I’ve been having fantasies about my washing machine. No, it’s not what you think. I have absolutely no plans to sit on it during the spin cycle (it wouldn’t even work if I wanted it to anyway). The fantasies are more like that scene in Office Space where the guys kidnap the office printer and take it out to a field somewhere, ritualistically beating the absolute Christ out of it with baseball bats in a primal way.

My washing machine is a smartarse. As such it needs a belting.

At least once a week when I’m doing the washing, the stupid thing will keep stopping mid-cycle for no reason. If you leave the house and come home expecting the washing to be ready to hang out, you can lock it in, Eddie, that the thing will have stopped the second you were out the front door and you’ll spend the next three hours wrangling with the stupid device to get it done.

It goes a little something like this:

1.Washing machine clicks off.
2. I lift lid and close it again. Washing machine starts up.
3. I walk out of the laundry room.
4. Washing machine stops instantly.
5. I go back, lift lid, jiggle the clothes around to adjust the load. Close lid. Washing machine starts up.
6. I walk out of room
7. Steps 1-6 repeated another four or five times.
8. Frustrated, I stand next to the washing machine for three or four minutes and then, satisfied that it won’t stop again for no reason mid-cycle, I leave the room.
9. Washing machine stops the second I am out the door.
10. Swear and kick the machine a few times.
11. Repeat all of the above steps for an hour.

See it’s not the random stopping that annoys me the most (although it is quite annoying) so much as the washing machine’s seeming ability to sense when I am no longer in the room, hovering nearby to rectify the situation when it stops. When it’s playing up it doesn’t matter if I stand next to it for five seconds or five minutes – it just seems to know the exact second I leave the room and decides to turn itself off then. You know, just to screw with me. As such, I want to have it killed.

I guess it is time to put it out to pasture and get a new one. I bought it nine years ago and – along with my fridge – was my first serious “grown up” purchase. My, how I’ll gloat at the POS when it’s sitting on the nature strip sometime soon, awaiting the local council’s hard rubbish collectiontruck to take it away and give it an undignified burial somewhere. Where's your smug sense of self-satisfaction now, whitegood? So should I **** can it or fix it. any ideas??
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If you don't restart it will the timer continue to the off position or will it remain at the point where it stopped?

If the timer stops, I would replace it. If it continues to off without finishing the clothes it is probably the door switch, try to "hotwire" or bypass it to see if that fixes it.

 

If the timer is working thru its complete cycle I would check the contacts that operate by rotating disks that have cut outs for normally open and closed contacts. If the cam has worn down due to years of use you will not get contact function. A PITA but if you take your time you can bend the fingers allowing the contacts to make and break, they should have spring tension on the points. I saved $142 for a control unit, cost me an hour labor pulling out and adjusting, 3 years later still working trouble free.

 

Hey, Grant,,, Nice sig!! Should I be worried?? Are the beer trucks after me?? Ha! Ha! Ha!

 

Grant, I like your thinking here. A long length of chain, secured to your washer, the other end attached to your truck....... Picture yourself driving at a moderate rate of speed, dragging that machine, bouncing it over curbs and off hydrants and trees...... Yes, this is a quest for justice. Revenge. There are scores to be settled here.....

The horror

the horror............ ohmygod............ the horror

 

My washing machine finally pooped out after 40 years.

It was a Sear Kenmore; purchased in 1967.

Got a used GE washing machine and a dryer for $50.00

Hopefully it'll last a few years.

 

if the timer stops and then restats after the lid closing, i'd suggest the lid switch may be screwing with you. loose wire, loose attachment to the machine, etc.

 

You might find an answer on how to fix it here. http://www.repairclinic.com/0046.asp