Our Whirlpool washing machine has taken to stopping half way through a
wash with the "door open" light flashing.

Presumably this suggests that the door latch mechanism which detects
the door open/closed (and locks it closed) is faulty. It's easy
enough to remove.

Is my diagnosis likely to be correct and just replacing the door latch
electrics will fix it?

--
Chris Green

In article , says...
Is my diagnosis likely to be correct and just replacing the door latch
electrics will fix it?


I'd fudge round it by linking the switch out first to test the
supposition. No point in replacing it if the fault turns out to be
somewhere else.

Bear in mind that if it does appear to be the switch it could either be
the switch itself, or the mechanism that operates it.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

Skipweasel wrote:
In article , says...
Is my diagnosis likely to be correct and just replacing the door latch
electrics will fix it?


I'd fudge round it by linking the switch out first to test the
supposition. No point in replacing it if the fault turns out to be
somewhere else.

Bear in mind that if it does appear to be the switch it could either be
the switch itself, or the mechanism that operates it.

It's all one assembly so replacing the switch replaces most of the
mechanism, the only bit that's separate is the 'pin' on the door that
pushes into the switch mechanism.

The only problem with bypassing the switch is that one needs some
information to do it because the switch assembly has three wires
connected to it and has the door lock in it too.

In fact, thinking about it, I'm not absolutely convinced that the
detection of whether the door is closed is done by the same thing as
the door locking.

--
Chris Green

In article , says...
The only problem with bypassing the switch is that one needs some
information to do it because the switch assembly has three wires
connected to it and has the door lock in it too.


One will be a power feed to heat the bimetal strip that operates the
delay. Probably. Take it apart and have a look.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

In article ,
Skipweasel writes:
In article , says...
Is my diagnosis likely to be correct and just replacing the door latch
electrics will fix it?


I'd fudge round it by linking the switch out first to test the
supposition. No point in replacing it if the fault turns out to be
somewhere else.

Bear in mind that if it does appear to be the switch it could either be
the switch itself, or the mechanism that operates it.

If you're going to take it off, check for wear and/or lubrication
gone sticky, and it might be fixable. I would not link out the
switch other than as a one-off test - it's a safety feature and
you might seriously regret doing so later on.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Skipweasel writes:
In article , says...
Is my diagnosis likely to be correct and just replacing the door latch
electrics will fix it?


I'd fudge round it by linking the switch out first to test the
supposition. No point in replacing it if the fault turns out to be
somewhere else.

Bear in mind that if it does appear to be the switch it could either be
the switch itself, or the mechanism that operates it.

If you're going to take it off, check for wear and/or lubrication
gone sticky, and it might be fixable. I would not link out the
switch other than as a one-off test - it's a safety feature and
you might seriously regret doing so later on.

As it turns out (and after a bit of Google searching for the fault)
the Door Open flashing can *also* mean that the main motor brushes are
worn. That appears to be the cause on our machine as removing the
brushes, stretching the springs a bit, cleaning them up and putting
them back has cleared the fault. I will order a new pair and replace
them next time we see "Door Open".

It does seem a very odd diagnostic to say "Door Open" when the brushes
are worn. The machine can output error codes on its display for other
faults (e.g. drain blocked is "FH", water input fault is "FP") so why
on earth don't they use one for brushes worn rather than making you
think something is wrong with the door?

--
Chris Green

In article ,
says...
If you're going to take it off, check for wear and/or lubrication
gone sticky, and it might be fixable. I would not link out the
switch other than as a one-off test - it's a safety feature and
you might seriously regret doing so later on.


Like I said - link it out to test the supposition, not link it out to
correct the fault!

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

On 12 Feb,
wrote:

As it turns out (and after a bit of Google searching for the fault)
the Door Open flashing can *also* mean that the main motor brushes are
worn. That appears to be the cause on our machine as removing the
brushes, stretching the springs a bit, cleaning them up and putting
them back has cleared the fault. I will order a new pair and replace
them next time we see "Door Open".

I wouldn't wait to replace them. Damage to the motor may result, at best teh
commutator will become less smooth, resulting in quicker wear of the
replacements.


It does seem a very odd diagnostic to say "Door Open" when the brushes are
worn. The machine can output error codes on its display for other faults
(e.g. drain blocked is "FH", water input fault is "FP") so why on earth
don't they use one for brushes worn rather than making you think something
is wrong with the door?

Cost cutting!


--
B Thumbs
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

Skipweasel wrote:

One will be a power feed to heat the bimetal strip that operates the
delay. Probably. Take it apart and have a look.

Why do washing machines have such a *long* delay on the door mechanism
these days? I've had three Hotpoint W/D over the past 25 years, the
first two you could open the door the second the drum had stopped, the
present one is about a three minute delay ... very annoying.

wrote:
On 12 Feb,
wrote:

As it turns out (and after a bit of Google searching for the fault)
the Door Open flashing can *also* mean that the main motor brushes are
worn. That appears to be the cause on our machine as removing the
brushes, stretching the springs a bit, cleaning them up and putting
them back has cleared the fault. I will order a new pair and replace
them next time we see "Door Open".

I wouldn't wait to replace them. Damage to the motor may result, at best teh
commutator will become less smooth, resulting in quicker wear of the
replacements.

I've ordered them, will replace when they arrive.


It does seem a very odd diagnostic to say "Door Open" when the brushes are
worn. The machine can output error codes on its display for other faults
(e.g. drain blocked is "FH", water input fault is "FP") so why on earth
don't they use one for brushes worn rather than making you think something
is wrong with the door?

Cost cutting!

But it isn't really, there's no more hardware needed, just
(presumably) a change in some firmware somewhere such that "flash the
door open light" becomes "display Fx".

--
Chris Green

In article ,
says...
One will be a power feed to heat the bimetal strip that operates the
delay. Probably. Take it apart and have a look.

Why do washing machines have such a *long* delay on the door mechanism
these days?


Aggravating, isn't it. I did think to tamper with ours but then had an
attack of the CBAs.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

In article , Andy
Burns writes
Skipweasel wrote:

One will be a power feed to heat the bimetal strip that operates the
delay. Probably. Take it apart and have a look.

Why do washing machines have such a *long* delay on the door mechanism
these days? I've had three Hotpoint W/D over the past 25 years, the
first two you could open the door the second the drum had stopped, the
present one is about a three minute delay ... very annoying.

Although I can't find a ref for it I have a dim recollection of it being
a legislated safety requirement, hence why they all have it and the
minimum 2 minute period being common to all.
--
fred
FIVE TV's superbright logo - not the DOG's, it's ********