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If a Washing machine fills and drains at the same time, either it’s siphoning down the drain due to an issue with the plumbing, it’s overfilling, or could be aborting because it’s overheated and the software has employed a fill and drain tactic to cool down the water. The important thing is to work out which of these different faults is causing the problem by careful observation.
Is water going down the drain quietly siphoning out, or is it being pumped out?
This is the critical question. If the water is just running down the drain but the pump isn’t running, jump to the “siphoning water” section below. If it is being pumped out, and you can hear the pump running just the same as when it’s emptying prior to spin then it could be aborting the wash because it is, or it thinks it’s overheating. However, I would expect it to do this after it’s been washing a while. Some machines are programmed to react to the water being overheated by pumping some away and taking in fresh cold water. It can get stuck in this cycle, however, it should also indicate some error code by flashing lights or lighting up specific option lights or displaying a specific error code if it has a digital display.
This fault could be caused by genuine overheating or a faulty thermistor (thermostat). The filling with water isn’t necessarily continuous, it may top up for a while, energise the pump, then repeat. However, I couldn’t say this would be the case for all washing machines. If you think you have this fault you’d be better finding an engineer but I have a general help article here – How to test an NTC thermistor.
If the pump is running continuously as soon as the washing machine is turned on and won’t shut off there could be insulation faults on the machine.
Is water going down the drain quietly siphoning out, or is it being pumped out?
This is the critical question. If the water is just running down the drain but the pump isn’t running, jump to the “siphoning water” section below. If it is being pumped out, and you can hear the pump running just the same as when it’s emptying prior to spin then it could be aborting the wash because it is, or it thinks it’s overheating. However, I would expect it to do this after it’s been washing a while. Some machines are programmed to react to the water being overheated by pumping some away and taking in fresh cold water. It can get stuck in this cycle, however, it should also indicate some error code by flashing lights or lighting up specific option lights or displaying a specific error code if it has a digital display.
This fault could be caused by genuine overheating or a faulty thermistor (thermostat). The filling with water isn’t necessarily continuous, it may top up for a while, energise the pump, then repeat. However, I couldn’t say this would be the case for all washing machines. If you think you have this fault you’d be better finding an engineer but I have a general help article here – How to test an NTC thermistor.
If the pump is running continuously as soon as the washing machine is turned on and won’t shut off there could be insulation faults on the machine.