Top 5 Reasons Your Washer Leaves Your Clothes Soaking Wet
It’s a real headache when your washing machine leaves your clothes a soggy, dripping mess.
What do you do?
Do you painstakingly wring out each piece of laundry by hand? Or do you just toss the soggy mass in the dryer as is, and hope for the best?
Whatever you do when that problem occurs, you don’t want to have to do it more than once. But to prevent that problem from happening again, you might need some help from an experienced repairperson.
Here are the top 5 maintenance-related reasons your washer might be leaving your clothes too wet:
#1: Bad Motor Coupler
The spin cycle, obviously enough, is responsible for slinging excess water out of your laundry. And even more obviously, the washer tub must spin during the spin cycle.
But if there’s been a failure of the connection between the motor and the tub, the spin cycle won’t be able to do its job. You can check for this problem simply by opening the lid during the spin cycle. If the tub is spinning, the motor coupler isn’t the problem.
A washer that doesn’t agitate properly can also be indicative of a failed motor coupler.
#2: Underperforming Spin Cycle
Another possible spin cycle problem is that the tub spins, but not at the designed speed. Reasons for that can include a bad drive belt, a faulty motor pulley, a bad clutch, or tub bearings that are going bad.
Overloading your washer can also cause the spin speed to be too low. And on rare occasion, a piece of laundry may find its way between the inner and outer tubs, resulting in friction that slows the spin speed.
#3: Siphoning
Even if the spin cycle is performing with 100% effectiveness, it can be for naught if your clothes get soaked again after the spin cycle is complete. That can sometimes happen when water siphons back into the machine from the drain hose. A blocked or partly clogged drain hose can be the cause of this problem.
#4: Bad Water Inlet Valve
Age and wear-and-tear can cause water inlet valves to partly or completely fail. It will be obvious if the water valve fails completely. But sometimes a water valve will seem to be working properly even though it no longer completely closes. When this happens, water can continuously leak into the tub throughout the spin cycle.
One possible indicator of a partly failed inlet valve is a puddle of water sitting in the bottom of the tub during periods of disuse.
#5: Bad Drain Pump
Perhaps your washer is unable to drain water completely away in between cycles. This is an indication that the drain pump is malfunctioning, and may require repair or replacement.