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Re: Washing Machine not Spinning

Motor drive belt first, then brushes. Isolate from mains before inspection obviously. I probably wouldn’t bother if the machine is really old and failing in the more fundamental areas, but if it’s in general good nick and you don’t feel a burning need to upgrade then replacing the belt and brushes is well worth it for the few pounds it costs and you have the basic skills.

Burnt out motor isn’t worth the cost unless you can lay hands on a working used item. However I wouldn’t automatically assume a duff unit unless there’s circumstantial evidence to suspect a total failure over just a maintenance issue – tripped RCD, dead machine, burning smells and even then it doesn’t necessarily mean a burnt out motor as I just discovered on my Bosch.

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Re: Bosh Motor Thermal Fuse

Thought I’d update as there’s been a successful outcome.

Once I had confirmation that a thermal fuse was the last piece of the puzzle in diagnosing the problem, closer inspection of the tacho ring located at the rear of the motor and half a centimetre from one of the protruding brush holders identified an arc spot in the tacho ring’s metal housing.

This confirmed the suspicion that the reason for the failure was due to a build up of graphite dust which caused a short to earth. This tripped the thermal fuse on the brush circuit, the house RCD and blew out a couple of PCB tracks on the control board. Must have been quite a pop to do all three.

After checking insulation resistance of the windings with a mate’s meter, just to be 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} sure, I decided to temporarily bridge the thermal fuse and run a couple of full load cycles on the machine and with success! We have a working washing machine again.

I will now replace the thermal fuse with https://shop.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/1601600-hotpoint-motor-thermal-cut-out, there will be a need for a little modification and soldering but for me that’s small beer when saving £400 quid.

This machine has been working without incident for 16 years and is otherwise in fine condition, so we’ll get a few more years out of it no doubt. On a quality machine like the Bosch Classix the lesson is to have the motor’s brushes replaced for a couple of quid before they wear down so far as to cause wider damage, saving on a whole load of hassle or the premature cost of a brand new machine.

Thanks to iadom for confirming the thermal fuse and pushing me to make sure the motor windings were good before jumping the gun.

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Re: Bosh Motor Thermal Fuse

Thanks for the confirmation and advice, I think I might give it a shot out of curiouslity, but for peace of mind and safety a new machine is the likely outcome.

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