Brand New Zanussi Zwf5140P Possibly Damaged And Not Starting Spin Cycle.

[thomasg]

We had a brand new zanussi delivered two days ago. I hooked it up without removing the transport bolts. It went into the spin cycle and began lurching. We turned it off, and now instead of starting the spin cycle, it just has a soft hum. The machine also stops randomly. We contacted the online store we bought it from and they are going to charge us for the visit and repair, so I'm going to try to fix this myself. Does anyone have any tips on what the problem might be or where I should focus my attention?

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

The only thing I can recommend you check is that the drive belt hasn't come off. That should be easy enough if you just take off the back panel. If the back panel doesn't come off, make absolutely sure the machine is disconnected from the mains and take off the lid. You should be ale to see if the drive belt is still on the drum pully or not.

However, you should really be able to tell if the belt is on or not without even pulling the machine out. Just open the door and turn the drum by hand. Anyone who is used to turning the drum to check if items of laundry are stuck to the drum after washing should be able to tell if it feels different. The sound should be different too, especially on a brand-new washing machine which tends to make a high pitch noise as the drum turns the motor because of new carbon brushes in the motor (although there is a possibility that the motor is an induction motor with no brushes fitted). If the drive belt has come off the whole drum should turn freer.

If the belt hasn't come off, then unless you can see something obvious like the motor plug has come out I would recommend you bite the bullet and get them out to look at it. Otherwise, you could end up wasting a lot of time and money. Troubleshooting a brand-new washing machine is difficult because nothing should be worn. It seems unfortunate that something seems to have gone wrong.

If a washing machine is run with full transit packing connected the suspension is completely disengaged and all motion is translated into side to side movement. The washing machine has obviously had a big shakeup which in theory shouldn't really damage any components, but maybe something has been shaken loose.

[thomasg]

Thank you for taking the time to give me some advice. I went ahead and took the top and back off. I was very careful not to disconnect any wires. It was my first time looking inside the machine, so I was looking for disconnected wires, broken pieces, if the belt was off, etc. Everything looks intact and connected. I went ahead and put it back together, and emptied the drum of all the wash. I put it on a 30 minute cycle with nothing in it, and it completed an entire cycle (spin cycle included).

I've gone ahead and put the load of clothes in again, and started a new cycle. So far so good. Just waiting to see what happens now.

If the spin cycle doesn't start this time, any ideas what the next step is? After looking inside, I'm confident we haven't broken anything. Now I'm just concerned it's something simple, and I'm not doing something right.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hopefully there's been no damage done. If the washing machine does not spin at the end of the cycle but it appears to have worked and washed okay just check this article out, as modern washing machines have more sensitive out of balance systems. In fact it should have offered some protection when it spun with the transit packing in. I would have expected that when it went into a violent spin it should have turned itself off relatively quickly.

Anyway read this article just in case Washing machine won’t spin just one item or very small load