Washer repair notes

A wash cycle is four jobs in order: fill, agitate or tumble, drain, spin. The job that never starts is the one to name in the email. A machine that fails in the middle is a different part from a machine that never leaves the first step.

No water comes in

Open the supply valves and look for a kink in the hoses. The inlet valve on the washer has small screens where the hoses attach, and those screens fill with sand and rust. Clean screens and a valve that never clicks leave the valve itself, or the control that is supposed to call for water.

The tub fills and then sits

A top-loader will not run the motor until the lid switch closes. A front-loader will not tumble until the door lock reports that it is locked. A machine that fills and then does nothing, with the lid or door shut, is often waiting on that switch.

A front-loader that will not unlock can still be holding water from the last cycle. It keeps the lock until it has drained, and it cannot drain if the pump is dead. From the outside, a bad lock and a dead pump look alike. Say whether you can hear the pump, and whether the tub is full.

Clothes wash, water stays

That is the drain side: the pump, the coin trap on a front-loader, or the hose. The hose should rise into a standpipe. Pushed too far down, it can siphon the tub or sit under water and stop the pump from clearing it. A pump that hums and moves nothing usually has debris in the impeller. A pump that stays silent has lost the motor or the signal to run.

It drains, then the cabinet walks

Level the feet first. A front-loader that still has its shipping bolts in the rear of the cabinet will walk on the first spin. Those bolts are a transport lock, not a worn shock. If the bolts are already out and the machine still pounds, the shock absorbers or the suspension rods are worn, and they get replaced as a set so the tub stays square.

A roar that climbs with spin speed, on a washer that used to be quiet, is the tub bearing. Water from a leaking tub seal is what finishes that bearing. Once the roar is loud, the job is the bearing and often the spider the drum hangs on.

Smell from a front-loader

The rubber door boot holds water and lint after the cycle. Leave the door open so the boot can dry. Detergent poured to the top of the cap, past the line molded into it, leaves residue in that boot. The smell is a cleaning problem until the boot is torn and water is on the floor. A torn boot is a parts job.