Water Coming Back Up Into Soap Dispenser

[johnfrancis]

I have an elderly Hotpoint Aquarius WMA33 washing machine. It works fine during "wash" cycles and water pumps out okay but on "rinse and spin" water gushes out of the soap powder dispenser. It happens after the rinsing phase; just as the spin phase begins. When I tried it with the soap dispenser removed, I could see the water was coming back up from the drum - and there's quite a lot of it. At the same time there is a small amount of water coming out of the rear drain-pipe, so the pump appears to be working. Any ideas?

[edhorwood]

sounds as though the pump isnt emptying the drum quickly enough? The drum should be empty of water before spinning commences. Have you checked the drain filter etc?

[johnfrancis]

Thanks. I did check the drain filter and the pump and they looked okay to my untutored eye but I'll check again if that's the most likely cause. By the way, I've tried running the machine several times again and found that it doesn't seem to happen every time - or, at least, not as much water comes back every time. Sometimes there's a real flood; other times a lesser amount and, once, nothing! I guess this might depend on how much water is left in the drum each time but I also noticed there seems to be slightly different lengths of the pause between events. I wonder if it might be a problem with the control panel (software or whatever it's called) mis-timing the sequence?

[edhorwood]

Im not sure how it could be the control board because the drum shouldn't spin when it has water in it. Can you do a wash and watch it? let me know how much water is in the drum before it starts each spin cycle?

The only other thing I can think of is a faulty pressure switch. This is a roughly 2 inch circular device attached high up in the machine somewhere with a rubber/plastic hose attached to it. The other end of the plastic hose goes to the lower part of the drum. You could pull the hose off the pressure switch and try blowing through it and reconnecting it.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

As Edd says the most likely cause from your description is that it isn't emptying out the water fast enough. A partial blockage is most likely. Those older Hotpoint's had a filter inside the drain hose which got easily blocked (stupid design) but if that's not the cause there can be smaller blockages trickier to find such as small buttons in the drain hose but things shouldn't get past the filter really. It's possible for the pump impellor to be broken or loose and not spinning properly but that's less common. Basically you need to check all the hoses leading to and from the pump and the pump chambers and impeller because water should be pumping out of the machine much faster than you describe. This article and several others linked to at the bottom cover this topic in good detail - washing machine not emptying water fast enough

[johnfrancis]

Thank you both. I did as you suggested; checked all the hoses including the pressure switch . . . and something worked! I didn't find any noticeable blockage but the problem appears to be solved. I'm not sure which hose it was or why it's worked but the positive result is enough for me. Maybe, someday, I'll take it all apart again and try to figure it out . . . or maybe not. Thanks again, John.