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The Fix Bench

Washing Machines

Error codes, drain and spin failures, and diagnosing a washer that stops mid-cycle.

About half of the drain and spin faults in this section turn out to be plumbing rather than failure. Manufacturers publish exact limits for how far the drain hose may go into the standpipe and how high that pipe may be — and they do not agree with each other, which is worth knowing before you apply a number from one brand to another.

The other pattern here is that a washing machine reports other appliances' problems as its own, and takes the blame for its own. A load that leaves too wet gets diagnosed at the dryer; excess detergent makes the machine reduce its spin speed, which looks like a spin fault; and most machines refuse to spin at all while water remains in the drum, so a drain problem arrives as "it will not spin".