Whirlpool W120 Washer Stopping At Start Of Cycle

[wokeye]

I have had this machine for nearly 12 years now and thanks to great advice on this forum I have managed to keep it going when I was very close to replacing it 😀

Now the machine has developed another fault, when I start a program the machine fills up with water as normal to the desired level, then it just stops and will not do anything else. If I come back to it half an hour later and move the analogue programmer knob on a notch it continues to wash and finish the cycle. The pump is working fine and it is filling up with water and draining fine. I was wondering is this possibly is a heater or a thermostat fault and how would I go about checking it please?

The last fault with this machine was that the drum would not turn, through great advice off here I was told to check the PCB where I found a dry solder joint, I re-soldered it and everything was fine. Could it be something like this again?

I know I could take it to pieces to check this but the machine is working in a fashion and I would rather leave it if I need a voltmeter or whatever they are called to check the continuity of the heater. As I would borrow one of these from work then dismantle the machine and take a good look around.

Thanks for any advice 😉

[Penguin45]

Re: Whirlpool W120 Washer Stopping At Start Of Cycle

I assume you are starting at programme 5? Fill followed by static heat. Upon reaching temperature, time should start. Therefore, no heat = no timer action at the start position.

Heater and stats are on the front of the tub – remove front panel as when you did the PCB for access. Broken/burnt wiring most likely culprit, but heater can fail – should read 25-30 ohms.

Power off at all times, of course.

Penguin45.

[wokeye]

Re: Whirlpool W120 Washer Stopping At Start Of Cycle

Probably is the heater or something to do with it as I have just watched it on a longer cycle with a higher temperature setting. The machine stopped 3 times during the washing part of it, if I clicked on the programmer each time it continued. The drum never got warm at any point 😕

[wokeye]

Re: Whirlpool W120 Washer Stopping At Start Of Cycle

Penguin45 wrote:I assume you are starting at programme 5? Fill followed by static heat. Upon reaching temperature, time should start. Therefore, no heat = no timer action at the start position.

Heater and stats are on the front of the tub – remove front panel as when you did the PCB for access. Broken/burnt wiring most likely culprit, but heater can fail – should read 25-30 ohms.

Power off at all times, of course.

Penguin45.

Yes it was program 5 the first time, then I have just tried it on program 2 with temp set at 70 degrees. Great advice 😛

[wokeye]

Re: Whirlpool W120 Washer Stopping At Start Of Cycle

I have just tested the continuity of the heater and it is around 24.2 ohms. Just below the 25 ohms mentioned. Is this a problem? I also found the heater element a bit stuborn to remove, I undone the 10mm nut, and managed to pull it out around one inch. Then it is obviously sticking due to the element being joined. I take it that the black rubber seal just has to be prised out? As I think this is the problem, there does not appear to be anything else retaining it, and surely I do not need to get access to the inside of the drum from the back? Sorry I am not that great with these things 😳

Forget what I said I found a broken wire like you said Penguin that goes to the heater 😳 Is the heater worth replacing anyway?

[Penguin45]

Re: Whirlpool W120 Washer Stopping At Start Of Cycle

Well done. I’d leave the heater, quite an expensive one to replace.

Penguin45.

[wokeye]

Re: Whirlpool W120 Washer Stopping At Start Of Cycle

Thanks for the great help again Penguin. Also found another couple of wires that looked dodgy so replaced them. The machine is working fine now for no outlay and an hour or so of my time. Thanks again 😀

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