Washing machine broken - bang and won't spin

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

We fear our washing machine may be dead....it is very old but wondered if anyone knew if it would be worth repairing?

Was in use and then on the spin cycle it made a banging noise and then just stopped - no spin, clothes left sopping wet.

Are there any machine engineers online who can say if this indicates a major fault not worth repairing and/or if there's anything we could do ourselves to get it up and running again?

Thx for any help!

GreenSheep

The bang suggests a snapped belt to me.

Might be repairable but unless you are confident enough to take it apart it is going to cost you money you could just put towards a new one to find out.

ormus

can you still hear the motor running, or the pump?
or is it silent?

roger196

Try www.apart4u.co.uk they have a number of videos of faults.

waterwatereverywhere

Hi

Thx for the replies.

Not sure whether the pump/motor can be heard - is it safe to switch it back on to see what happens so I can listen out for these? Worried it my blow up or something!

If pump is the bit that takes water away then I think so because the drum wasn't full of water just wouldn't spin after went bang.

Not sure we would be able to fix ourselves and it is a very old machine so also not sure if parts would still be available.

I guess a repair man would be around £100 anyway on a call out just to look and say nothing can be done so reluctantly I suppose it would be better to bite the bullet and pay £60 more for a new basic machine?

Thx again.

Badger_Lady

Yeah - if it's a snapped belt I'd replace the machine. I can't remember the exact financials now but this happened to me a while back and I spent £20 finding out it wasn't worth repairing.

missprice

bang usually means a belt snapped (most of the time anyway one time it was my motor dopping cos the bracket that held it up snapped)
if you can get hold of a new belt they are fairly easy to fix
but personally i would just buy the cheapest new WM and get rid of old one
i have tended to find as soon as something goes it starts to get more and more wrong with it
so costing yet more until you could hae bought a decent WM with the money you spent repairing old WM
plus if your not confident repairing them yourself it costs even more

waterwatereverywhere

Thank you missprice and Badgerlady - I'm in agreement with you I think!

Roger196 - thanks so much for that website link though - the videos are absolutely brilliant - step by step and makes it look so easy .... I'll definitely bookmark this website for future help.

GreenSheep

because the drum was empty i think it is fair to say the pump will be ok.
for it to have drained i would suggest the control board will be fine as the pump has be asked to run.
for the drum to not be spinning either the motor or part of the driven system is at fault.
the bang to me suggests the belt.

i agree around £100 for a callout to look. i would suggest getting a new one if you aren't happy to have a look yourself. i assume you aren't happy to have it apart? it will be very easy to source and fit a new belt if that is all it needs.

Cheers, GreenSheep