If the descriptive technical diagnosis of "F****D" came from the mouth of the Hotpoint guy, coupled with the fact that he would not tell you what was actually wrong with your machine then my initial thought would be that i wouldn't trust him as far as i could throw him. You say that your machine goes through its cycle as it should but the drum won't spin, im not sure if you mean that the drum turns through the wash cycle but will not go into a high speed spin, or whether the drum just doesn't turn at all. Either way, from what youv'e described, the first thing i would check would be the carbon brushes in the motor. If these brushes are worn down to the point of failure then this would produce the same fault you seem to be describing. If you take one out to check then just for comparison the carbon on a new brush is approx 25mm in length. There are other, and much more expensive possible causes and maybe the Hotpoint guy was right if cost was his consideration, but i would check the brushes first as that won't cost a penny and if they do need replaced then new ones won't cost an arm and a leg either. One last thing, i'm assuming since you've been in and checked and had hoses off...etc, that you know where these things are and can figure out how to remove them. If i'm wrong and you wouldn't know a brush if it jumped up and punched you on the nose, then post another question, (Ultima brushes help... or something like that), put my name in the title so it catches my eye and i'll come back and talk you through it. Hope this helps. Good luck.
sandy
August 2008