I had a situation with my washing machine one time and had to get the repairman out. He determined that the problem was what he called :"sudslock" he said it happens when you have hard water and soap builds up in the washer, or if you use too much laundry soap. He told me to prevent it from happening again to once a week run just hot water through a full cycle, and he said that usually does the trick to prevent it. And since then I have been doing that and have had no more problems.