What HEATING FAULT Means
WHICH MACHINES THIS APPLIES TO: Asko's professional washers - the WMC-series machines installed in communal laundry rooms, care homes, salons, gyms and small commercial laundries - do not report problems as numbers. They print the problem on the display in words. Two document families stand behind the messages on this site and they are deliberately kept apart, because they are not the same book and they do not use quite the same wording.
THE OLDER PLATFORM: the Asko service documentation for the new generation of washing machines whose circuit diagrams are labeled WMC55. Its problem section states that if a problem occurs during a program cycle it is shown on the display after the program has finished or been interrupted - which is worth knowing, because on this platform the message often appears at the end rather than at the moment something went wrong.
THE LATER PLATFORM: the operating instructions for the WMC64P and the WMC743VS, which both state that a message is shown on the display if an error occurs during the program. The message set in those two books is identical to each other, which is good corroboration of both.
A LIMIT WORTH STATING: no public document could be found under the model numbers WMC6743 or WMC6744. The messages here are attributed to the books they were read in and are not claimed to cover those models.
ONE PRACTICAL NOTE BEFORE ANY CHECK: a professional washer is usually hard-wired rather than plugged in, so isolating it means the breaker or the wall isolator that feeds it, not a plug. And in a communal or commercial room the machine belongs to somebody else. If that is your situation, the checks below are for the person who looks after the machines, and reporting the exact wording on the display is the most useful thing a user can do.
WHICH PLATFORM THIS BELONGS TO, EXACTLY: "Heating problem" is printed in the WMC64P and WMC743VS operating instructions. It does not appear in the older WMC55 error list, which uses "Temperature stop problem" and "Thermistor problem" for the heating side instead. That is not a detail to skip over - if your display gives you these words, you are on the later platform, and the older platform's entries are not describing your machine.
WHAT ASKO PUBLISHES BESIDE IT: an owner action, which is unusual on this line. The books say to turn off the appliance and wait for a few seconds, turn it back on and repeat the washing program, and if the failure is reported again to call the service division.
WHAT THAT INSTRUCTION IS ACTUALLY FOR: it is not a repair and it is not meant to be. A single power cycle distinguishes a control that has hung or a one-off reading from a heating circuit that is genuinely failing. If the machine heats normally after a restart and never does it again, the restart was the answer. If the message returns, you have learned that it is real, which is exactly what the service division needs to be told.
WHAT ASKO DOES NOT PUBLISH: which part of the heating side has reported. The books give the message and the action, and nothing about the element, the sensor or the relay. We are not going to name one for it.
WHAT IT COSTS THE ROOM IN THE MEANTIME: the same thing every heating message on a commercial washer costs - washes that complete without reaching temperature. In any setting where the temperature is the point of the wash, that is the fact to act on first.
CLASSIFICATION: problem, with one published restart in front of it.
Common Causes of HEATING FAULT
- Heating element failed or open circuit
- Temperature sensing not agreeing with what the heating is doing
- Control unit or relay not switching the heating circuit
- Fuse or protective device on the supply to the heating blown or tripped
- Connector or wiring on the heating circuit damaged
🔧 One Safe Check You Can Try
Do exactly what the book says, once. Turn the appliance off, wait a few seconds, turn it back on, and run the washing program again. If it heats and the message does not return, note the date and carry on. If the message comes back, stop repeating it - a second and third attempt tells you nothing new and each one is another load washed without heating. Then find out which loads have already gone through while the message was appearing, because in a care, food or salon setting those need rewashing once the machine is right. Write down what the machine does now: whether the message appears on every program or only on the hotter ones, whether the water is warm at all at the end, and whether anything changed in the room's electrical supply beforehand. That note, with the exact wording on the display, is what the service division wants. Do not open the machine to test the heating side: a professional washer is isolated at its breaker or wall isolator rather than unplugged, and the element and its wiring are live whenever the machine is fed.
⚠ Why You Shouldn't Go Further Than That
- The published owner action is one power cycle and a repeat of the program - past that, Asko's instruction is to call the service division.
- The heating circuit is inside the cabinet at mains voltage, on a machine that is isolated at its breaker or wall isolator rather than by pulling a plug.
- Repeating the restart instead of reporting the problem keeps the room producing unheated washes, which is the real hazard in a commercial setting.
Opening a panel to inspect or repair something yourself doesn't automatically cancel your manufacturer's warranty — but it can risk accidental damage, and some manufacturers do have specific service conditions. Check your product's warranty terms, or ask us, before deciding.