Hoover Ecologic A3950 - Stops In Cycle

[Curious]

We have a Hoover Ecologic A3950 which is about 13 years old. It's developed a fault where it stops in the cycle, twice it seems. I normally use it on the "D" cycle which is the 40 degree wash. As far as I can see from reading your site, everything functions in the sense that it fills with water (hot and cold), it pumps out and it spins. However at two points between "D" and "E" and between "E" and "F", it will stop. I'm also pretty sure that the heater is ok. too (see later for reason).

If you click the programme on by a notch each time after it's stopped, it continues the program and after the second "click on" it goes right through to the end and finishes the cycle. From reading the information here, my feeling is that the heating cycle is not finishing, in other words that the thermostat / thermistor may be faulty so that it starts heating and then does not stop. The reason I say this is that after the second "click on" between "E" and "F" the next function that activates is that it pumps out and when it does this, the water seems quite hot for a cycle that's supposedly 40 degrees.

There's a long run of pipe down to the washing machine and I've used it first thing in the morning when the water in this run will have cooled off a lot overnight and will be quite cold coming in and it still pumps out hot water. Thus it seems that the heater is working but maybe it's not switching off.

I noted from your reply to someone who had a washing machine that's overheating that you say that there may be a thermistor rather than a thermostat and that they rarely fail. Is there anything else I should check? I've not directly checked the cold water intake (I will do so). I should note that it has tripped the circuit breakers twice but then seemed to operate normally thereafter and this fault did not develop straight after those incidents, it came up some weeks (maybe months) later.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

These were good washing machines. This model has an old fashioned thermostat not a thermister. It should have 3 temperatures on it and about four wires. There are many different reasons why a washing machine can stick mid cycle. Dignosis usually depends on knowing where it sticks (which you've told me) and exactly what it does when it sticks although these days most washing machines don't stick, they abort the program altogether and produce an error code. ( Releated: Washing machine sticks mid cycle | Washing machine stops with an error code )

Does it totally go dead, with no sound - or does it carry on washing but not move from this point? Does it seem to keep filling up with water a lot - on and off? ( related: Washing machine constantly fills with water and goes down the drain ) Does the water get hotter and hotter i.e. can you hear the water heating up (after a while) like a kettle does?

A blocked pressure system would cause it to stop twice, but usually this is in the middle of the rinses (when it tries to spin) and at the last spin. However, this would most likely make the machine not do a final spin too.

If it was the thermostat, I would expect it to stick, but to carry on washing (and heating) for ever until the water boiled. (This only applies to old washing machines only. Washing machines made in the last 10 years or so should abort and give an error code if they detect the water is getting too hot)

[Curious]

Thanks for the quick reply. As far as I can recall from observation, it sticks and does nothing. It certainly does not carry on washing (i.e. agitating the drum or anything like that). It certainly does not fill with any more water. I've not really left it for any longer than 10 or 15 minutes when stuck because I've been observing it while doing washes (because there have been lots of loads to do and I didn't want to boil-wash the clothes if it was continuing to heat!).

However, I'm pretty sure that last night I could hear the sound of heating (as you've mentioned, like a kettle or the hot water tank when the immersion heater comes on) at the point when it first stopped (between "D" and "E" - it seems to be the first function that operates after it has filled which causes it to stop at the first point). It doesn't seem to do anything else at all. I'll need to do some more investigation and get back to you, perhaps without putting any clothes in, just in case...

It has seemed to be pretty reliable so far. It needed new carbon brushes when it was about five years old, but other than that it's been fine. Thanks for your help again, this site has been very useful and very informative.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Try it without clothes in on non-fast coloureds and see if it gets very hot. If so it's clearly overheating. After several minutes though, it's normal for a washing machine to stop and appear to do nothing. This is called the static heat position and after a while it should start washing again. Normally though this stopping only lasts several minutes.

[Curious]

I've just run it again on the 40 degree wash programme and I now have a better idea of what it is doing. It's not overheating. However, it simply stops at the end of the heating cycle and just sits there.

It fills properly (hot and cold coming in) and then does some agitation and then it heats and I can hear it heating. It lasted about 10 minutes and then the heating stops and it just sits there. It did so for 30 minutes before I decided to move it on. The next stage involves more agitation then more water coming in and then another heat cycle that I can hear starting, but again after it stops the machine just sits there and does nothing and unless I move it on, it won't do anything more. So, the problem seems to be not overheating, but that it simply stops completely in the cycle after the thermostat has turned the heating off.

I'll take off the back panel and see if I can see anything obvious with the thermostat wires.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

If it stops heating, then the thermostat should have closed successfully and it's then the program timers job to get on with washing and move onto the rinses. If there was a wire off the thermostat or the thermostat was faulty then the washing machine would boil.

Once reaching temperature, after the static heat, it should start washing again. The timer is the only thing responsible for instigating this. However, this is such an unusual fault I'm hesitant to blame the timer because the rest of the programs appear to work OK. The only other thing it could be waiting for is to top up with cold water but you say the cold water comes in fine. The fact that it will do all the rinses proves this too.

I once had a highly unusual case where an intermittent fault on the cold fill valve solenoid caused the machine to go totally dead and silent during the wash. Initially it was puzzling, but I tracked it down to the cold water valve cutting out intermittently.

The only flaw in this theory though is why an intermittent fault would appear to happen at predictable points. However, if the cold water valve cuts out at random, there are several points where it may not actually affect the programme and simply carry on with a bit less water than normal. Only if it cuts out before a certain level is reached would it stop the timer in its tracks. For example, if it cut out during the initial wash fill, the hot water would continue to take the water level up to the correct level and no one would be any the wiser.