What MOTOR 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.
WHY BOTH STRINGS ARE ON ONE PAGE: the older WMC55 error list prints "Motor problem" and the later WMC64P and WMC743VS books print "Wash motor problem". They name the same part of the machine in two vocabularies, and the two books say different amounts about it, so both are set out below.
WHAT THE OLDER WMC55 PLATFORM SAYS: "Wiring open-circuit or motor problem has been indicated and the washing program has been interrupted." That entry is worth reading twice, because it puts the wiring first. An open circuit in the harness to the motor and a failed motor produce the same message, and they are not the same repair.
WHAT THE LATER WMC64P AND WMC743VS BOOKS SAY: the message, and the instruction to call the service division. No owner action and no further detail is published, and none is invented here.
WHAT THE MACHINE WAS DOING: driving the drum, or trying to. The control watches what the motor does against what it asked for, and when the answer does not come back it interrupts the program rather than continuing without knowing whether the drum is turning.
WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THE ROOM: a stopped machine, usually with a load in it and often with water still in the drum, in which case the door stays locked - correctly. In a commercial room the immediate problem is the load and the queue behind it rather than the motor.
ONE THING WORTH CHECKING BEFORE THE VISIT, BECAUSE IT IS FREE: whether the machine was heavily overloaded or ran with a very unbalanced load, and whether it has been moved recently. Neither proves anything on its own, and both change where a technician looks first.
CLASSIFICATION: problem, program interrupted. No owner repair is published on either platform.
Common Causes of MOTOR FAULT
- Open circuit in the wiring or a connector between the control and the motor
- Motor failed or its windings damaged
- Drive parts loaded or obstructed so the motor could not do what was asked
- Control unit not driving or not reading the motor
- Severe overloading or repeated heavily unbalanced loads over time
🔧 One Safe Check You Can Try
Get the load and the water dealt with first, in the order the machine allows. If there is water in the drum, empty it the way the manual says for your platform rather than by opening the door - the door stays locked while there is water inside and that is the machine being sensible, not a second problem. Take the machine out of service so nobody starts another load on it, which in a shared room means a note on the door as well as switching it off. Then write down what happened, in as much detail as you can get from whoever was there: at what point in the program it stopped, whether the drum had been turning, whether there was a noise, a smell of hot insulation or a burning smell, and whether the machine had been moved, overloaded or run with one heavy item. Isolate it at its breaker or wall isolator if it is going to stand. Do not go looking for the motor or its wiring: it is behind the cabinet with the mains harness, a professional washer has no plug to pull in many installations, and the older book naming an open circuit in the wiring is precisely the kind of problem that is found with a meter rather than by eye.
⚠ Why You Shouldn't Go Further Than That
- Neither professional book publishes an owner action for this message - the later one says to call the service division.
- The motor and its harness sit inside the cabinet at mains voltage, and the machine is isolated at its breaker or wall isolator rather than unplugged.
- An open circuit in the harness is found by measuring, not by looking, so opening the machine without instruments achieves nothing and exposes live terminals.
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.