What's Broke home

Washer Won't Spin: Causes & Fixes

The cycle ends with the clothes soaking.

A code on a GE washer can say nothing more than that someone opened the lid. GE reads dE and E2 as exactly that, a pause caused by the lid being opened, and the codes flash for about thirty seconds before the machine shuts off. Closing the lid and pressing Start resumes the cycle.

Before you work on your washer

  • Power: Unplug the washer or switch off its circuit breaker before removing panels or touching wiring.
  • Water: Turn off the water supply valve before disconnecting hoses or the inlet valve.
  • Heat: Water and the heating element can be hot right after a cycle; let the washer cool first.
  • Sharp debris: Wear gloves when reaching into the filter or sump; broken glass often collects there.
  • Stop: If you smell burning, see smoke or sparks, or find water near wiring, switch off the breaker and call a technician.
  • Circuit breaker keeps tripping: The circuit breaker or fuse for the washer tripped again after one reset. Leave it off; repeated tripping points to an electrical fault, not to a drain problem.
  • Burning smell, smoke, sparking, or scorched wiring: If you notice a burning smell, smoke, sparking, or scorched or melted wiring near the washer, its drain pump, or its power cord, stop using it immediately.
  • Mains wiring, the power cord, or the outlet is involved: Work on the washer's mains wiring, power cord, outlet, or house circuit is not a do-it-yourself repair. Do not open the cabinet to test or replace wiring, the drain pump's electrical connections, or the lid switch circuit.
  • Water on or near the power cord, outlet, or wiring: Water from the tub, the pump filter, or a hose has reached the washer's power cord, its outlet, or wiring inside the machine. Do not touch the washer, its cord, or standing water around it.
  • Disconnect power before opening the washer: Unplug the washer or switch off its circuit breaker before removing the pump filter or access panel, before pulling the machine out, and before touching any wiring.
  • The tub or drum can still be spinning: A washer tub spins at very high speed and coasts after the cycle stops. Wait until the tub has completely stopped and the lid or door lock has released before reaching inside; never force a locked lid or door open.
  • Heavy appliance: get a second person: A washer is heavy and awkward, and it can tip when it is pulled out or tilted. Do not move, tilt, or lift it by yourself; have a second person help you.
  • Water left in the tub can be scalding hot: A tub left full after a hot or sanitize cycle holds very hot water. Let it cool for about an hour, then drain the water out through the emergency drain hose into a flat container before you open the pump filter.
  • Never mix bleach with another cleaner in the washer: Clearing an odour usually means running a cycle with chlorine bleach or a washer cleaner. Run one product at a time and rinse between them. Bleach plus ammonia, a toilet or drain cleaner, or an acid such as vinegar releases toxic gas in a small, closed laundry room.

Why your washer won't spin

  1. Unbalanced load: the machine cuts the spin to protect itself: An unbalanced load does not only make noise: Whirlpool lists reduced spin speed and longer cycles among its effects, alongside the shaking everyone notices. The machine is protecting itself, and on many models it will refill and rock the load back and forth trying to settle it before it gives up. Difficulty 1/5.
  2. Drive or control fault: it pumps out, the motor runs, the tub stays still: GE draws the line between owner work and service in one sentence, and it is the most useful sentence on the subject: if the machine pumps the water out and the motor is audibly running but the tub does not turn, service is required. That is a drive fault, and no amount of redistributing the load will change it. Difficulty 4/5.
  3. Overloaded drum, packed past the balance ring: GE gives a concrete line for overloading on a top loader rather than a vague warning: laundry filled past the balance ring is enough to start the machine shaking, and the shaking is what stops the spin. Difficulty 1/5.
  4. Water still in the tub: a drain fault, not a spin fault: Standing water in the tub changes the question from spinning to draining: no washer spins on a full drum. Whirlpool's checks here are dimensional, and they are the ones installers get wrong: only about four and a half inches of drain hose belongs in the standpipe, and the standpipe itself has to be between thirty-nine and ninety-six inches high. Difficulty 2/5.
  5. A delicate, hand wash or low-spin cycle was selected: Two different complaints arrive under the same words. One is a drum that never turns at speed at all; the other is clothes that come out soaking after a cycle that looked normal. Whirlpool's framing separates them: a lower spin speed is a setting, not a fault, and it removes less water by design. Difficulty 1/5.
  6. Lid up, or the door not latched: no top loader spins with the lid up: There is one rule about the lid that settles a lot of arguments. GE states that some older washers will agitate with the lid up, but that none of its top load washers will spin with the lid up. So a machine that agitates happily with the lid open is not proof the lid circuit is fine. Difficulty 1/5.
  7. Excess suds from non-HE or over-dosed detergent: Too much detergent, or the wrong kind, slows the spin rather than stopping it. Whirlpool's wording is specific: suds from non-HE detergent make the washer run at a reduced spin speed and hand back very wet loads. On a high-efficiency machine the fix is measuring, not adding. Difficulty 1/5.
  8. A single bulky item or too small a load with nothing to balance against: The opposite of overloading causes the same symptom, which surprises people: one bath mat or a single pair of jeans has nothing to balance against. Both Whirlpool and GE say to add items rather than remove them when a small load will not spin. Difficulty 1/5.
  9. Washer not level, so every load ends up unbalanced: A washer that is not sitting level cannot hold a load steady, and Whirlpool ties the two together directly: an unlevel machine throws the load out of balance and the spin goes wrong as a result. It is worth checking before anyone suspects a part, because it costs nothing and it recurs after the machine has been moved. Difficulty 2/5.
  10. Tripped breaker, blown fuse or a dead outlet: The supply is worth ruling out before any part is suspected, and GE gives a test anyone can run: plug a table lamp or a hair dryer into the same outlet and switch it on. A blown fuse, a tripped breaker or a dead outlet stops the spin as surely as a failed motor. Difficulty 1/5.
  11. Dispenser drawer not fully closed (front load): On a front loader the equivalent trap is the dispenser drawer. GE states it outright: the washer will not spin while the drawer is not fully closed. A drawer left a few millimetres proud produces a cycle that looks normal and ends with a soaking load. Difficulty 1/5.
  12. Hydrowave motor needs the published reset (fills but will not agitate or spin): GE publishes a motor reset for top load washers built with the Hydrowave wash system, generally models from 2011 to 2015, aimed squarely at a machine that fills with water but does not agitate or spin. It is done by cutting power and then cycling the lid, and GE has owners confirm it by running a small wash load without placing clothes in the unit. Difficulty 1/5.
  13. Not a fault: a normal pause or pump-out still in progress: Patience is a real diagnostic step here. GE documents pauses of up to three minutes between parts of the cycle as the timer advances, plus up to three more minutes for the pump-out, and warns against advancing the timer by hand because doing so skips the pump-out entirely. Difficulty 1/5.
  14. Bedding or a bulky item run on Normal or Rapid Wash: Bedding and single bulky items need their own cycle. Whirlpool asks for the Bulky or Sheets/Bedding cycle rather than Normal or Rapid Wash for coats and blankets, because a heavy item that wraps itself round one side of the drum will never balance on a fast spin. Difficulty 1/5.
  15. The power failed during the spin, so it never ramped up: A power cut partway through can leave the spin half-finished even after everything comes back on. Whirlpool notes that if the power failed during the spin, the washer might not ramp up to full speed, which reads as a fault and is not one. Difficulty 1/5.

Find the cause for your washer

Before anything else: is any of this happening?

Step-by-step checks for a washer won't spin

Check which cycle and spin speed actually ran

About 10 minutes

  1. Look at the cycle that was used, not the one you meant to use: machines remember the last settings on a cycle.
  2. Delicate, Hand Wash and any low or no-spin option are designed to leave the load wetter.
  3. Bedding, a duvet or a heavy coat belongs on the Bulky or Sheets/Bedding cycle, not Normal or Rapid Wash.
  4. Re-run the load on a normal cycle with a high spin and compare.

Check the detergent before suspecting the machine

About 20 minutes

  1. Check the detergent is HE, and that the dose matches the label rather than the cap.
  2. If the drum is full of foam at the end of a cycle, run a rinse and spin with no detergent at all.
  3. Re-run a normal load with a measured HE dose and compare how wet the clothes come out.

Lid, door and dispenser drawer

About 10 minutes

  1. On a top loader, close the lid fully: no current GE top load washer will spin with the lid up, even if it agitates.
  2. Check the display for dE or E2, which mean the lid was opened and the cycle paused; close the lid and press Start.
  3. On a front loader, push the dispenser drawer fully home and check the door has latched.
  4. Restart a spin and see whether it now runs.

Prove the outlet and the breaker

About 15 minutes

  1. Check the breaker or fuse for the laundry circuit.
  2. Plug a table lamp or a hair dryer into the washer's outlet and switch it on to prove the outlet is live.
  3. If the breaker trips again as soon as it is reset, leave it off and stop here.
  4. Ask whether the power failed mid-cycle: after a cut, the spin may not ramp up to full speed on that load.

Run Drain and Spin on its own and listen

About 20 minutes

  1. Redistribute the load by hand first, or empty the drum entirely.
  2. Select Drain and Spin and press Start.
  3. Listen through the cycle: does the pump run and the water go, and does the motor run without the drum turning?
  4. Keep clear of the drum: it can still be turning after the lid unlocks.

Run the published motor reset (GE Hydrowave top loaders)

About 20 minutes

  1. Check this applies: a GE top loader with the Hydrowave wash system, generally 2011 to 2015, that fills with water but will not agitate or spin.
  2. Unplug the washer for one minute.
  3. Plug it back in, then raise and lower the lid six times within twelve seconds, lifting it at least two inches each time and closing it fully.
  4. Test it the way GE does: run a small wash load without placing clothes in the unit, and watch for fill and agitation.
  5. If it still will not agitate, or it works for a load or two and stops again, book service rather than repeating the reset.

Wait the cycle out before calling it stuck

About 10 minutes

  1. Leave the machine alone for at least five minutes: pauses of up to three minutes are normal between parts of the cycle, and the pump-out can take about three more.
  2. Do not advance the timer by hand on a dial model; doing so skips the pump-out.
  3. Watch whether the drum starts turning at speed on its own.

Is there still water in the drum?

About 25 minutes

  1. Look in the drum at the end of the cycle. Standing water means this is a draining problem, and no washer spins a full drum.
  2. Pull the machine out far enough to see the drain hose and straighten every kink.
  3. Check how far the hose goes into the standpipe: about four and a half inches is the specification, and pushing it further seals the pipe and siphons.
  4. Check the standpipe height is between thirty-nine and ninety-six inches.
  5. Unplug the washer before moving it, and mop up before anything reaches the cord or outlet.

Redistribute the load, then check the machine is level

About 25 minutes

  1. Open the machine and spread the load evenly round the drum by hand; take out anything that has wrapped itself into a rope.
  2. On a top loader, check nothing is packed above the balance ring. On any machine, leave the load loose rather than tightly packed.
  3. If a single bath mat, duvet or pair of jeans is in there alone, add one or two similar items to balance it.
  4. Rock the machine at each corner: any movement means it is not level. Adjust the levelling feet until it sits solid and lock them.
  5. Run Drain and Spin and watch whether it reaches full speed.

How to fix a washer won't spin

Give a single item something to balance against

About 15 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Add one or two similar items to the drum: towels for a bath mat, another pair of jeans for jeans.
  2. Avoid washing one heavy item alone, which is the classic cause of a spin that never starts.
  3. Run Drain and Spin again.

Clear the suds and measure the detergent

About 40 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Run a rinse and spin with no detergent to clear the foam out of the drum.
  2. Switch to HE detergent on a high-efficiency machine and measure it to the label rather than filling the cap.
  3. Never mix a bleach product with another cleaner while you are at it.
  4. Re-run a normal load and see how wet it comes out.

Push the dispenser drawer fully closed

About 15 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Pull the drawer right out, rinse off any detergent build-up that is stopping it seating, and refit it.
  2. Push it fully home until it sits flush.
  3. Run Drain and Spin to confirm the machine will now spin.

Close the lid or door and restart the spin

About 10 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Close the lid fully on a top loader; it will not spin with the lid up whatever it does while agitating.
  2. If dE or E2 is showing, close the lid and press Start to resume before the machine shuts off.
  3. On a front loader, make sure the door has actually latched.
  4. If the machine still will not spin with everything closed, the lid switch or door lock is the next suspect and that is service work.

Let the cycle finish before intervening

About 10 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Leave the machine alone for five minutes or so; pauses of up to three minutes are normal, and the pump-out can add three more.
  2. Do not advance a dial timer by hand, which skips the pump-out.
  3. If it spins on its own after the pause, nothing is wrong.

Redistribute the load and let the machine try again

About 20 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Open the machine and spread the washing evenly round the drum.
  2. Untangle anything that has roped itself together, especially sheets and trouser legs.
  3. Close up, select Drain and Spin, and press Start.
  4. If the SPIN light flashes or the display reads bALAnCINg again, the load still is not even: redistribute once more rather than restarting the whole wash.

Take some out and keep the load loose

About 20 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Take out enough that nothing sits above the balance ring on a top loader.
  2. Leave the load loose rather than packed: it has to be able to move to balance.
  3. Run Drain and Spin on what is left, then wash the rest separately.

Re-run the spin after a power cut

About 15 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Redistribute the load, which will have settled to one side while the machine stopped.
  2. Select Drain and Spin and run it on its own.
  3. Expect normal behaviour on the next full cycle.

Restore the circuit, and stop if it trips again

About 15 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Reset the breaker or replace the fuse for the laundry circuit.
  2. Confirm the outlet is live with a lamp or a hair dryer.
  3. If the breaker trips again as soon as you reset it, leave it off and call an electrician: that is a circuit fault, not a washer setting.

Run GE's Hydrowave motor reset

About 20 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Unplug the washer for one minute.
  2. Plug it back in and raise and lower the lid six times within twelve seconds, at least two inches each time, closing it fully each time.
  3. Run a small wash load without clothes in it to confirm the machine fills and agitates.
  4. If it does not, or it fails again after a load or two, book service rather than repeating the reset.

Use a cycle with a high spin, or accept the wetter load

About 20 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Re-run the load on a normal or heavy cycle with the spin speed set high.
  2. If the fabrics need a delicate cycle, expect them to come out wetter: that is the cycle doing its job.
  3. To take extra water out of a load that has already finished, run Drain and Spin on its own.

Put bedding and bulky items on the cycle built for them

About 20 minutes · Difficulty 1/5

  1. Use the Bulky or Sheets/Bedding cycle for duvets, blankets and heavy coats.
  2. Wash one bulky item at a time so it can move freely in the drum.
  3. Finish with Drain and Spin if the load still feels heavy.

Fix the drain before worrying about the spin

About 30 minutes · Difficulty 2/5

  1. Unplug the washer, then pull it out far enough to see the drain hose along its whole run.
  2. Straighten every kink and free the hose from wherever it is crushed against the wall.
  3. Pull the hose back so only about four and a half inches sits inside the standpipe, and check the standpipe is between thirty-nine and ninety-six inches high.
  4. Water left in the drum can still be hot: let it cool, and keep towels between any spill and the outlet.
  5. Run Drain and Spin once the drain path is clear.

Level the washer and lock the feet

About 30 minutes · Difficulty 2/5

  1. Unplug the washer before moving it.
  2. Rock it at each corner to find the movement, and put a spirit level across the top both ways.
  3. Adjust the levelling feet until it sits solid with no rock, then tighten the lock nuts up against the cabinet.
  4. Get a second person for the lifting: a washer is heavy and tips easily.
  5. Run a spin to confirm.

When to call a technician about a washer won't spin

  • Book service when the motor runs and the tub does not

Sources

  1. Front Load Washer - Does Not Spin, GE Appliances (retrieved 2026-09-23)
  2. Top Load Washer - Hydrowave Motor Reset, GE Appliances (retrieved 2026-09-23)
  3. Top Load Washer - Fills But Will Not Agitate, GE Appliances (retrieved 2026-09-23)
  4. GE Appliance - Circuit Breaker Trips, GE Appliances (retrieved 2026-09-21)
  5. Top Load Washer - Does Not Spin, GE Appliances (retrieved 2026-09-23)
  6. LG Washer - How to Clean the Drain Pump Filter, LG Electronics USA (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  7. Samsung washing machine will not drain, Samsung Electronics America (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  8. Frigidaire Recalls Clothes Washers Due to Fire Hazard, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  9. Ammonia Recalled by OnLine Packaging Due to Chemical Hazard, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (retrieved 2026-09-22)
  10. GE Recalls Front-Load Washers Due to Fire and Shock Hazards, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  11. Not Spinning - Front Load Washer, Whirlpool Corporation (retrieved 2026-09-23)
  12. Removing Odors or Smells - Front Load Washer, Whirlpool Corporation (retrieved 2026-09-22)
  13. Cleaning the Pump Filter - Front Load Washer, Whirlpool Corporation (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  14. Moving a Front Load Washer, Whirlpool Corporation (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  15. Lid Locking on a Top Load High Efficiency Washer, Whirlpool Corporation (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  16. Washer Not Draining or Spinning? Troubleshooting Guide, Whirlpool Corporation (retrieved 2026-09-20)
  17. Not Spinning - Washer, Whirlpool Corporation (retrieved 2026-09-23)

Last updated September 29, 2026 · facts last verified September 23, 2026 · How we source and verify

Guidance only; follow your appliance manual and local codes. If anything looks unsafe, stop and call a qualified technician. Safety disclaimer