Washing Machine Help Forum

[Chris_B]

Trying to sort my son's WD640. It tripped the circuit breaker in the house after 1 or 2 seconds, every time he powered it on. After browsing here, I disconnected the heater element, and it's fine. So I suspect an earth fault in the heater circuit - but is it the heater or something else I made open circuit by disconnecting the heater?

My meter shows about 1MegaOhm between the disconnected heater terminals and earth, which doesn't look bad but I don't really know what to expect on insulation. Heater itself is 44 Ohms which is about what I'd expect.

Should I buy a new heater element and try it or are there some more diagnostics I can try first?

Thanks

[Chris_B]

Just for info, in case anyone else has a similar problem - the replacement heater fixed the problem. It's the second replacement heater on this machine, the first went open circuit, this one short circuit. They seem to last 12 - 18 months.

I realise now why my meter didn't show a short, just a high resistance, even though the MCB tripped - a multimeter only tests at low voltage, so the insulation was largely effective, 230V would have been different. If I'd tested it with a Megger (not that I have one) I guess it would have shown the short.

Chris