Fixed Maytag Neptune washer

[James Sweet]

Picked up a nice Neptune front loader for free yesterday, owner said it
quit running so they bought a new one rather than spend the $350 the
Maytag guy wanted to replace the motor controller board. Looked at said
board, several fairly obvious cracked solder joints. Resoldered
everything suspicious and reinstalled, unit works great! Didn't take
more than 35 minutes from start to finish of the repair.

 

[Ray L. Volts]

Picked up a nice Neptune front loader for free yesterday, owner said it
quit running so they bought a new one rather than spend the $350 the
Maytag guy wanted to replace the motor controller board. Looked at said
board, several fairly obvious cracked solder joints. Resoldered everything
suspicious and reinstalled, unit works great! Didn't take more than 35
minutes from start to finish of the repair.

Wish my Whirlpool fridge could be that simple. Compressor
slams/shutters/chatters at shutoff; noise level is progressive, but has been
doing this for over a year, so dunno how much life it actually has left in
it. Tech says new comp costs almost as much as a new, similar box, which it
looks like I'll be shopping for next.

 

[James Sweet]

Wish my Whirlpool fridge could be that simple. Compressor
slams/shutters/chatters at shutoff; noise level is progressive, but has been
doing this for over a year, so dunno how much life it actually has left in
it. Tech says new comp costs almost as much as a new, similar box, which it
looks like I'll be shopping for next.

You could look in the usamfg.net catalog I posted for someone else
earlier, last I checked they had a bunch of unused surplus fridge
compressors in the $25-$75 range, so long as you find one that's very
close to the same BTU rating and the correct refrigerant (should be
R-134a) then you can make it work. If you feel like doing it yourself
you could even use one of the $5 rotaries to suck a vacuum and then make
an adapter to charge it with R134 sold for automotive A/C systems. You
have to be careful messing with that stuff but I've enjoyed playing with
it so far. You're not supposed to vent the R134 to the atmosphere but
it's perfectly legal to blow dust out of your computer with one of those
little cans of it so I wouldn't worry too much about a small amount of
it, it's a non-ozone depleting HFC.

 

[Jumpster Jiver]

Wish my Whirlpool fridge could be that simple. Compressor
slams/shutters/chatters at shutoff; noise level is progressive, but has been
doing this for over a year, so dunno how much life it actually has left in
it. Tech says new comp costs almost as much as a new, similar box, which it
looks like I'll be shopping for next.

Heve you checked the compressor mounts? A loose mounting bolt, cracked
rubber mount, or out-of-place copper tube touching the side could cause
a similar symptom.

 

[James T. White]

Picked up a nice Neptune front loader for free yesterday, owner said it
quit running so they bought a new one rather than spend the $350 the
Maytag guy wanted to replace the motor controller board. Looked at said
board, several fairly obvious cracked solder joints. Resoldered
everything suspicious and reinstalled, unit works great! Didn't take
more than 35 minutes from start to finish of the repair.

You got lucky. When mine went, all the smoke escaped from several of the
transistors and IC's.

Another common problem with the Neptune washers is with the silly front door
lock & interlock switch mechanism and/or control board that drives the lock.
I've had to replace the switch mechanism twice and the control board once. When
the control board doesn't think that the door is shut and locked, the wash cycle
completes without spinning the clothes to remove most of the water and the wife
gets upset.

 

[James Sweet]

You got lucky. When mine went, all the smoke escaped from several of the
transistors and IC's.

Another common problem with the Neptune washers is with the silly front door
lock & interlock switch mechanism and/or control board that drives the lock.
I've had to replace the switch mechanism twice and the control board once. When
the control board doesn't think that the door is shut and locked, the wash cycle
completes without spinning the clothes to remove most of the water and the wife
gets upset.

Yeah I realize I'm lucky, but I bet the solder joints are the root of
the problem. Still you could replace all six mosfets, all three driver
IC's, and the power resistors for ~$25, lot better than $350 for
replacing the whole board.

I've heard of the door lock problem too, apparently the triac shorts and
burns out the wax motor in the door lock, at some point I should upgrade
to a heavier triac. These washers definitly have some design flaws and
if I were buying new I'd get a different brand but in my case the price
was right.

 

[rb]

way to go!
Nice job

 

[James T. White]

Yeah I realize I'm lucky, but I bet the solder joints are the root of
the problem. Still you could replace all six mosfets, all three driver
IC's, and the power resistors for ~$25, lot better than $350 for
replacing the whole board.

I suppose, but then it would have taken a week to get the parts instead
of having the machine running in an afternoon. If memory serves, my
replacement driver board cost less than $200 at the appliance parts
house and came with a longer motor cable. Plus, the wife really wanted
the machine fixed ASAP.

I've heard of the door lock problem too, apparently the triac shorts and
burns out the wax motor in the door lock, at some point I should upgrade
to a heavier triac. These washers definitly have some design flaws and
if I were buying new I'd get a different brand but in my case the price
was right.

In one case the wax motor just quit working. In the other, the triac shorted,
burned a resistor and cooked the wax motor.

 

[Ray L. Volts]

You could look in the usamfg.net catalog I posted for someone else
earlier, last I checked they had a bunch of unused surplus fridge
compressors in the $25-$75 range, so long as you find one that's very
close to the same BTU rating and the correct refrigerant (should be
R-134a) then you can make it work. If you feel like doing it yourself you
could even use one of the $5 rotaries to suck a vacuum and then make an
adapter to charge it with R134 sold for automotive A/C systems. You have
to be careful messing with that stuff but I've enjoyed playing with it so
far. You're not supposed to vent the R134 to the atmosphere but it's
perfectly legal to blow dust out of your computer with one of those little
cans of it so I wouldn't worry too much about a small amount of it, it's a
non-ozone depleting HFC.

Finally got around to pulling the back off this thing. As expected, the
lines are all torched in. I'm afraid I'll hafta pass on trying to sweat in
a new compressor with these lines (plus manifold gauge ports). I've done
some car a/c work back in the R-12 days, but the automotive systems were at
least designed to be serviced.

This fridge is an 8-yr old top freezer model. I'll likely replace it with a
slightly larger side-by-side w/dispenser. Unfortunately, it seems Whirlpool
now owns numerous brand names and keeps buying up more, so my choices are
very limited if I don't want another Whirlpool [design].

Thanks for the good parts ref, though.

 

[Ray L. Volts]

Heve you checked the compressor mounts? A loose mounting bolt, cracked
rubber mount, or out-of-place copper tube touching the side could cause a
similar symptom.

Finally got a chance to open it up. The mounts are nice and secure; rubber
is good. The lines aren't touching the sides. Prob is definitely inside
the hermetically-sealed compressor. With the fridge unplugged, I sharply
stabbed at the compressor with my thumb several times and this caused the
sound. I also felt the compressor guts hitting against the compressor
housing. 8-/