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Two Reasons For Washing Machines Getting Suds Lock

Tip No. 3 – Why washing machines block up with Soap Suds?

The first and most common reason for suds lock is overdosing.

Suds lock is the linking of the outer water jacket and the spin bowl with frothy detergent. It makes the spin bowl hard to turn so placing a greater load on the electric drive motor. In carbon brush motor models of a front-loading machine this will reduce its life overall and require new brush fitment much sooner than the average of seven years.

Suds Lock in Top Loaders:

In top load models clutch slip occurs and the spin quality is greatly reduced. Both front and top load models will have soap left in the garments, which may cause skin irritations.

Suds Lock in Front Loaders:

In a front load model there is very little water per fill, so it doesn’t require much detergent to cause a saturated solution. Lay off believing more is better, it is not. Top load models, being water immersion machine do require more detergent to approach solution saturation, but I do recommend low sudsing products too. In both cases the drive mechanisms will benefit from not being overloaded with frothy loads and the garments will be nicer to wear without latent dry detergent lingering in the fibres.

The second reason for suds lock can be the evacuation of the water solution.

A pump partial blockage can go unnoticed and so leave some solution behind that was not spun out properly. Checking the pump trap regularly is a good idea. Any water that is visible in the machine after the cycle is finished should also alert the user to a problem. The sound of water swishing during the spin is another indication of poor evacuation.