An Asko Washer That Will Not Spin: The Empty-Drum Test

Wet washing at the end of a cycle that otherwise looked normal. Before anybody is called, one test answers most of it.

Take the washing out and run a spin

A spin-only program on an empty drum. Nothing else in this article matters as much as the result.

It spins normally. Then the machine is fine and the problem was the load or the water. Either the drum had not drained — and a front loader will not accelerate a drum with water in it, by design — or the load would not balance. Both are cheap.

It does not spin. Now listen. A click followed by silence usually means the door lock: the control proves the door is locked before it spins, and a lock that no longer confirms it stops the cycle at exactly this point. A hum with no rotation points at the motor, its control, or something jammed.

Why a full drum will never spin

This catches people out because the machine gives no obvious sign. Spin is interlocked with level: accelerating a drum holding water would be violent and most of the water would leave the machine sideways. So one blocked pump filter produces two complaints — no drain and no spin — and the second is the one people report.

Clear the pump filter behind the lower panel before anything else. Empty the drum through the small drain hose first, or the cap comes off with several liters behind it.

Balance, and what the machine does about it

The control measures how evenly the load sits before it accelerates. On the display machines an imbalance message appears and the manual says plainly that it requires no action — the machine redistributes up to ten times and then carries on. On the analog machines nothing is reported at all and you simply find wet washing.

One heavy item is the usual cause. A bath mat, a single towel, a duvet cover that has wrapped everything else inside it.

The push test

With the machine off, push the drum down firmly and let go. It should settle at once. A drum that bounces two or three times has lost its damping, and that matters beyond this complaint: worn shock absorbers let the drum travel further on every spin, the balance check gives up, and the extra travel loads the drum bearing.

Absorbers are an afternoon. A bearing is a day's strip-down. That gap is the whole reason to call while this is still only annoying.

Level, which is free

Press each corner of the cabinet in turn. If it rocks, the feet want adjusting and locking — a tiled laundry closet is rarely as flat as it looks, and level is half of what the damping has to fight.