My Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washing machine recently started acting up, leaving me scratching my head. For the past 3-4 loads, the clothes were coming out soaking wet, and there was still some water lingering at the bottom of the tub after the cycle finished. The main symptom was that the washer wasn’t spinning and/or draining correctly.
Naturally, the first thing I checked was the drain lines to see if there were any obvious blockages. Surprisingly, I didn’t find any lint clogs, but I did fish out a mini yellow lighter and a quarter from the bottom of the washer tub. Thinking I might have solved a simple obstruction issue, I ran another load. Unfortunately, the problem persisted.
To properly diagnose what was going on, I decided to run an empty cycle to observe the machine’s behavior more closely. During the wash phase of a normal cycle (with no clothes), I watched and confirmed that the agitator was working as expected. So, the agitator itself seemed functional during the wash cycle. Next, I manually advanced the cycle knob to the “end spin” (high spin) phase to see if the spin cycle would engage. This is where things got interesting – or rather, didn’t get interesting. The motor was clearly running, and as mentioned, the agitator was moving fine during the wash phase, but when it came to the high spin phase, the agitator wouldn’t even budge. It was like it was stuck.
The pump seemed to be working, as I could hear it running, but despite the pump operation, there was no spin. I also checked the lid switch, and it appeared to be functioning correctly. If I opened the lid even slightly more than an inch, the pump would immediately stop working, indicating the lid switch was engaging as designed. Eventually, the pump did manage to remove all of the water from the tub, but still, there was absolutely no spinning action. This explained why the clothes were coming out so wet – they were retaining extra water because the spin cycle wasn’t happening to extract it.
Frustrated but not ready to give up, I decided to run another empty cycle, essentially repeating the same test to double-check my observations and make sure I hadn’t missed anything. This time, to my utter surprise, it spun! I performed the test almost identically to the first diagnostic cycle. Again, I manually moved the knob to the end of the cycle after the tub filled and the agitator completed the wash phase. While I couldn’t guarantee I placed the knob in the exact same position as the first time, it was very close to the end of the cycle, in the spin phase. And this time, it spun perfectly at the end! It reached full spin speed, just like it should.
Was it some kind of miracle? I hadn’t replaced any parts or even used any tools. Common sense tells me that appliances don’t usually fix themselves magically, so I’m expecting the issue to reappear. However, encouraged by this unexpected spin cycle, I decided to push my luck.
I tried one more cycle, this time with a small load of clothes. And incredibly, everything worked perfectly again! I actually stayed and watched the entire cycle this time, without touching the knob at all during the process. I observed that it spun during the “rinse” phase, and then, as expected, it added more water and spun again during the “high spin” phase at the very end of the cycle. The clothes were spun properly, and the tub was completely empty afterward.
So, what could be causing this intermittent spin issue in my Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washer? Is it divine intervention, or is there a more logical explanation? Could it be the timer? That’s my initial guess, but appliance timers can be expensive to replace, so I’m hoping it might be something else less costly. The only thing I really did differently during my “diagnosis” was fiddle with the cycle knob while moving it between rinse and spin phases. I also set the load size to “small” for these test cycles, though it was also set to “small” the first time when the spin cycle failed. So, I’m not sure if the load size setting is even relevant.
I’m open to any suggestions or insights! I have a feeling this washing machine problem isn’t truly resolved, and I’ll likely be troubleshooting it again soon. Any help or ideas on what might be causing this inconsistent spin cycle would be greatly appreciated!
– Scott
