If you turn on the washing machine without water, what happens?

The washing process without water is of course impossible. But how often do we check that there is cold water in the house before starting the wash? Extremely rarely, if not never. But it may happen that the washing is started, but the washing machine cannot draw water. Then the owner immediately begins to worry about what will happen if you turn on the washing machine without water, will it harm the home assistant?

What threatens the machine?

In most cases, turning on the washing machine without water does not pose any threat. This is especially true for newly assembled washing units, which are equipped with a self-diagnosis system and a control module.

How it works? The thing is that the unit will begin to directly wash only after the modular center receives a signal about a sufficient water level in the tank. Moreover, this must happen within a certain period of time specially allocated for this procedure. If the period has expired and the pressure switch still does not give a signal for washing, a modern certified machine will “understand” that something is wrong and the washing will automatically stop. will give an error code

If your home assistant has a display, you will probably see the corresponding error code on the screen. The only unpleasant consequence for you is that you will have to postpone washing for an indefinite period of time until water appears in the water supply again.

There is an opinion that while the washer is unsuccessfully trying to draw water, the inlet valve coils or heating elements may overheat. By and large, this is a false alarm.The heating element will not start heating the water until it receives a signal from the pressure switch, and the coils simply will not have time to overheat and fail; the module reacts to the problem quite quickly.

Important! Keep in mind that a scenario where the heating element fails is occasionally possible if the control module is faulty or there is simply a glitch in the washing machine’s firmware.

There is no water, but I need to wash

Postponing laundry until better times is, of course, a good idea, but it’s not suitable for everyone. What if you urgently need to wash something and have time to dry it, or if the owner is a young mother for whom delay in washing is undesirable? There are many situations when washing the old fashioned way in a basin or just waiting is really not an option. But what happens if you try to wash without water?

Place the laundry in the drum.
Pour some water at room temperature into a bucket or basin (if necessary, the washing machine will heat the water itself).
Pour the washing powder either on top of the laundry or into the detergent compartment, after pulling the dispenser out as far as possible.
Set the washing parameters you need and start it.
Gradually pour water into the tank through the powder compartment so that it is completely washed out and gets inside. If the powder is already in the drum, just carefully pour water through the powder receptacle, being careful not to splash everything around.
To understand that everything was done correctly, listen to the intake valve. It will hum until the water rises to the desired level. As soon as the pressure switch understands that there is water, the wash will begin in normal mode.

The process is complicated only by the fact that during the washing process the washing machine changes the water at least once, or even more, depending on the selected program. It pumps out the waste fluid and collects new one.What to do?

Don't miss the moment when the water starts to drain.
During this time, draw a new portion of water into the container.
After draining the rinse compartment in the powder receptacle, pour liquid into the tank.
If additional rinsing is expected, repeat the procedure after some time; if not, wait for the spin cycle to complete.

How long exactly does it take for the pressure switch to suspect a lack of water and signal to cancel the wash? On average, the water reaches the desired level in 12-17 seconds, that is, during this time you need to have time to fill the drum, otherwise the wash will not take place. Turning on the washing machine without water does not have negative consequences, does not lead to breakdowns, and, if desired, you don’t even have to delay washing, so there shouldn’t be any problems.