and says wash motor fault. I have emptied the water, checked the pump and tried to get it going again to no avail. Local engineer hasn't heard of ISE and says he won't come and look at it. And as ISE has now shut down, I don't know what to do. I really want to repair than scrap.

Hello Sparky. The only reason I can think of that a big spares company would not be able to source spare parts is if the parts are obsolete (which if it is 30 years old is highly likely, very highly likely, in fact I'd be amazed if they are still available), or the model in question was originally only sold in a different country. In your case the best people to ask by far or AEG themselves. At 30 years old, unless by any chance they continued to use the exact same part for decades after then no one will have one unless there is some old stock lying about somewhere which has not long since been thrown away. My personal opinion is that no matter how well built a washing machine is it is unrealistic to expect it to last for much longer once it's reached 30 years, which is amazing by the way. If only because it's highly unlikely you will be to source any spare parts for it.

Edit The shaft diameter is actually 45mm!

I have two AEG Lavamt 981 washing machines which are still running. One is in neeed of a drum bearing change but I am struggling to obtain a replacement seal. I have tried Ransome Spares & a couple of other companies without luck. They claim not to have the necessary machine data, plate below. The twin lip seal is for a 35mm dia shaft & fits into a 78mm bore in the spider. There is an outer lip of 87mm diameter which contacts the steel outer drum. The original is Corteco 45-78/86-10.5/15 BAESLSFX7 It seems a shame not to repair this machine for the sake of an oil seal. These machines are so well made, they still work & look great after 30+ years. Please can anyone suggest a supplier or an alternative seal that would fit? Thanks in advance.

I would expect all cycles use it. The whole point of it is to shower the laundry with water in order to use less water.

OK, thank you, that makes sense. It is the recirculating pump that burnt out then. Is there any way to figure out which, cycles don't require the recirculating pump? And which do and when? Without me sitting by the machine for hours and running all the programs, that is. I wish manufacturers made this information easier to obtain.

Sounded a little bit like electrical crackling and popping but if it is water then obviously the water valve is not letting water in properly at all. That loud humming sound, if it is coming from the water valve is an indication that the water valve is activated but the water is dry. Have you checked that there is a plentiful supply of water going through the hose by taking off the fill holes and turning it into a bucket? And checked the filter on the valve? Regarding the valve filter that it would have to be pretty seriously blocked up to stop the flow of water so don't think you found something if there's a little bit of stuff in there.

Hello there. To test a pump you need a continuity test meter. If one has failed electrically you should find that it is open circuit. If two pumps are fitted inside a washing machine the second one is usually a recirculation pump designed to recirculate water back into the drum and should only operate on wash or rinse. If this is the case then you should be able to see that the output of the pump goes back into the drum at the top whereas the pump designed to pump out the water obviously should have a drain hose that goes to the sink or to an outside drain.

Hi, I have a BEKO WMB101433LW which is currently refusing to spin at all. After noticing that the drum is very stiff to turn manually by hand, I removed the belt and found it freewheeled loosely and that the motor pulley was the culprit. After removing the 3 pin connector plug from the motor (see attached pic) the motor goes to a loose freewheeling state, so it is the connecting of the wiring (cannot find any wiring diagrams or service manuals to identify wires) that is changing the torque setting of the motor. I removed and accessed the entire PCB section feeding the wires in that corner (motor, heating element etc) to see if I could see any blown capacitors but all looked normal. There was some burn marks and a build up of melted material though on the AC Suppressor, so as I already had a spare one I switched over to a working one. I cannot seem to get any further with my fault finding, do these waching machines have start and run capacitors to change the torque of the motor, which one would be the issue for it to remain in high torque mode ? Could it be that the previous issue with blown suppressor damaged something further down the loom ? Would be grateful for any help / advice. Apart from not liking to be beaten, there's that nagging doubt that the fix could be something fairly cheap and simple within the electrics. Thanks Lee

Hi, I've become a home grown expert in the terrible joy of maintaining a Combi machine. Samsung Eco Bubble 8kg model. (WD80J6400AW) I frequently get the 5c error code, so I drain it and I take it apart and clean all the hoses and it normally works again. This time it didn't work so I guessed that the drain pump had finally given up. I referred to many videos as i haven't done this in many years. I cannot find any specific info for my model, or good info on combi's at all. But when I took the unit apart there's 2 pumps (DC31-00181A). I started a spin cycle and I could see that one pump worked. I swapped them over and sure enough neither worked, so that looks to me like one is dead. But then the functioning one doesn't work when plugged into the location of the burnt out pump. So really what I need help figuring out is, is the second pump supposed to work at the same time as the first or does it operate on a different schedule. I've ordered a replacement pump, but is there another problem that I will have to deal with? Could the wires of been damaged, I cannot see any obvious external damage. I put a volt meter to the wires, whilst on the spin cycle, !st location reads 1v, the 2nd fluctuates between -0.1 and 0.1. Exactly the same readings come out of the plug that the pump wires plug into. I would appreciate any expansion to my knowledge as I feel I'm basically a washer/dryer combi technician in training. Thanks in advance

I believe that "cracking and popping" sound is water slowly entering the machine. In the second video, the cracking and popping goes away because its replaced with the noise of water being pumped in more rapidly for a brief period. That's what I think is going on anyway.

Yes it seems to have something wrong with it for sure. What is that crackling popping sound on video 1?

I just moved into a flat with an Indesit Washer (IWSC61051) Here's a quick summary of my problem: - The machine is very noisy (could be normal) - The timer delay 3 hr option is always activated (no matter what option I cycle to, and almost always I leave the option disabled) - As soon as I press start, one of the four timer delay icons is illuminated - usually the three hour one as shown in the videos I will share below. - The machine NEVER finishes a wash cycle. Eventually it will spin slowly, and keep spinning slowly for hours and hours and hours and never reaching the END state whereby the door can be opened. More detail: I've included two videos to this post with audio. Video 1: https://streamable.com/4zdknc Video 2: https://streamable.com/842d73 Here's a quick log of what is happening in these two videos: Video 1 (after pressing start), the machine takes 5-10 minutes before it starts doing what is shown in this video. It does what is shown in the video for about 15-25 minutes. You can hear the loud(ish) humming noise and the faint noise of water tricking into the machine. Notice the blinking light below the start/pause button on the 3hr delay setting. Video 2 the machine then starts doing what is shown/heard in this video for 5-7 minutes. It sounds like more water may be entering the machine than the first video. We then cycle back to video 1 for another 15-25 minutes. After that 15-25 minutes, what is shown in video 2 is repeated. And this goes on and on for hours sometimes without the machine spinning once. Eventually the machine does seem to spin very slowly, and once it starts, it will keep spinning slowly for hours and hours until I power off the machine and allow the door to be opened. The clothes will be saturated with water. I can then forcefully chose the rinse/drain option on the machine, and this has been working, then remove the clothes for drying. I've tried different programming was settings. Different temperatures. Cold only washes. Slower spins. Nothing works. I presume this is a faulty machine, and there's nothing obvious I might need to do to make this machine work correctly? Since I've never seen this machine working correctly, I have no way to compare what it should be doing or how it should be behaving. But I'm pretty sure what I'm experiencing is completely abnormal and most likely a fault?

Ha ha that’s another problem. Miele make the spares so expensive that even they tell customers their Miele washing machine is beyond economical repair at just under 10 years old when drum bearings failed - and that’s to a customer with a 10 year guarantee. I’ve always been a massive fan of Miele but over the last several years I’ve slowly began to seriously worry about the viability of their business model. Miele have always thrived on people willing to invest a lot more money for the long game. People prepared to pay twice as much for an appliance to last 2 or 3 times longer. When enough people realise there is no longer any guarantee that a Miele appliance will last any longer than say an AEG or a NEFF because Miele repair prices are completely out of control Miele are done for - unless they can survive on very small niche sales selling to the rich only.