What do the noises my washing machine makes mean?

People describe washing machine noises by the sound, and the sound on its own is nearly useless. The cycle phase is the diagnostic information: the machine is doing something completely different at each stage, so a rattle while it fills and a rattle while it spins have almost nothing in common. Note the phase first and the list of possibilities shortens to one or two.

Safety

What you'll need

• A few minutes to stand and listen through a cycle
• A torch (optional)
• Gloves, for reaching into the filter housing (optional)

Step by step

1. Run a cycle and write down when each noise happens.Fill, wash tumble, drain, or spin. If you cannot tell, watch through the glass: water arriving is fill, drum reversing slowly is wash, water leaving is drain, drum accelerating is spin.
2. Ignore the normal ticking at fill.A rhythmic click or tick while water is arriving is the inlet valve pulsing to meter the fill. It is not a fault and every machine does it.
3. Treat a hum with no water at fill as a fill fault.The valve is being energised and nothing is coming through. Check the tap, the hose and the inlet gauze filter before assuming the valve has failed.
4. Chase chinking and rattling during the wash tumble.This is a foreign object that has passed through the drum holes and is loose between the inner drum and the outer tub — typically a coin, a bra underwire, a button or a hairgrip. It will score the drum and can reach the pump, so it needs removing.
5. Look for that object through the filter and the seal.Switch off at the socket. Open the pump filter with a tray and towels down and feel carefully in the housing — sharp objects live there. Then fold the door seal back all the way round with a torch. Anything not found in those two places needs the machine opening, which is engineer work.
6. Read a scrape once per drum revolution as something caught.A regular scrape or clunk exactly in time with the drum usually means an item is hooked on a paddle or trapped under the seal lip. Stop the cycle and check with the machine off.
7. Treat a harsh buzz or grind at drain as the pump.Either the pump is straining against a blocked filter, or something has reached the impeller. Clean the filter first, and check the impeller behind it turns freely by hand with the machine unplugged.
8. Read knocking that rises and falls with spin speed as balance.It appears as the drum accelerates, worsens at a particular speed, and disappears if you spread the load out. It is not a fault. Redistribute and try again.
9. Take a deep rumble at spin seriously.A metallic roar or rumble at spin that has grown louder over weeks or months, and that you can hear when spinning the empty drum by hand, is drum bearings. It will get worse, and a bearing that fails completely can damage the drum and leak.
10. Read a high screech at spin as the drive belt.A slipping or perished belt squeals as the drum tries to accelerate. It is a common and relatively cheap repair, but it is inside the casing.
11. Check the simple external causes before concluding anything.A machine touching a unit or a wall drums against it. An unlevel machine on unlocked feet vibrates. Both make noises that sound alarming and cost nothing to fix.
12. Stop immediately for any burning smell.A hot electrical smell with a noise — particularly a hum, a grind or a squeal — means unplug it at the socket and stop. Do not run it again to see whether it does it a second time.

Tips

• Record it on a phone if you can. An engineer can often identify a noise from ten seconds of audio, and a machine reliably refuses to make the noise while someone is standing next to it.
• A new machine that suddenly sounds alarming on its first spin usually has its transit bolts still fitted in the back panel. Check that before anything else.
• Bearings almost always announce themselves gradually. A noise that appeared overnight is more likely a foreign object or a belt than a bearing.

Common mistakes

• Describing the sound without noting the phase — The same rattle means a coin at wash and an unbalanced load at spin. Without the phase, no diagnosis is possible and every guess is as good as another.
• Continuing to run a machine that chinks during the wash — A loose underwire or coin between the drum and tub scores the drum, can perforate it, and eventually reaches the pump. Each cycle makes the repair larger.
• Opening the casing to find a noise — Everything that makes a noise inside a washing machine is next to mains wiring, a heating element or a moving drum. Diagnose from outside, then hand it over.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask