Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
**A washing machine clicking noise is identified by when it happens, not by what it sounds like — and the two most common clicks are the machine working exactly as designed.** A click before anything moves is the door or lid locking. A click as the drum swaps direction is the drive system reversing. Neither is a fault, and neither needs a part. What is left after those two — clicking that tracks the drum, clicking from underneath while it drains, or rhythmic clicking with nothing turning at all — is where a real diagnosis starts.
That ordering is deliberate. Almost every page on this subject opens with a list of components to inspect, which is the wrong end of the problem, because most readers have not yet established that anything is wrong. Before you take a panel off, spend one cycle standing next to the machine with the timing in mind. The stage the click belongs to narrows five possibilities to one, and it costs nothing but the length of a wash.
| When you hear it | What it almost always is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Before anything moves, once | The door or lid lock engaging | Nothing. This is normal |
| A few seconds in, a soft rapid ticking | Load sensing, on machines that weigh the drum | Nothing. This is normal |
| Each time the drum swaps direction in wash | The drive system reversing | Nothing. This is normal |
| Following the drum, faster as it speeds up | A coin, button or underwire in the drum or gasket | Stop and retrieve it |
| Only while water is leaving, from underneath | Something against the pump impeller | Clean the pump filter |
| Steady clicking, drum not moving at all | A control relay, or a motor that cannot start | Diagnose before buying |
| From on top of or behind the cabinet | Loose items, or hoses tapping the back panel | Move them |
Is this washing machine clicking noise normal?
This section goes first for a reason: most readers who search this are hearing one of two normal sounds. Whirlpool and Maytag — the same corporation, serving identical wording on both help sites — put it about as plainly as a manufacturer can. Their clicking page opens with “Typically, a clicking or clacking noise occurs only at the start of a cycle. It is most likely the sound of the lid locking” (Maytag — clicking or clacking noise). One firm click before anything turns is a solenoid pulling a latch across, and it is the machine confirming it can safely start.
The second normal click arrives during wash, every time the drum changes direction. A washer does not spin one way through a wash; it tumbles one way, pauses, and tumbles back, and something in the drive train has to absorb that reversal. Maytag describes the noise side of it in the context of grinding, and the sentence carries over: “You may hear the motor sound as the motor alternates directions” (Maytag — grinding or rubbing noise). If your clicks arrive in a rhythm that matches the tumble-pause-tumble pattern, you have found them.
Samsung goes further and names the mechanism outright. Its noise page lists a category for a “Click followed by short thumping or knocking” and says it “is caused by the clutch in the washer’s motor transitioning between modes (like between washing and spinning). This is a normal sound, and service is not required” (Samsung — washer is too loud). Read the last five words again. A manufacturer telling you not to book a service call is unusually strong evidence that nothing is wrong.
A note on where the research went. The page Google ranks first for this search is LG’s own article on crackling and clicking noises at the start of a cycle. Opened on 1 September 2026, that URL no longer serves the article — it redirects to LG’s generic support hub, joining six other LG help-library pages this site has already found retired without a replacement. A search result is not proof a page is live. This one still has the old title in the index and nothing behind it.
Clicking that follows the drum: something hard is riding along
Here is the sound that sends most people looking for a repair, and it is usually a coin. If the clicking speeds up as the drum accelerates and slows as it coasts down, the click is physically attached to the rotation — something small and hard is being carried around and struck against the drum or the tub once per revolution. Underwires from bras are the classic offender because they are thin enough to slip through a drum perforation and stiff enough to survive there; buttons, hairclips and small screws do the same job less elegantly.
Check the easy place before the hard one. On a front-loader, peel back the rubber door gasket all the way round and run a finger through the fold at the bottom — that pocket collects everything, and it is where objects sit while they wait to escape into the tub. On a top-loader, look under the agitator skirt and around the outer rim. If you find the object there, you are finished; the click stops the moment it comes out, which is a satisfyingly complete diagnosis for something that sounded expensive.
If the drum is empty and clean and the clicking survives, the object has passed through a perforation and is now between the inner drum and the outer tub. That is still a cheap problem in parts terms, but it is no longer a two-minute one, and it changes character over time: what starts as a click becomes a scrape and then a grind as it wears a track. If yours has already crossed that line, the sound is covered separately at washing machine grinding noise, which is what hard contact under load actually sounds like.
Clicking from underneath while it drains
Isolate this one by listening for its exclusivity. If the click is present only during the minute or two when water is leaving the machine, and silent through the whole wash, it is not in the drum at all — it is at the pump. A drain pump impeller turns fast in a small housing, and anything hard that reaches it gets flicked around and struck repeatedly against the housing wall. Coins are the usual find. Screws, hair grips and the small stone that came home in a coat pocket also qualify.
Samsung’s own filter documentation confirms the link between debris at the pump and the symptom, noting that clogs cause drainage issues, extended cycle times or excessive noise. The fix is the pump filter, and it is the single highest-value maintenance job on a washing machine: on most front-loaders it is behind a small flap at the bottom front, needs no tools, and takes about ten minutes including the towel. The full procedure is at how to clean a washing machine filter.
This is where the site’s firmest position belongs. A pump that is clicking or humming has power and is trying to turn — which rules out the control board, the wiring and the motor windings before you have opened anything. What is left is nearly always one small hard object jammed against the impeller. Pumps get replaced over this constantly, and most of those pumps were working perfectly. If yours is humming rather than clicking, the diagnosis is the same one, laid out at drain pump humming but not draining.
Rhythmic clicking with nothing moving at all
This is the fault case, and the giveaway is that the drum is not turning while the clicking happens. A relay on the control board is a small electromechanical switch, and when it clicks repeatedly in a steady rhythm the board is trying to energise something and not getting confirmation that it worked. The same pattern appears when a motor is being told to run and cannot — it draws, stalls, the protection cuts in, and the cycle repeats at a fixed interval that has nothing to do with drum speed.
Before you conclude anything from that, rule out the cheap version. A door lock that clicks over and over without ever confirming closed will hold the whole cycle at the starting line, and the cause is often the strike plate, a worn latch, or laundry trapped in the seal rather than the board behind it. That specific behaviour is covered at washing machine door locked after cycle. Unplug for the full interval — five minutes, not thirty seconds — and see whether the machine starts once.
Now the site’s second position, and it saves people an afternoon: a reset is not a repair, it clears a state. If the same rhythmic clicking returns at the same point in the cycle after a proper power cycle, the reset worked exactly as intended and the fault is real. That is the point to stop resetting and start diagnosing, because a board or a motor is the first genuinely expensive thing on this page and it deserves a measurement rather than a guess.
The clicks that are not clicks
Sound words are unreliable and readers use them loosely, so the boundaries are worth naming. A rumbling that rises and falls with spin speed is not clicking, and it is the one noise on a washer that usually ends the machine — that is washing machine bearing noise. A high-pitched squeal during acceleration belongs to washing machine squealing noise. Harsh contact under load is grinding.
Two more get mistaken for clicking often enough to mention. Samsung describes its rattling category as “a rapidly repetitive ‘clatter,’ like two things vibrating against each other” — which is exactly what a detergent bottle sitting on the lid does at spin speed. Both Whirlpool and Maytag list the same external causes: loose items on top of the washer, and inlet or drain hoses resting against the back of the cabinet, which they tell you to secure “using the beaded strap supplied with the washer (on some models), or use a wire tie”. A machine that clicks only at high spin and stops when you move a broom was never clicking. If it also walks across the floor, start at how to level a washing machine.
Five things you can confirm in the next ten minutes
None of these are generic. Each one is something you can look at and confirm in the next ten minutes.
- The pump filter is clear, the housing is empty, and the impeller still will not turn by hand.
- The same rhythmic clicking returns at the same stage after a five-minute power cycle, twice.
- There is a burning smell, or a breaker that trips when the machine reaches that stage. Stop at the breaker, not the plug.
- The click has become a scrape or a grind that gets worse each wash.
- You have found the object, removed it, and the noise is unchanged.
FAQ
Is a washing machine clicking noise normal at the start of a cycle?
Usually, yes. Whirlpool and Maytag both state that a clicking or clacking noise typically occurs only at the start of a cycle and is most likely the lid locking. One click before anything moves needs no action at all.
Why does my washer click during the spin cycle?
Listen to whether the rate follows the drum. A click that speeds up with the drum is an object riding on the rotation, usually a coin or an underwire. A click that stays at a fixed rate while the drum accelerates is electrical, not mechanical.
Can I keep using a washer that clicks?
If the click is the door lock or the drum reversing, yes. If it follows the drum, stop and retrieve the object, because a loose hard item will eventually score the drum or find a perforation. If there is a burning smell or the breaker trips, stop using it entirely.
Why does my washing machine click but not start?
Most often the door or lid lock is not confirming closed, so the control never releases the cycle. Check for laundry caught in the seal, then unplug for five full minutes. If it clicks the same way afterwards, the lock assembly or the board is the next step.
Is clicking during drain a broken pump?
Rarely. A pump that clicks has power and is turning against something, which is a jam rather than a failure. Clean the pump filter and check the impeller by hand before you price a replacement.
Do front-loaders and top-loaders click for different reasons?
The timing logic is identical, but the places to search differ. Front-loaders hide objects in the door gasket fold and have an accessible pump filter; top-loaders hide them under the agitator skirt and often have no user-serviceable filter at all.
Work down the timeline, not the parts list
Two of the five clicks on this page are your machine doing its job, and a third ends in a pump filter you should be cleaning monthly anyway. That is most of this problem resolved without a part, a tool or a call-out — which is why the timing question comes before the parts list, not after it.
The one that costs money is the rhythmic click with nothing moving, and even that deserves the door lock ruled out first. Work down the timeline before you work down a parts list. The machine tells you which one you have every single cycle, for free.
