Sticking Halfway Through Wash

[Curious]

I have a Hotpoint aquarius 1100 (wm63) which is fairly heavily used (2-3 washes per day). A few days ago it seemed to be stuck at the beginnning of the rinse cycle and so I turned the dial on a notch. It then gave a loud "bang" and shifted itself a couple of inches to its right (it couldn't go any further as there was a dishwasher blocking its path!) It then carried on and finished the cycle.

I thought (probably foolishly) that something had got caught in the drum and then had pinged free, so used it again. It again got stuck at the beginning of the rinse cycle - although this time it was on a gentle spin program - and although it spun, it did not remove water from the clothes to any perceptible degree. I have now stopped using the washing machine.

I have a couple of numbers for engineers to call but would very much appreciate some advice over what could be the likely cause and a rough idea of what I might expect to pay for parts/repairs - so I don't get myself ripped off.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Washing machine sticking mid cycle can be caused by different things. However, spinning but not removing much water is usually caused by a partially blocked filter (or more rarely a faulty pump) As this can also cause a washing machine to stick on the rinses, it's a possibility that you have a blocked filter.

Hotpoint put a filter in the sump hose where customers can't easily get to it themselves. It's easy enough to get to from the back but you need to be DIY minded to mess around with it and things could get pretty wet.

If it is just a blocked filter, an engineer can fix it in half an hour or so altogether including draining the machine and testing. The cost should legitimately be anything from about £35 - £65, or if you call Hotpoint themselves it could be £90.

Unfortunately, many customers think they've been ripped off it they don't have any parts fitted and it doesn't take long to fix. Engineers can get so fed up with complaints and sarcastic comments (such as, "£50 for half an hours work? I wish I was on £100 an hour") that many decide to fit a new pump instead. Ironically, this way customers are happy and don't complain. I think it's very sad, and of course many engineers (like myself) would never do this but I know for a fact that it happens so it's best to call someone you know to be reputable or try a UK Whitegoods member - Find an appliance repairman

A pump for this machine is roughly between £20 and £30 - Buy washing machine spares

To check if your fault is to do with not emptying the water fast enough, try it without any washing in and when it sticks, look to see if there is any water still inside the machine.

[Curious]

Thanks for all that, very useful information. I will test it as you suggested. What did you think of the loud banging noise? Could that be caused by something getting into the filter? It was pretty loud and caused the machine to move quite violently.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

The banging was possibly a result of you moving the programme timer on. You could have just made it go into a spin before it had settled the clothes and it thumped about a bit.

[Curious]

Can I get to the filter by pulling the washing machine out from it's location or do I have to also remove the large panel at the back of the washer ?

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

All you need to do is -

• Unplug the washing machine from the mains
• Pull it out and take the back panel off
• Drain as much water out as you can by laying the drain hose into a bowl. If the drain hose is hooked to the back panel you need to un-hook it as the whole hose needs to be lower than the bottom of the tub for siphoning to work
• Get a couple of bath towels and put them in front of you and under the washing machine
• Take off the sump hose from the bottom of the tub (which is the black hose leading to the water pump)
• Take the filter out and clean it

If there are just a few bits and bobs in there, they may not be causing any symptoms but remove them anyway. If it is bunged up you've probably found the fault.

NOTE:

If you remove the filter from the sump hose, make sure you don't let anything drop into the sump hose as it will go inside the pump and could cause a pump failure.

[Curious]

Great - worked a treat. In actual fact I found a sock in the filter !

Cannot understand how it got there and the wife could provide no further detail !

An excellent site - have already passed the detail on to a colleague.