Whirlpool washer fun

[bob]

My 10 year old+ whirlpool washer went out the other day 3/4 the way through a load. would not drain and the main motor would not run.

Checked it out, and the motor did not have any power. looked at the schematic, and it appeared that the timer assembly was the problem. Priced a replacement at $110+ dollars. ouch! old washer not worth that much.

SO i took the timer off and bent the tabs that hold it together straight and took it apart (non repairable part). Figured out one of the contacts had overheated. Had nothing to lose, so i sanded down the contact on both sides and put it back together. Motor came back on, but it seemed something was still not right. Did not want to drain right. I then took the hoses off the pump only to discover a lump of fabric jamming the pump. a long nose pliers and some words eventually pulled the lump of crud out. Now it seemed to drain, but the pull switch on the timer was stuck on. Then i noticed another plastic part on the floor. (whoops, forgot one lever on the re assembly of the timer) Put it back together, and she is working. Who knows for how long, but i had little money to spend now and i kept it out of the scrap heap for awhile longer.

I theorize the fabric jammed in the pump caused the motor to draw too much current and overheated the switch contacts. Hope it last for a while...

bob

[Ed Pawlowski]

. Priced a replacement at $110+ dollars.

Well worth a little effort and it saved quite a bit of $$$. Could get you another 10+ years.

[Existential Angst]

Good show! Always satisfying to show these machines who's boss. :)

But, you may have done yourself a disservice, as the savings and benefits from a frontloader replacing a toploader start immediately. I don't know what the ROI is, but, depending on how much laundry is actually being done (and where you live), I'm sure it's well under 5 years.

The fellow on

calculated that his ROI on a net investment of $150 was one year on just water alone!!! He has to pay for waste water removal, but the other savings would probably more than make up for that for others with municipal sewer.

[aemeijers]

Congratulations- my appliance repairs seldom turn out so well, and I usually end up replacing the busted item or doing without.

[The Daring Dufas]

You could always add a high current relay if the contacts burn again. I'm old and I understand replacement parts are available for me, that is, except for the CPU. Once it goes, that's it. It is glitching more often as of late. Bzzzzzit! GRONK!

TDD

[gfretwell]

Did you pull the agitator to see if the sock is still there?

[Molly Brown]

The same thing happened to me a couple of months ago but it was the water valve solenoid that caused the overheating. I replaced the water valve along with the solenoids (all one piece).

[bob]

calculated that his ROI on a net investment of $150 was one year on just

Its funny you suggested that. I have looked into it when i get more money. it seems to have advantages. BUT, it also seems many of these units have problems that lead to frequent expensive repairs. So cost savings many not lead to long term savings.

I saw a whirlpool Duet today on craigs list for $50. and i see maytags frequently that have issues cheap. There not issues sandpaper and time will solve without expensive parts.

bob

[Existential Angst]

> calculated that his ROI on a net investment of $150 was one year on just

What types? Mechanical or electrical? In principle, the mechanics of a front loader are *much* simpler than toploaders: no complicated transmission, for one. You have to take one of those apart to believe them.... altho, they seem to prove very reliable.

So cost

Overall, you raise a major and unfortunate point. Solid State electronics is but another strategy for sticking it to, or up, the consumer. Someone posted here recently about their refridgerator needing a circuit board replaced. WTF???

And extended warranties are a big part of that ripoff -- they are basically telling you, up front, that the mfr does not have confidence in their own products. Everybody wants an annuity.....

Garmin now wants to charge me for map updates. I'll be goddammed first. I guess these updates are Garmin's annuity, eh?

[Jon Danniken]

Impressive repair job, Bob. I've replaced the pump twice on my old kenmore/whirlygig, and I hope I never get the pleasure of digging apart the timer!

Jon

[Jeff The Drunk]

I would have thought a seized pump make a hell of a lot of noise like it did on my old Kenmore. The motor should have had enough torque to spin the belt around the pump pulley causing a heck of a racket. If the motor just locked up it likely cycled on its built in thermal/current overload protection but I would also think it should trip a breaker if locked up.

[Ralph Mowery]

Extended warranties are a big rip-off. However they are telling me that the product is actually a good one if the price of the warranties is cheep enough. They do not sell warranties on goods they can not make money off of. Many times the extended warranties is not from the maker of the product but a third party out to make money.

Maps for the GPS units are like the ink to the printers. New maps are not too much cheaper than a whole new GPS unit and you get an updated GPS unit.

[Existential Angst]

Figgers!!

Yeah, printer ink, proly THE greatest annuity CorPirate Merka ever invented.... goodgawd.... Man, they could give away the printers for free, and STILL make out like bandits -- like the bandits they are.

Altho, the absurdity of print cartridges seems to have made it to the general zeitgeist, as companies are now advertising $5 cartridges. I'm sure there is still a scam involved, but mebbe less of a scam than the current one.

[notbob]

Look in craigslist and pennysaver rags. Many people sell perfectly good washer/dryers sets cheap when they move cuz it's less hassle than moving them. I got my top of the line GE W/D set for $100 cuz neighbor didn't have room to take them. This was an older GE set, top-loader with the little white lint trap riding on top of the agitator.

People make many claims for front loaders, but I've yet to use one that actually cleaned clothes worth a damn. Nothing ever came close to my GEs for getting clothes clean and they were a piece of cake to work on for the two breakdowns (bad pump, leaking tub seal) I had in

10 yrs. Likewise, I left them for the next tenant to use, they still working fine.

nb

[notbob]

Toss the color printer in favor of a cheapo b/w laser. I don't miss my rip-off color Epson one bit and my Brother laser probably won't run out of toner in my lifetime. If I absolutely must have a color print of something, I'll take the file down to a commercial printer on a flash drive and have THAT print made for a buck or two. TIP: if you do get a b/w laser printer don't go too cheap. Make sure the toner cartridge and print drum are separate items. I think I paid $80 for my bullit-proof Brother.

nb

[bob]

When i was trying to get the crud out of the pump, i released the two spring holders and tried to pull the pump off. It seemed to be stuck, that's when i just used the needle nose to pull the crap out of it. I was afraid if i put too much force on it i would ruin it and create another issue. It does seem to be draining, but i wonder if some of the impellers in the pump were damaged due to the crud stuck inside. The pump impeller must have been welded by crud to the end of the motor shaft.

bob

[bob]

This was a direct drive pump. It was not locked up until the end, but the crud in it put a extra load on the motor. It seemed also the impellers were flexible inside so they would give some rather than be rigid. That probably explains why it did not lock up before

bob

[gfretwell]

GearXS is dumping used HP laser printers for $50. I doubt you can get a set of color/bw ink cartridges for much less than that.

[Jon Danniken]

I got a barely used HP LJ2100 for $65 a couple of years ago from CL. A ream of paper fits perfectly in the two trays, and it has an envelope slot as well. Since it's an office printer it has a duty cycle of 15,000 pages per month, which means I will be using it for many years to come.

The only reason to get an inkjet printer is if you are a diehard photographer who uses the printer enough to keep the ink flowing.

Jon

[Stormin Mormon]

My ancient Whirlpool has come up parts NLA (no longer available) at my parts house. I've kept it running with oiling the electric motor, and later the water discharge pump. I've also had to clean the timer with a big dose of electical contact cleaner, and then reoil the timer. Plans are to keep it going as long as possible.