Help On Tricity Bendix Aw1201W Not Emptying Water

[moghm]

Hello everyone.

New to the forum. I have been having an issue with my tricity bendix aw1201w recently. Basically, once program was started the cycle would stop mid way. I then was able to drain water through the drain pipe housed behind the door where the filter trap is. Once done, I wasnt always able to start a new cycle immediately, but after lets say an hour I could start a new program. Anyway, the same problem would occur, program would start, washine machine fills with water but program stops and water wont drain.

I pulled a few things apart today to have a look. When blowing through the waste pipe the opposite way to see if there was a block I was getting resistance. I had a look at a black pipe that goes from the drum to the pump just before the filter and could feel like ball in there. slightly bigger than a gold ball. I have now removed this and the strange thing is that the machine is working now. But I am not sure if this ball should or shouldnt be there now. Initially I thought this was a blockage, but am thinking that this needs to be there to stop backflow from kitchen sink or something. But cant understand why machine has started working again. Confused.com. any ideas ? many thanks.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Blowing down the pipe won't normally tell you much, there's always water left in the sump hose and the ball you mention will all give resistance. The ball should be there inside the sump hose, washing machines have had them for years. Its purpose is to float up and seal the drum. Here's a full explanation -

In the old days most washing machines used to fill with hot and cold water simultaneously on wash. The first 2 or 3 cupfuls of water that entered the washing machine ran into the sump hose. As this water also flushed the detergent into the drum, some of the detergent went into the sump hose. Water entering the sump hose tends to stay there as it can't get back up and therefore it was realised that some of the washing detergent was usually wasted.

Since roughly around the late 90s a small plastic ball is fitted inside the sump hose. Also, they started to fill with cold water only for the first several seconds so that the first amount of water that runs into the sump hose doesn't take any detergent with it. (However, with the advent of cold fill only washing machines this can no longer be done). When the sump hose fills with water the small plastic ball floats up and seals off the sump hose from the rest of the tub.

If the ball was covered in gunge or was sticky then it could have been sticking in the top of the sump hose and stopping the water from draining. I know this used to happen on old Hoover washing machines and I used to remove the ball to prevent continuous problems. The washing machine should work without the ball.

Full help articles here - washing machine wont drain water out

[moghm]

Many thanks. I think you may be right, the ball was sticky.