If an Indesit or Hotpoint washing machine is flashing an LED 8 times, or is displaying the error code F08, this usually indicates the following. “Heater relay can’t be activated” or “heater relay stuck”.
The heater relay on these machines (as at time of writing) is built into the pcb, which is the main control board at the back of the machine. Sometimes they can get jammed, and even freed with a gentle tap. Other causes of this fault listed are, “check pressure switch, heater & module connections”. Therefore this isn’t an easy diy fix. So if you don’t know what a relay is or what one looks like it’s best to get in an engineer for this fault.
Some descriptions on various models also still say “heater relay”, or “heater relay can’t be activated”, or “heater relay stuck”, but also add, “check pressure switch connections for heater, wiring and module connections”.
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Have found a serious issue with my Hotpoint Aqualtis AQ 120F 49 FR. It has worked fine for 41/2 years. Yesterday flashing on and off with no error code so I thought it was a common issue in many electrical goods which causes weird faults like this and that is a leaking or failing capacitor. I opened the back to be greeted with a odor of burning circuit board and pulled the main power board out. On the top it looked fine so I popped it out to check underneath and found that a soldered leg joint for the substantial 60mm x 35mm capacitor had a shorting dry joint which had been discharging and burning the main board which looked like it had begun to catch fire.
The problem is most definitely a design flaw as the legs for the capacitor are vertically aligned and years of horizontal vibration and movement had worked it loose. There is a simple fix to avoid this before have to spend £200 on a replacement kit. It’s 4 blobs of heat resistant silicone, 2 at the base an 2 to on the transformer cover and it wont move.
Trouble is, how many will actually go bang or indeed catch on fire if left unattended. I caught mine in time but my guess it is a ticking time bomb across many models using that same power unit
Hello Mark. PCBs should be extremely reliable. Unfortunately many used in washing machines aren’t very well made at all.