WASHING MACHINE REPAIR ADVICE PLEASE

[nightofjoy]

Hi.

A little before Christmas, our (13 month old) washing machine packed in.

We did a bit of investigating locally and found an engineer with good feedback.

He came out and assessed the machine, and decided that the problem was the motor, and that we’d need a new one.

His prices seemed reasonable and he knew his stuff, so we had him order the part.

£135 for the motor and only £30 to fit it. Plus £30 for the initial callout fee, so £195 all in.

He came the following week and replaced the motor, but afterwards he said he’d discovered a fault on the circuit board control panel that was causing the problem with the motor, and that if we tried to use the machine as is, it would also destroy the new motor.

So we’d paid out almost £200 and still did not have a working machine. All we have is a useless machine and the old motor in a box.

I’m now trying to gather some second opinions from engineers as to whether the fault on the board should have been detected in the early stages when he assessed the machine. My stepdad in an engineer and he immediately said that it seems odd that it wasn’t spotted.

Seems like repairing a puncture by purchasing and fitting a new inner tube but not checking the tyre for nails or glass first.

Any thoughts from those in the appliance repair trade? Thanks.

 

[telectrix]

i would have checked the circuit board first. rare for a 13 month old motor to fail. your old motor may be perfectly OK.

 

[7029 dave]

Its a difficult one, Imo any part around or over that price plus call charge , I would have been inclined to have binned it off and bought new. Have you spoke to him to see how much a new circuit board will cost.
I'm no washing machine expert

 

[7029 dave]

1 Month out of standard warranty too

 

[telectrix]

next time some --- phones up to sell you breakdown insurance on your W/M, bite his hand off , wait a month, then report it broke,

 

[pc1966]

It might be worth pursuing the manufacturer as just out of warranty for a major fault could be taken as the original goods were not of merchantable quality given the expectation of a 5-10 year lifetime:

Washing Machine Only Just Out of Guarantee | Whitegoodshelp

Should you still be charged if the guarantee on your washing machine has only just run out? Do we have any rights?

www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk

 

[telectrix]

I repaired the circuit board on ours 5 years ago. still going strong, used virtually every day. it's now 12 years old. can I claim if it goes wrong next week.? ??

 

[7029 dave]

If the OP does go down that road, better not say that an independent intervention has been made on the WM.

 

[pc1966]

Also look to see if the same/similar model is sold in the EU as they have a 2 year statutory warranty, and explaining why in the UK you get 1 is going to be interesting.

 

[Zerax]

I had an almost identical situation many years ago... I was given an AEG w/m as it didn't work and I thought if I could fix it, I'd have a cracking w/m ! So I checked it over to discover that one of the motor windings was shorting to earth... easy fix I thought... so I rewound the motor. On reassembly and test, I discovered that the main control board was also knackered. I realised that it was probably the motor failure that had taken out the board. With silly money being asked for a new board... the machine was taken to the tip !

 

[nightofjoy]

Getting some mixed messages on here but grateful for the input.

Basically all I need to know is, is there a diagnostic test he should have ran before telling me I needed a new motor?

ie should he have found the thing that was causing the motor to fail?

A fault on the control module on the board is making the drum spin out of control and blow the motor. Should an experienced appliance engineer have spotted this?

 

[nightofjoy]

How do I go about that?

 

[brianmoooore]

I side with the engineer on this one, unless the control board is easily accessible and visibly very damaged.
Cheaply made motors can and do fail, even if they are only thirteen months old, and, until the motor was changed, how could he possibly guess that being driven flat out all the time was the cause of the failure.
On the subject of board failure, I had an expensive (Bosch) two year old washer drier fail on me a couple of years ago. I quickly established that the fault was on the main circuit board, because of a couple of obviously damaged (beyond identification numbers being readable) components.
I Googled the actual part number of the circuit board, and this led me to a Chinese site, where there was a pic. of the board in question, with three little red arrows pointing at three components, two of which were the failed parts on mine. Scrolling down further, here was a pic. of the three parts, with a price of something like 5 US dollars beside it.
I placed an order, without understanding a single word written there, and a couple of weeks later the three parts turned up (postage slightly more than the parts), were fitted, and the machine has been working faultlessly ever since.

 

[UNG]

Getting some mixed messages on here but grateful for the input.

Basically all I need to know is, is there a diagnostic test he should have ran before telling me I needed a new motor?

ie should he have found the thing that was causing the motor to fail?

A fault on the control module on the board is making the drum spin out of control and blow the motor. Should an experienced appliance engineer have spotted this?

You have been rather economic with information here, you haven't even told us what the make of washing machine is, did the machine just stop working

Now you appear to be asking for advice because the engineer you called in has failed to completely diagnose the fault and you feel that you should have some come back against him

IMO your first mistake was not contacting the manufacturer for a machine that was one month beyond it's 12 month warranty, some manufacturer's have a 5 year parts warranty you just pay for the engineer although for a machine to so badly fail after 13 months that should be an FOC repair

From past experience a washing machine is always one of those items where the cost of repair is finely balanced against the cost of replacing it with a new one

 

[nightofjoy]

You have been rather economic with information here, you haven't even told us what the make of washing machine is, did the machine just stop working

Now you appear to be asking for advice because the engineer you called in has failed to completely diagnose the fault and you feel that you should have some come back against him

IMO your first mistake was not contacting the manufacturer for a machine that was one month beyond it's 12 month warranty, some manufacturer's have a 5 year parts warranty you just pay for the engineer although for a machine to so badly fail after 13 months that should be an FOC repair

From past experience a washing machine is always one of those items where the cost of repair is finely balanced against the cost of replacing it with a new one

Hi. Sorry, no truth economics intended.

OK so it's a Candy washer. It made a pop mid cycle and stopped working, and there was a smell like burning metal. We communicated this to the engineer.

We contacted Candy, who didn't respond in time to do anything, we had washing piling up. We then approached AO who told us to get an engineer out.

Having been told be a few sources that the fault on the board could have been detected and we needn't have spent £135 on a new motor for a dead machine, I'm just trying to find out if that's the case.

If the consensus is that the main fault should have been spotted, I'll be suggesting that the engineer keeps all his labour & callout fees, but refunds us on the motor, which is unused, sitting in a dead washer, and he may be able to use it on a future job if he wants to come and collect it.

And if opinion says not, I'll be doing nothing.

*Sorry, more details. At first he said we needed a new motor, and once we'd paid him to supply and fit the motor, he tried to run the machine then told us something called a TRIAC had gone.

 

[moose]

I would say a motor after 13 month not likely, try guarantee you might get that back. with his proof but a board yes he's picked the wrong one. I'm not sure a basic model today gets 3 years on motors. mine is 10 years. look into that maybe

 

[telectrix]

Failed triac was the fault on ours (see my earlier post). not wanting to rub salt in the wound, but the triac cost me about £3 from cpc and took me half an hour to fit into the control panel.

 

[brianmoooore]

If there's no visible damage to the control board, such as holes burnt in it, then repair of the board is the way to go.
You won't be the first to suffer this failure, so Google the model number and see what comes up. Look for a part number for the circuit board, and Google that.
The triac driving the motor has almost certainly failed, but it's possible that a couple of other components nearby have died with it as well.
Could be a cheap repair if you know the hot end of a soldering iron from the cold.

 

[moose]

Yeah Those are sometimes fitted to the panel. out of site.

 

[nightofjoy]

Cheers. I know, I do get that, but you must understand, we didn't know anything about fitting any parts to a washing machine, so we brought in an expert. I'm just trying to establish if he should have detected the faulty triac on his first visit to view the appliance, and could have saved us £135.

 

[telectrix]

it's difficult to say. it may be that the motor is burnt out as well as the control panel fault. in your case I would ask the engineer (politely) if he could take back the new motor and give you a partial refund, as the cost of fixing the machine is uneconomical.

 

[nightofjoy]

Just to add, we don't know the hot end of a soldering iron from the cold end, that's why I'm trying to gather information from appliance engineers on here.

There is no quick fix anymore. The old machine is dead. It was dead before he told us we needed a motor. When he fitted the new motor and then discovered it still wasn't working due to the failed triac, he said boards/control module replacements are too expensive to bother with, and we should give up on the machine.

We've had to order a new washer. The only way we can cut our losses even a little is if we gather enough opinion suggesting he should have spotted or detected the knackered triac when he came out and told us we needed a new motor - and get him to refund the cost of that motor - which unused, he cam come and take away to potentially use on a future job.

 

[telectrix]

Just to add, we don't know the hot end of a soldering iron from the cold end, that's why I'm trying to gather information from appliance engineers on here.

There is no quick fix anymore. The old machine is dead. It was dead before he told us we needed a motor. When he fitted the new motor and then discovered it still wasn't working due to the failed triac, he said boards/control module replacements are too expensive to bother with, and we should give up on the machine.

We've had to order a new washer. The only way we can cut our losses even a little is if we gather enough opinion suggesting he should have spotted or detected the knackered triac when he came out and told us we needed a new motor - and get him to refund the cost of that motor - which unused, he cam come and take away to potentially use on a future job.

that was what i said in my last post.

 

[nightofjoy]

Hi. Sorry, I was responding to you, the quote button doesn't seem to do anything my end...

 

[loz2754]

In my opinion the fault was not properly diagnosed and you have ended up out of pocket.
The repair he made was not a fit repair and so you should not have to pay for his misdiagnosis.
Replacing parts as a means of diagnosing a fault is a poor way to go about things.
I would put this to him in writing and tell him what you expect him to do about it.