Washing Machine, load sensors?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Do washing machines have some sort of load sensors?

The reason I ask, is that I decided to do a major wash today, well it's Monday. I crammed the machine full, pressed start and it refused to even start the wash, not even the 'door locked' LED came on. I took a few items out, splitting it into two loads and away it went. The other possibility, is that there is a sensor on the door, which though it clicks closed, it has a sensor to detect an internal pressure against the door.

 

[blup]

They sense weight distribution which kicks in with smaller unbalanced loads. So I would say its a sensor.

Blup

 

[foxhole]

They detect unbalanced loads to avoid WM walking across the room .

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

They detect unbalanced loads to avoid WM walking across the room .

Reading between the lines of the original blurb for the machine, it suggests it tests the balance of the load before deciding on how fast it can spin, by powering the motor - I read that as monitoring the motor current for variations, whilst turning the drum at a low-ish speed.

I pressed the 'start' button and it did absolutely nothing, it didn't even indicate it had locked the door.

 

[jj4091]

Don't know about other models but Zanussi slowly revolve the drum clockwise and anti clockwise several times before spinning & measure the degrees the drum over travels after the motor is switched off. It keeps doing this until the load spreads out around the drum & there is virtually no over travel in the drum. Difficult too explain but I believe they use a clock sensor attached to he motor to monitor the over travel probably the same one that monitors spin speed. This would not give the symptoms that you are describing though Harry. Perhaps the door lock was just not engaging properly, did you have it off last week.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Perhaps the door lock was just not engaging properly, did you have it off last week.

That's my current thinking, the door switch being deliberately designed so it detects an attempt to much too much in, as in pressure against the door.

Yes, I had it completely stripped down a few weeks ago, to replace the drum bearings. I did a dry test run, but yesterday was the first run with clothes in it - so I was beginning to think there was a new fault.