If your washer won’t start, the lid switch or lid lock is the first thing to check. It’s cheap to fix, easy to test, and it’s the cause of “won’t start” calls more often than anything else. The trick is knowing which kind of switch your machine has — because old-style mechanical lid switches, newer magnetic lid locks, and front-load door locks all work differently, and how you test or temporarily defeat them is completely different. Get it wrong on a newer machine and you can fry the control board.
Watch the Full Diagnosis
Three Different Lid Mechanisms — Know Which You Have
If you have an older washer — the kind where you pull the knob out to start the cycle — you almost certainly have a mechanical lid switch. A little pin drops down from the lid when it closes, presses a micro switch inside the frame, and the machine knows the lid is shut. These are dead simple. You’ll find the switch either inside the cabinet near the lid hinge or in the back-left corner of the console.
Newer Whirlpool-style washers use a magnetic lid lock / lid switch instead. There’s no pin pressing a switch — there’s a flapper on the lid with strong magnets, and the sensor in the cabinet reads the magnet’s presence to know the lid is closed. A small motor inside the assembly physically locks the lid during the spin cycle as a safety feature.
Front-load washers use a heavier-duty door lock with a similar electronic sensor plus a positive mechanical latch. These are not optional safety devices — they keep your laundry room from flooding when the drum spins at 1,200 RPM with water still in it.
Testing and Defeating Mechanical Lid Switches
Mechanical lid switches are easy to test. Unplug the machine, disconnect the switch, put your multimeter on continuity, and press the plunger by hand. You should hear a click and see continuity. Release the plunger and it should go open. If either side fails, the switch is bad.
To temporarily defeat a mechanical lid switch for diagnostic purposes, you can short the two terminals together with a jumper wire. This fools the machine into thinking the lid is closed all the time. I’ve made a separate video showing exactly how to do this — it’s safe on mechanical switches because they’re isolated from a control board and power is routed through them from a timer directly to the motor.
Testing and Defeating Magnetic Lid Switches
The magnetic lid lock is where people get into trouble. You cannot bench-test these with a continuity check the way you would a mechanical switch — the magnetic sensor needs a magnet to actuate. The diagnostic trick is to use a strong magnet to simulate the lid being closed. A magnet pulled out of an old microwave oven works great, or a small but powerful neodymium magnet. Hold the magnet over the lid-switch sensor opening, and if the machine recognizes “lid closed” and starts, you’ve confirmed the sensor side is working — the failure is the actual sensor on the cabinet. You will find magnetic switches on older GE and Hotpoint machines.
What you must NEVER do on a magnetic lid lock: jump-wire the harness pins like you would on a mechanical switch. There are two components working here, a lid switch which tells the control board the lid is open or closed, usually plus or minus five volts DC and a lid lock which activates a solenoid to lock the lid that is 120V AC current. The control board sends low-voltage signals through that harness, and shorting the pins together can feed the wrong voltage back into a board input that wasn’t designed to see it. I’ve seen control boards die exactly this way. If the lid lock is bad, replace the whole assembly — they’re not field-repairable.
Front-Load Door Locks — Don’t Even Try
If you’ve got a front-load washer and the door lock is bad, replace it. Period. No magnets, no jumpers. The door lock isn’t just a safety interlock — it’s what keeps the door physically closed against a tub full of water under spin pressure. Defeat it and you risk flooding your laundry room or worse. Replacement door locks for front loaders are around $40-$80 depending on the brand, which is cheap compared to a flood claim on your homeowners insurance.
A Note for Service Technicians
If you’re a paid service tech and you defeat a lid switch or door lock on a customer’s machine, you’ve just opened yourself up to liability. If anything happens later — somebody reaches in during spin, a child climbs in, the machine floods — that’s on you. Replace the part, even if the customer asks you to “just bypass it for now.” Decline the request and explain why. Your insurance carrier will thank you.
What You Need
- 285671 Mechanical Lid Switch (Whirlpool Direct Drive) — Search on Amazon
- W10404050 Magnetic Lid Lock Assembly — Search on Amazon
- W10619844 Lid Lock Assembly (Newer Whirlpool) — Search on Amazon
- Strong Neodymium Magnet (for testing magnetic lid locks) — Search on Amazon
- Fluke 101 Digital Multimeter — Search on Amazon
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through the links in this post. It costs you nothing extra and helps support the channel.
Before you spend money on a service call, work through the full procedure with my step-by-step guide: How to Diagnose Whirlpool-Style Washing Machines — covers both mechanical lid switch and magnetic lid lock diagnostics, including the safe testing procedures. Available on Gumroad: harperknowles.gumroad.com/l/dygzx. Or browse all my repair guides at harperknowles.gumroad.com.
Rather have a pro do it? If you’re anywhere in central Louisiana — Oakdale, Oberlin, Elizabeth, Pitkin, Pine Prairie, and Glenmora — Harper & Knowles handles this all the time. Call (337) 831-6757 or visit harperandknowles.com to schedule a service call.
About the Author: Chip Knowles owns Harper & Knowles Washing Machine and Dryer Repair LLC in Oakdale, Louisiana. New video every Sunday at 2 PM Central on YouTube.