How do I fix a Philco WM 1200 AL Washing Machine?

Firstly, I'm no expert so please take what follows as information that you can discount if it doesn't apply in your case.

See these two posts on how I fixed a 'reluctance to spin' problem on my (Zanussi) machine.
http://www.howtomendit.com/answers.php?id=28819
http://www.howtomendit.com/answers.php?id=21937

The main thing is to watch carefully when it comes to spin to see if it makes any attempt to turn the drum and also if it doesn't appear as 'lively' when rinsing a heavy load. Also, has it become gradually worse over the preceeding months or did it just go from good to failed?

Will it spin if you just put some clothes in and go straight to a spin only? (say spinning some hand-washed stuff)

If you cannot get it to spin when 'empty' at all then that suggests to me that there is a logic fault - you can imagine that if the controller thinks the draining has not yet completed it will not even attempt the spin so you won't see the drum even attempting to move. If this is the case you could try repeatedly draining and re-attempting a spin.

If however you have the situation where the drum tries to turn but then stalls and falls back then it could be due to a similar reason to mine. In this case check/replace the motor brushes (if it has them) and also look for a big capacitor.

(I think these capacitors are used to supply the necessary energy to start the spin because there is a lot of mass to get rotating at the higher speed and I can't see how the PCB (controller) switches a big current. With my limited knowledge of electronics I was expecting to see a thyristor on a heat sink that would switch a big current to the motor but now I reckon they don't need to do that because it's not a continuous demand and once the drum is up and spinning it takes very little energy to keep it spinning )

Anyway, I hope this helps; good luck!

Jonathan Leak
March 2006