Old Vendôme top loading washing machine

[useless_69]

Hello all. I have an older Vendôme washing machine, top loader. I did something stupid and started a cycle with the interior doors still open. Since then the on/off button won't respond, it's constantly on, the drum inside will not agitate or spin, and the top door won't lock when I put it on a cycle setting. I have tried various resets like opening and closing the top door etc. But now I'm just at a loss as cannot even find anything on line related to this specific washing machine. It's a Vendôme 504 top loader

[Whitegoodshelp]

Hello there. We don't have much experience with top loaders here, as in the UK they are pretty unpopular. I did used to work on Hoover top loader in the 1970s, and they used to have the same problem. But if I remember correctly, they redesigned it so that it was impossible to start the washing machine without closing the doors. So this washing machine is arguably very poorly designed.

When used to start the wash cycle with the in drum still open, all of the laundry spilled out at the bottom and jammed the drum solid. This often also damaged some part of the inner drum.

I'm unsure from your post whether you managed to wind the drum back and retrieve your laundry? Or is the drum still jammed?

[useless_69]

The drum still turns if I turn it manually so I have retrieved everything from it.

[Whitegoodshelp]

Did you retrieve every item of laundry? Could anything be stuck inside like a small sock? Does the drum feel looser than normal when you spin it round by hand? When it jammed up, it's possible that the drive belt broke, or was thrown off.

[useless_69]

No doesn't feel looser, have checked the underside of machine, belt is still intact. No other laundry items could have fallen out as when I left the interior doors open it didn't turn at all. The fact that the on/off button no longer responds, the door doesn't lock when I turn the dial to any cylce, this is what made me think it needed resetting of the control panel. The machine does begin cycles by filling up and draining when dial is adjusting. It's literally just the drum tho that won't turn

[Whitegoodshelp]

The washing machine shouldn't have any way of knowing that the drum was open when it started to run, so there would be nothing to reset. Not unless by any chance there is a sensing device, that realised the inner drum was open. This would have prevented the drum from turning and emptying all the laundry into the base of the outer drum. And theoretically could be preventing the drum from turning if it still thinks the inner drum is not closed properly.

That's pure speculation and imagination though. It would be very difficult to design a system that could tell whether the inner door was open or not because it is a revolving drum. Therefore you could not have any sensors or wires involved.

If you say that when you left the interior doors open and used the washing machine, then the drum didn't turn at all, to be fair that sounds like a good indication that there is some sort of sensor at play. Otherwise, the drum would have revolved. All the laundry would have tipped into the bottom, and the drum would have jammed, as I described in my first reply.

I can't imagine there would be anything to reset, because such a device would be able to recognise when the inner door was closed properly again, and carry on as normal.

If the drum never moved, then nothing could possibly have become damaged. Nothing should have happened whatsoever, and there is no logical reason why it should not be working now. So the main suspect is that, as you suspected initially, the washing machine somehow doesn't register that the inner drum is now closed.

Looking at your 2nd photo, I can't see how the washing machine could tell that the inner drum is closed. The top loading washing machine I worked on before redesigned the inner drum so that when it was opened, 2 flaps stick out and physically prevent the top lid from being closed. This is an extremely simple method.

I get the impression that your drum does the same from looking at the 2nd photo? But surely if your washing machine did that, it would have been impossible to have started it because you wouldn't have been able to close the top lid.

The hole in the top at around the 6 o'clock position looks like something that houses a microswitch underneath. So when you close the outer lid, a peg pushes into that hole and operates a microswitch. If the washing machine was run with the outer lid open (if that's actually possible with this one), then I would suspect that everything would work except that the drum would not revolve because it is dangerous.

So therefore if what I'm saying is correct, I would suspect that when you are closing the outer lid it is no longer operating the microswitch underneath. If my speculation is a long way off then that's all I've got unless you have further information that sparks off other thoughts.