Many people are having issues with new washing machines that refuse to spin just one item, or maybe just a few items. Sometimes it may have been a reasonably sized load in their old washing machine but they’ve now bought one with a large capacity drum so the load is still relatively small. They are frustrated because their previous washing machine would spin with just one item inside but their new one won’t, and they are convinced the washing machine is faulty.Although faults can occur, it’s now normal for a washing machine not to spin just one or two items, or even some small loads, especially if one or more of the items gets heavy when wet such as a large woollen cardigan, a thick cotton garment or a heavy bath mat.
Why can’t modern washing machines just spin anything I put in the washing machine?
They did used to, but when washing machines were designed to just get on with spinning after a couple of minutes trying to balance the load there were consequences. Every so often a load would be a little out of balance (especially when mixing light and heavy items or if there wasn’t enough items to stick evenly all round the drum) but the washing machine would go into spin regardless. This often caused the washer to give a good thump several times as it ramped into spin before settling down often with a few more thumps occurring right at the end of the spin. It was disconcerting but usually just resulted in the sides of the washing machine being dented.
More rarely sheets would tangle up, or a small load would be impossible to balance and contain one or more heavy items such as a few towels, a sheet or one heavy garment and the washing machine would go seriously crazy. As a repairman in these days it was very common to see washing machines destroyed by being left unattended with an unbalanced load which had spun out of control for the full spin cycle.
If you’ve ever been close to a washing machine leaping into spin with a badly balanced load it is quite frightening. Customers used to describe watching TV in the lounge and being terrified by the sound of someone apparently battering their back door down. I’ve seen hundreds of washing machines written off because the tub inside went out of control and smashed the control timer, yanked off hoses resulting in flooding all the motor or electrics, or simply broke the vitreous enamel tub suspension bracket with the sheer forces involved.
I’ve seen floorboards splintered with holes punched right through as the suspension rod repeatedly pummelled the floor and I’ve seen washing machines walk across the kitchen, jump up and smash cupboard and worktops etc. This state of affairs was clearly unacceptable, and something needed to be done about it. (Article continues below..)
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The Answer they came up with is out of balance protection
The out of balance protection is a modern idea to stop washing machines going into spin with unbalanced loads. Early versions were crude, and simply attached micro switches to the tub or suspension, which when triggered through violent tub swinging just cut the motor to limit the damage done. Modern out of balance protection is commonly achieved using software monitoring the strains on the motor through the power it uses. If a load is evenly distributed around the inner drum the motor should run fairly smoothly as it turns it round requiring a pretty even amount of power. If one side of the drum is heavier than the other, which would happen with only a few small items or one garment inside it would create imbalance. The motor would run unevenly as it encountered different physical resistance when it turned the heavy side of the drum up from the 6 O’clock position through past 12 O’clock compared to the lighter load (or no load at all) on the other side.
In the old days this could usually be observed by seeing flashes of stainless where no laundry had settled on a section of the drum, the sound of the motor changing up and down in tone, and the drum swaying from side to side during the few minutes prior to spin which ran at “distribution” speed. All these signs meant the imminent spin was likely to be out of balance.
What’s wrong with modern out of balance protection?
It’s an essential system, but they can sometimes be a bit too sensitive, with no override option. Allowing a customer to override the protection might be useful, I’m sure there are loads that refuse to spin that would actually be OK. However, I wouldn’t blame any manufacturer from shying away from giving customers the power to override their out of balance protection. The answer is to make them more sophisticated and better at recognising when a load might be unbalanced but not going to cause a violent spin. This sophistication costs money. Many washing machines may well have already got this protection just about right, but no one has compared these systems so far.
The more expensive washing machines such as Miele should have a more sophisticated system combined with higher quality suspension, which would cope better with unbalanced loads. It’s likely to be less paranoid about unbalanced spins but clearly still needs protection. Conversely, cheap budget brands of washing machine are likely to have less sophisticated out of balance systems and be more fearful of letting a bad load spin because they know their crude suspension may not cope well with it.
I would expect that mid priced machines would have decent systems that may be less sensitive than budget machines but ultimately they all potentially suffer from the same side effect of refusing to spin some small or single item loads. There is likely to be some variance in tolerance and sensitivity between different makes but there’s no chart available that I’m aware of highlighting any differences.
For most people the advantages of protection from seriously damaging out of balance loads should far outweigh the inconvenience of the odd load not spinning.
Beware of large capacity washing machines
If you have a larger than normal drum such as 7 or 8 kg this problem may be worse because it takes more washing to make the drum nice and balanced than a smaller drum size. Don’t buy a washing machine with a large drum if you do lots of small loads and don’t intend to double up your washing by washing large loads to save on the amount of washes you do.
Here’s a quote from the article linked to above –
… For example, my 7Kg washing machine will not spin 3 large towels. Last week my wife was extremely frustrated with our 7Kg drum washing machine as she had just washed our son’s hoody-top and wanted to spin it in the washer. It simply would not spin, so I advised her that it needed something to balance it out. She put in a couple of towels but still no spin. Eventually 5 towels were needed to balance out the absorbent top and allow a spin. This is a minor inconvenience compared to the benefit of being able to fit more washing in (even our king sized quilt) but it highlights how if you have a very large drum it could be more prone to not spinning small loads. ”
Washing machine won’t spin at all?
This topic is about washing machines not spinning small items or very small loads. Or occasionally not spinning the odd load but otherwise working OK. If your washing machine just will not spin at all then it is likely to have developed a fault unrelated to this topic. See my article here – Washing machine won’t spin or drum won’t go round or find an engineer – Book appliance repairs
Oliver Shaw says
Hi Andy,
I had a Hotpoint with out of balance protection, it was a pain in the @rse. It would try to even up balanced loads and not bother with out of balanced loads. It would spend up to 10 minutes messing about, usually making the problem much worse. It would then spin no faster than 500rpm, but sometimes went up to 1300rpm with a seriuosly unbalnced load, it was very noisey and danced about all over the place! It even knocked some plaster out of the wall.
My 15 year old Bosch will even a load up if it has to, it only has a few attempts, but always rectifys the offending item(s). This is not a noisey machine and sometimes spins out of balance, it doesn’t dance around though, there again it is on Flotex carpet and is hard to move anyway. It will spin at full speed regardless.
My Mums IAR Siltal will have 3 attempts at balancing a load, if it cannot it will spin anyway. It will only spin at 650rpm instead of 1000rpm if not as balanced as it could be on the final spin. But the Bosch and IAR Siltal are built to a very high quality standard so can take the punishment of an unbalanced load. The Hotpoint quality was crap in comparison.
All the best,
Oliver.
Washerhelp says
I must admit Oliver, my experience has been that Hotpoint’s out of balance protection system wasn’t great. It did seem to still let some out of balanced loads through. This was 2 or 3 years back though. Having said that some people might prefer it not so sensitive if they are having trouble spinning the single items.
Oliver Shaw says
Hi Andy,
Oops sorry I missed your comment.
The Hotpoint was 2005 manufacture, its not just the OOB thats bad, the whole thing was badly built/designed. Poor appliance all round really, I would recommend people steer clear of any Merloni made appliance.
Oliver.
Laura Mitchell says
I have a Miele WT2670 1600rpm washer dryer which has a rather sensitive balance sensor. The other day I washed a bathmat on its own and it wouldn’t spin. It missed out on the interim spins which weren’t as important as the final spin. On the final spin it gave me loads of balancing nonsense and decided to skip the spin. I tried a seprate spin cycle a couple of times and it still wouldn’t spin so I decided to add a towel to the load. After another load of balancing nonsense my Miele finally decided to spin. I thought that Miele machines had a stronger suspension and could handle unbalanced spins very well but my Miele washer dryer didn’t seem to. When I have a load of bedding and towels in the machine it will give me a few pieces of balance nonsense before spinning. I remember that on the first load of bedding and towels that I ever washed in the Miele, the machine decided to miss out on one of its interim spins after giving me loads of balancing nonsense. It missed the spin because it couldn’t balance. I also washed a doormat and a bathmat together in the Miele and again it had trouble spinning. Is my WT2670 extra sensitive to these unbalanced loads because of it being a washer dryer? Is it doing this to protect itself and not wanting to spin too unbalanced? It also misses out on little spin bursts because opf the load being too unbalanced but will give balancing nonsense for the main spins. If you could have something to say on this matter then I’d look forward to hearing what it is. Thanks very much indeed.
Washerhelp says
Hello Laura: Bath mats are one of the most destructive out-of balance loads although many are actually pretty light these days and may not be so dangerous. I’ve had thick bath mats in the past virtually destroy a washing machine.
A Miele washing machine or washer dryer probably does have the best suspension, and will stand up to more force than many washers – but even so, don’t underestimate the force involved if a heavy but out of balance load is allowed to go into full spin.
Even out of balanced loads not causing serious thumping about can still cause excessive wear and tear over the years, so even Miele presumably prefer to err on the side of caution.
At the moment washing machines have evolved self protection which clearly is very necessary, but maybe over sensitive? There are many loads that would technically spin out of balance but would only cause excess vibration. I’m sure most users would prefer these loads to spin and are frustratingly inconvenienced when they don’t.
I could be wrong, but I’m assuming the annoying refusal to spin non-perfect loads issue could be reduced by more sophisticated or just more lenient out of balance systems. I don’t know if manufacturers have asked their customers about how much of a problem this is or not but unless they think it’s a big problem (which i suspect it could be) they won’t invest time and money finding a better solution.
Dave Gibson says
I have just read with interest all the comments about out of balance sensors etc and the comments describe exactly the problem I am having with a Zanussi Nexus FL 1082 whcih is in fact 12 yrs old. I don’t think a machine this old will have any OOB controls and I cannot to be honest remember ever having this sort of problem before. The washer is in perfect working order for its age and this has come to light only after I had left a tap running in the bathroom and the bathmat got soaked.(The wife is away) so I thought to myself no problem throw it in the washer for a good spin and it will be dry in no time. No such luck,I’ve been at it all day trying to sort it and the only thing I have resolved is a well blocked filter with fluff and the proverbial Bra Wire. It still though stubbornly refuses to Spin with just the soggy Bath Mat and just drains until the end of the cycle. If I however take the bathmat out it Spins away merrily. Is there any other thing it could be.?? I’m getting to the stage of pulling hair out and to be honest there isn’t much left to pull!!!!!!!!!!!
Washerhelp says
Hello Dave: Out of balance detection has been around since the 90s, it’s only recently that all washing machines have it and it tends to be software based.
You need to balance it out with several other items to get it to spin. Several towels might do it.
Dave Gibson says
Many thanks for you comments on the OOB issue. It would appear that the wife is aware of this peculiar issue(Had to fess up) brought her home today and she does in fact do exactly as you say and throw a few things in to balance it up. Can’t win em all eh!!!!!!!!!!!! Many thanks for your prompt response it was very much appreciated. Cheers.
David says
Did the old Hotpoint 9534’s have OOB?
From what I’ve seen they just ramp straight up to full spin speed and don’t do a graduated spin.
Washerhelp says
Hello David. No they didn’t have a proper out of balance system other than a very crude damage limitation system. This consisted of a small micro switch attached to a suspension leg. If the machine went badly out of balance and the micro switch operated it cut the power to the motor. These machines (as with most of their generation) would spin just about anything.