In short
Nothing lit, nothing running, nothing cold: on this kind of cabinet that pattern points at power reaching the appliance and at the small start components between the board and the compressor, not at the compressor itself. Work outward from the outlet before anyone opens a panel. This class of appliance draws less than a table lamp, which makes installation faults far more likely than hardware faults. Work down the list rather than across it.
What you actually see
- The light works but nothing ever runs — Control power is present and the cooling circuit never starts.
- A click every few minutes, then silence — The start relay is trying, the compressor is not taking, and the overload opens again.
- A short buzz at the back and nothing else — The compressor is being asked to start and is stalling against pressure or a bad winding.
- NEAR MISS: it runs constantly and is simply not cold — That is a cooling fault, not a start fault, and it is a different page.
The causes in order of likelihood
- Undersized supply, extension lead or converter — Most likely here. It leads on a compact cabinet because the appliance draws so little that an undersized or shared supply never announces itself any other way. A long lead, a shared outlet or an inverter that sags under starting current leaves a small cabinet clicking, with no fault inside the appliance at all.
- No usable power at the outlet or the cord — Next most likely. A tripped breaker, a failed outlet, a damaged cord-set or a switched socket someone turned off.
- Main control board not calling for cooling — Third in the order. The board decides whether the compressor runs at all, and one that has lost its output leaves everything else looking healthy.
- Start relay or capacitor failure — Then this one. The relay drops the start winding in and out.
- Body: The order below is what makes this page worth reading. It is a ranking rather than a measurement, and it carries no numbers because no fact bundle supports any.
The diagnostic order
- Try the outlet with something you know works — A lamp or a phone charger settles the supply question in seconds and rules out the single most common cause.
- Open the door and watch the interior light — Light with no running means control power is fine and the fault is downstream; no light at all sends you back to the supply.
- Listen at the back for a click on a repeating cycle — A regular click with no start is the start relay signature and it separates relay from board without any tool.
- Body: The order below is written for a compact cabinet, where the supply is the weak point and the cooling hardware is nearly always innocent.
What you can do now
- Plug something else into the same outlet — If it does not work either, the fault is the outlet or the breaker and not the appliance.
- Reseat the plug and inspect the cord where it enters the cabinet — Look for crushing behind the unit and for heat discolouration at the plug.
Tools: torch
- Reset the control: unplug, wait several minutes, plug back in — A supervisor board that has latched an error frequently clears on a genuine power cycle rather than a quick one.
- STOP if the next step means testing a relay or a winding — That is a meter on live terminals and it is where the owner-side work ends.
Safety first
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel; a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. The start relay and compressor terminals stay dangerous after the cabinet goes quiet.
When this becomes a service call
Call once the outlet is proven good and the cabinet still does nothing, and call immediately if the plug or cord shows heat damage, if the breaker trips, or if the compressor hums and never starts. Sealed-system work is licensed work. Note how long the cabinet has been like this: it changes what a technician checks first.
Pages of the same class
What this page does not cover
This page is written for the appliance class rather than for one Breda family or model line. Where a family- or model-specific page exists for your unit it is the more specific answer and should be preferred over this one; the brand and appliance hub linked below routes to everything more specific that exists today.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
