The Short Answer
A totally dead washer is a power-path problem: outlet, breaker, cord, then control board. A washer that runs but skips the spin is protecting itself — a lid switch or door lock reads open, the load sits off-balance, or undrained water is holding the cycle hostage. Check the click of the latch, redistribute the load, and clear the drain filter before suspecting the motor; genuine motor failures are the rarest item on this list.
Dead vs. Refusing: Know Which You Have
The two faults get reported identically — “it just won't go” — but they live in different systems. Dead means no lights, no response, no sign of life: electricity is not arriving or the board that receives it has failed. Refusing means the panel wakes, a cycle starts, water may even fill, but the drum never accelerates. Dead is a power investigation; refusing is a safety-interlock investigation. Sorting yourself into the right column saves the whole diagnostic detour.
The Safety Gatekeepers
No washer will spin a drum at a thousand RPM behind a door it believes is open. On top-loaders, a small lid switch under the rim makes that promise; on front-loaders, an electric door lock does — and both are wear items. The tells: a lid that no longer clicks, a lock light that blinks instead of holding steady, or a cycle that fills and washes then parks in silence exactly where the spin should begin. Replacement is inexpensive, common, and one of the fastest jobs our washing machine repair technicians perform.
“A washer that stops at the spin is not broken so much as suspicious — convince it the door is shut and it forgives everything.”
Field note — The Technician Team
The Off-Balance Trap
Modern machines measure drum balance before committing to high speed, and a single waterlogged hoodie clinging to one side reads like a threat. The machine retries, redistributes, retries again, then gives up — leaving a soaked load and no error anyone notices. Open the door, break the load apart, add a towel or two to even things out, and rerun a rinse-and-spin. If every load triggers the same dance on a machine that sits level, the suspension rods or dampers have softened, and the shaking usually says so on the troubleshooting index.
True Drive Failures
When the gatekeepers pass and the balance is fine, the drive itself comes under suspicion: a snapped or slipped belt (drum turns freely by hand with no resistance), a sheared motor coupling on older direct-coupled top-loaders (motor hums, drum ignores it), worn motor brushes, or — least often — the motor or its control module. These are cabinet-open diagnoses with parts that must match the exact model, which is precisely the visit our flat-rate written quote is built for.
Spin & Power Questions
Why won’t my washing machine turn on at all?
Work outward from the wall: test the outlet with a phone charger, check the breaker, inspect the cord, and hold the power button a full three seconds — many panels need a deliberate press. Still dark? On most models the failure is the control board or its power supply, and a technician can confirm which in minutes with the cabinet open.
Why does my washer wash but not spin?
The spin is the only cycle the machine deliberately refuses to run when something seems unsafe: a lid switch or door lock reporting open, a load bunched onto one side, or water still in the drum because the drain stalled. In that order — switch, balance, drain — you will find the cause of nearly every wash-but-no-spin complaint.
How do I know if my washer’s lid switch is broken?
On a top-loader, listen for the click as the lid closes; silence is suspicious. Machines with a lid lock light tell you directly — a light that never comes on, or blinks, means the lock never engaged. On front-loaders, a door that clunks but reports open on the display points to the lock assembly rather than the hinge.