Washing Machine Not Heating Up Water

Contrary to popular opinion, many people believe that if you can’t feel the heat through the washing machine’s door, no heating is taking place.  However, as long as the machine works alright, and brings out clean clothes, there is no reason for you to worry.

Some machines have hot water on the inside alone, while others have insulating covers that might prevent you from feeling the heat inside. In other instances, a user might use too little water, so that it does not reach the glass door, from where one can see and feel it by touch.

Outlined below are some of the basic tests you can run on your appliance, to tell whether and where it is faulty.

Working with electricity requires professional skills and training. If you don’t have these skills, then we recommend you to call a repair engineer – all engineers employed by Repair Aid are highly-trained and experienced to handle any appliance repair you may require.

An Error Code

Under ideal circumstances, a normal contemporary washer will give you an error code to show that due to some reason, no heating is going on. Such a machine keeps track of the heating process and progress and raises red flags with failure to reach the preferred temperatures within the projected time.

If the heating component is faulty, the process aborts and issues the error code. Older generation machines lacked this function and kept washing up to a point when the thermostat would sense the right temperatures.

Faulty Heater

A modern washing machine will notify you of what is happening, any moment the heater is not functioning. On the other hand, older machines only keep the washing cycle going under similar circumstances. However, it is important to note that other factors could make the machine result in similar behaviour.

Heating Element Examination

One of the most common tests for a heating element is using a continuity meter, as most issues often lie in broken circuits. Indeed, this helps check for any dodgy connections or broken wires. It is always the best idea to call a Repair Aid engineer when work on your electric appliance is needed.

You are likely to face a major hindrance accessing the heater, as most of them are in the machine’s front. A faulty heater will show high resistance or a completely open circuit between the main connections. If everything is fine, the heater will give you a resistance ranging between 20 and 50 Ohms.

Protector Device for the Heater Goes Off

After ascertaining that the heating element is fine, the next possibility could be a thermal overload cut-out. Indeed, this is a small device, often found near the machine’s heating element.

Other machines have it inbuilt within the heater, while others have them still from within the heater but stuck inside a tiny tube. If the protector goes off, it should be a cause for real concern. Indeed, this is because this only happens when temperatures go up to reach risky levels.

Error Code Not Available

Some modern washers give you no error code if they develop faults which stick them to mid-cycle, resulting in endless washing. Such circumstances call for an engineer, as it involves complicated functions, such as the main PC program.

Once you realise that your washer won’t heat up the water for effective washing, make the general tests as explained in this post. However, do not do things you are not sure of. Always contact our Repair Aid technicians whenever the problem persists or in doubt.