The Gorenje washing machine drum is not spinning

The Gorenje washing machine drum is not spinning

One of the most frustrating situations in washing is the sudden stop of the drum. You have already loaded dirty clothes, poured washing powder, poured fabric softener, selected the necessary program and started the machine. Still, the washing did not start because the drum did not spin.

If the Gorenje washing machine does not spin the drum, you cannot put up with it, but you can fight it. At the same time, calling a service center specialist is unnecessary because you can deal with the problem yourself. In today's article, what could cause the drum to stop, and how to deal with it safely.

What part stops the drum?

First, it is necessary to correctly determine what caused the malfunction to understand how to deal with it. Usually, the washing drum starts to slow down, while all other elements function usually:

  • The board correctly determines the washing program.
  • The tank fills with water.
  • The pump eliminates the used water without any problems.

In this case, pay attention to the engine, primarily if a slight crack is heard. This is a signal that the motor is broken, so it does not drive the drum or stops transmitting impulse to the shaft. This can happen for several reasons.

  • The drive belt has broken or comes off the pulley.
  • The electric brushes were worn out.
  • The engine of the machine has failed.
  • A foreign object has entered the drum, which has jammed the movement of the element.
  • The tacho generator, aka the Hall sensor, has broken.
  • Finally, the lamellas on the motor shaft could peel off.

All the points described refer to when the drum completely stops rotating. However, if it continues to rotate slowly and tightly, there may be even more possible causes of failure.

Broken engine

The drum completely stops moving when the motor cannot spin the container. Everything seems simple - the drum is not spinning, which means the engine does not have enough power. However, everything can be more complicated in reality: the motor may need to turn on or accelerate strongly enough to set the drum in motion. When the engine begins to hum, the shaft rotates, but when the drive belt connects to the circuit, the entire mechanism stops - a signal that the problem is hidden in the electric brushes. In such a situation, diagnostics are necessary with the subsequent replacement of elements, for which you need:

  • Disconnect the device from all communications,
  • Remove the back wall of the gorenje washing machine and put it away so that it does not interfere during the repair,
  • Pull off the drive belt,
  • Get to the engine of the machine and disconnect all the wires,
  • Remove the bolts and remove the motor,
  • Now you should try to spin the shaft to evaluate its performance,
  • Remove all fasteners that fix the brushes on the engine,
  • Disconnect the electric brushes.

Next, we must unwind the brush case and pull out the carbon-tipped rod. If the rod reaches a length of only 1-1.5 centimetres, it needs to replace. Then you should buy a couple of new brushes at a hardware store or service center. These parts replace together, even if only one is damaged.

When the rods are more than 1.5 centimetres long, the drum most likely stopped rotating due to a damaged tacho generator. This part is fixed on the engine body and controls its unwinding. If the tacho generator is faulty, it will stop determining the number of revolutions the motor gains so that the control module will stop the cycle for safety. To test the tacho generator, you will need a multimeter with an ohmmeter mode, the probes of which should be hooked up to the contacts of the element.

Collector plates, and lamellas, can also be to blame for stopping the drum. They are fixed on the shaft to transmit current through the mechanism. Problems begin when parts peel off, due to which contact is lost and the shaft stops working. To ensure everything is in order with the lamellas, you need to disassemble the engine and personally assess the condition of the strips.

Finally, if the cause has not yet been determined, then it is possible to study the winding, which can be pierced. To do this, you should also use an ohmmeter, the probes of which must be attached to the collector plates and winding. But, again, no damage exists if the results are within 0.1-0.4 ohms. Otherwise, you will have to change the motor.

Worth checking the belt.

If the drive mechanism is damaged, repairs will take little time. You can check if the problem is hidden in the belt by scrolling the drum with your hands. On the other hand, if the rotation is too free, the belt has come off the pulley, either because it broke or stretched too much. Both cases require urgent replacement of the element.

Everyone can handle the rubber band replacement. To do this, you only need to remove the back panel of the home assistant housing, place the belt on the small wheel, and then pull it on the drum pulley while scrolling it. It is much better if someone helps you - Gorenje household appliances are famous for their tight belt mechanisms, so that things will go faster and easier with an assistant.

An object is stuck between the tank and the drum.

If the drum does not spin even manually, it should not seek the malfunction in the device's internal structure but in an external stimulus. Most likely, some foreign object just got into the drum, for example, a coin, a button, keys, a bone from a bra, or something else. Even such a trifle can catch on the drum and jam it. Then only the extraction of a foreign object will help. For automatic washing machines, the procedure consists of the following steps:

  • Disconnect the washer from the mains,
  • Remove the back panel of the SM case,
  • We find the heating element at the very bottom of the tank,
  • Disconnect all wires from it,
  • Loosen the retaining bolt located in the center of the water heating element,
  • Reduce the water heater and remove it,
  • Now you can look into the vacated hole, where with the help of a flashlight, you can find a foreign thing,
  • We retrieve the lost item by hand, wire or any other convenient way.

Such an instruction helps in most cases, but getting the object through the heating element may be impossible. Then you have to disassemble the entire washing machine, remove the tank with the drum and disassemble them to remove the foreign object.

As you can see, if the drum has stopped rotating, this is not a reason to call the master. You can figure out this problem yourself. You need to diagnose and fix the breakdown with your hands accurately.