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.
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.
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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 related articles here –
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If a washing machine isn’t spinning due to out of balance issues then it will be intermittent and only affect some loads. If you add more washing and the machine spins ok it would indicate it was previously under loaded and the drum couldn’t balance it. If you remove a particularly big and heavy (when wet) article and try a normal load which does spin then it would indicate the large item was causing the issue as described in this article.
Unfortunately there are many other faults that can cause a washing machine to not spin, including worn carbon brushes, a fault elsewhere on the motor, a broken or very loose drive belt, a faulty connection somewhere on the machine, a faulty PCB, a faulty or blocked pressure system, a partially blocked pump and so on so it’s not something that can easily be dealt with without an engineer being present.
There is some very basic advice on this issue here Washing machine drum not turning but the article here goes into great detail about the specific issue of not spinning due to an unbalanced load. If it looks like your washing machine isn’t spinning due to a different issue than out of balance and the link above doesn’t help you will need to get an engineer to look at it.
I have a NEF machine with what seems to be an over-sensitive ‘off balance’ device. Customer services were off-hand and said that’s the way it is, with no advice on work-arounds – just take it or leave it. Sometimes wringing out sopping wet items e.g. single towel, may work, or this plus setting to spin at the slowest speed first, then progressively increasing to the speed desired – – but on the whole the experience is of much more sophisticated machine than of old but less fit to do the job their predecessors did pretty well (without self-destructing). Perhaps manufacturers should mount a mangle on the back, just like in the 1950s.
I have a new LG with 11 kg capacity. So I was not worried the first couple of times when the spinning cycle could not be completed, as I knew it was more sensitive to the right weight distribution. After a while, I made a test – unloaded the machine and then tried to spin: the empty drum started to vibrate as well, and the off balance protection shut off the cycle. I think there should not be any off balance issues with empty drum, ergo there should be a repairable fault in the drum suspension. Am I making the right conclusion?
Hello there, your washerhelp website has been most helpful to clear out the filter of a safety pin and other debri from the filter and it’s now spinning. But water still doesn’t drain properly. Spin seems to be normally fast though. Any suggestions what the problem could be please?
I have a siemens wm12s washing machine and have experienced the same problems re spinning.It drives me mad when i am about to go to work and want to hang out the washing only to find that it is soaking wet.I have phoned siemens and have had to listen to all their jargon re loading.The machine was not cheap and i consider the machine to be not fit for purpose.Had these problems been explained to me when i bought it ,i would not have gone ahead with it. i also have a dog and there is no way that i would want to add other items to the machine.I rue the day the machine came into my house.
marion, the problem is all washing machines are like this now as described in my article. Cheaper ones may be less inclined to spin solitary items or small loads but all washing machines have out of balance spin control meaning certain solitary items will not spin. If they didn’t many would destroy themselves as they did in the past with seriously violent out of balance loads.
@Marion Wallis
I agree. I am fed up with a sopping wet small load after a spin cycle. I end up having to add more dry washing (like towels) to the wet load in order t get it to spin, hence having more washing to dry. It must be costing me more money. I’ve even had wet loads which have been quite full but refuse to spin properly. The Siemens machine was pretty expensive but there’s no way I’d have bought it had I known what it was going to be like. I’d had my old machine for over 10 years with no problems and could spin anything I liked! This isn’t progress!
But it is progress tracey. Your load won’t spin because the laws of physics dictate it has a high chance of destroying your washing machine if it was allowed to. The bottom line is you cannot spin one, or a few items inside a drum, which only has laundry at one side – especially if the items are heavy when wet. It will go so violently out of balance it could cause the washer to jump up and smash the worktop, or smash the washing machine itself to bits.
Believe me I’ve repaired washing machines since 1976 when no one had out of balance control and have seen many destroyed or extensively damaged washing machines caused by a single heavy item or very small load going into spin. When it happens it’s terrifying, and sounds like the police are battering their way in though the back door. :-)
The only criticism I would have is that they are probably a bit too sensitive and disallow some loads that may well be OK. All you need to do its to put other items inside to balance it out. Just use old towels or laundry.
Hi washerhelp, you have to look at this from the customer point of view. If the customer experience has deteriorated rather than improved, then I don’t call that progress. If you cannot dictate to the machine but the machine dictates to you, I don’t call that progress. If I have to add washing to the load (either at the beginning of the cycle or at the spin stage) that I don’t want to, which ends up with additional wet washing that then needs drying, I don’t call that progress as I never had any problems with my old machine. This is what I am experiencing as a customer. To my mind, progress would be if the engineering wizards sort this out so this problem is eradicated. We have put a man on the moon so one does live in hope! Good website by the way.
tracey, I agree it’s frustrating, and for many people, but many people also find wearing a seat-belt in a car frustrating. I saw a programme last night about motorway police frustrated at continuously finding people who refuse to wear seat-belts because it annoys them. To me it’s a similar principle, finding a safety feature designed to prevent serious issues annoying or inconvenient.
Removing it would give you the convenience of spinning your small item only at the cost of the inconvenience of the washing machine shaking itself into a premature skip, or flooding your kitchen when sooner or later the load fell so bad it caused the tub to jump so violently that it ripped out a hose. At the end of the day washing machine manufacturers could no longer allow the ridiculous and dangerous situation where their washing machines would go into a fast spin no matter what you put inside it (bath mats and dog blankets were the worst offenders).
They cannot get around the laws of physics, a cylindrical drum with a heavy item only on one side is badly out of balance and if you let it spin it will sooner or later destroy the machine or result in a breakdown at the very least.
The only thing they could possibly do is make their detection systems much better and the quality of their washing machines much higher to take more hits. If you had a Miele washing machine for example you may find it lets your awkward load spin occasionally but chances are even the most robust and sophisticated washing machine would still refuse to spin a bad load enough times to make it impossible to wash regularly without adding more items. It’s inconvenient, but it’s the less of two evils.
It would be nice for them to have an override button that you could press to force it to spin. Such a button could be spring-loaded so it couldn’t be left on. That way you’d need to be present at spin and hold it in and keep holding it in whilst it went into spin. Then if it jumped around violently you could let go and it would stop spinning. However, I can’t see manufacturers doing it because even the short time that a load could go out of control in that situation can still seriously damage a washing machine.