Clothes washer trips breaker when washing with warm water

[Vasilis]

Hello,

I have a Philco Norma 4x cloth washer which keeps tripping the breaker after having operated for half to 1 hour. After I leave it off for at least 15 minutes and turn it on again, it continues it's cycle, until the end. (a few times, it may trip the breaker a second time).

This happens when I use the temperature switch for washing with warm water. It does not happen when I wash with cold water (temperature switch set to 0). This made me think that there is some fault with the water heater resistance element.

I replaced it with a new one and still keeps tripping the breaker.

The old resistance element that I replaced, was showing about 25 Ω resistance. I have checked the appliance internally and no damp spots have been found.

I would appreciate if you gave any tips related to what could be the culprit?

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hi there. I've never heard of that type of washing machine. We only deal with UK washing machines here, although many European washing machines are very similar.

The only way to effectively trace the cause of a washing machine tripping the electrics is with a specialist insulation test meter. This meter will put 500 V (DC) through the live and then the neutral pins and detect for any leakage to the earth pin. It's leakage to earth, or low insulation, that usually causes the electrics to trip or fuses to blow.

If it only trips the electrics when the heating element is used, then normally it is highly likely to be the heating element. It's theoretically possible for something else to cause it. One example would be if the live wire that supplies the heating element had been rubbing against something and the plastic insulation had worn through. This would mean that when the heater was activated, it would trip the electrics, but it is not the heater itself.

However, in either of these cases, the electrics should be tripped within milliseconds of the heating element being activated. The fact that it took half an hour to an hour before the electrics tripped, and then carried on fine after being left for 15 minutes or so strongly implicate something more like a water leak dripping onto something, or something overheating.

The only thing I can suggest is to ensure that plug and wall socket are okay and there are no signs of burning on the plug or the wall socket. But the only way to effectively track this kind of fault is to wait for it to trip the electrics, then unplug the washing machine, and test it for low insulation. As it has just tripped the electrics, the chances are the meter would show something up, and you would be able to track down the exact source by process of elimination. These test meters are far too expensive for anyone to buy other than an engineer who would be using it in their job.

[Vasilis]

I appreciate your analytical description of the issue. I am located in Greece and the washing machine is made in Italy. I didn't realize that this forum deals with UK - made machines. Anyway, thanks again and I will check the other alternatives as you proposed.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Thanks Vasilis. Aye the title of this very forum is UK washing machine repair questions 😁
 

Please let us know if you find out the problem.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Despite not knowing the washing machine, I feel confident that my summary of the situation covers it all. Good luck.

[Vasilis]

Finally, I found out the source of the problem. A blown capacitor at the entrance of the power-supply cable in the back of the washing machine, which I took it to a service-man and told me that its function is related with the power fluctuations from the power company, and that it is not really neccessary - they usually take it out. The washing machine operated with the water heater set to temperature, without tripping the breaker.

Again, thanks to your clues about searching for worn out cables and other parts, made me find out this blown capacitor.

Edited February 1 by Vasilis

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Thanks for the update, Vasilis. That's strange. Presumably it was only failing when the washing machine was drawing a lot of power whilst heating.

Re the capacitor. I've never heard of a capacitor not being necessary, or being bypassed.

However, a suppressor, which can look exactly like a capacitor, can be bypassed, though it's not recommended. I was always told it was against UK regulations to do so, though I don't know if that's true or not. Suppressors (sometimes referred to as mains suppressors) are definitely legally required as far as manufacturing is concerned.

Without a suppressor (which is usually one of the first components that the electricity runs through after entering the appliance through the mains cable) an appliance can cause interference with TVs and radios. I was told many years ago that this interference can even happen in neighbours houses.

I suspect this part was a mains suppressor, and not a capacitor. It probably suppresses spikes in the electricity supply. Clearly, if it was not needed, there's no doubt they would not be fitted. Manufacturers don't fit unnecessary parts when they are constantly striving to reduce costs. It's only technically, "not needed", in the sense that it will otherwise function without it.

There is no safety, or functional detriment to having bypassed. So it's up to you whether you just leave it at that try to buy new suppressor. There is a good chance that you don't notice any interference at all. I think a lot of interference used to be on radio stations such as longwave or medium wave. Maybe modern TVs aren't affected.