Washing Machine Help Forum

[SpicyChicken]

Roughly every third drying cycle, the front (of the two) thermostats trips. I power off, slide the machine out, top off, press the reset button - 'click' - put it all back and normal service is restored.

This is getting tedious and is starting to wear grooves in the flooring! My ears are also starting to suffer from the bending and bashing from my long suffering better half.

On previous occasions i've spent happy evenings stripping out the condenser unit from the back of the machine and removing the usual slime and lint. I've got close to opening the heater box out, but peering in I cannot see any flow obstruction at all. I've also split the bit where the fan lives and de-fluffed it.

If I *look* at things now, there doesn't seem to be any rubbish blocking the airflow anywhere I can see.

Pump is clear of rubbish and when the machine does a full drying run, the clothes are dry, so it all wants to work.

So i'm left with:

a) your suggestions
b) municipal tip and a hefty bill for a new, probably better engineered machine
c) thermostat is a little to trigger happy (I doubt this can really happen..?) and needs replacing
d) the airflow restriction is somewhere else I can't see - could there be enough rubbish inside the drum..?!

I'm going to pull the whole thing apart for a full inspection and de-fluff as a matter of course - but I would be very grateful for any further suggestions anybody might have for things I can look for.

Hopefully i've just missed a pile of filth in there...

[suedehead1]

hi,
it is possible that it is not taking in any water for the condenser, when the machine is drying it takes in a trickle of water through the condenser unit on the back of the drum if it doesnt it will overheat and the thermostat will cut out.
plug out before checking.

[Dales-Electronic]

Secondly, I assume this has both a safety cut out stat (your resettable) and an operating stat (cycling on and off) is it possible that the cycling stat is faulty?

[SpicyChicken]

See picture - right side of the photo is the front.

There's two resettable thermostats: one at the back and one at the front. There's also what I assume is a non-resettable thermostat at the front.

It's the resettable one at the front which keeps popping.

Is what I think is the non-resettable thermostat the cycling stat..? Is there any way of testing a cycling stat - i'm not quite clear on it's purpose in life. Are you suggesting the cycling stat is responsible for maintaining a reasonable temperatue and that it might be indicating, all the time, that there isn't enough heat and the resettable thermostat trips because the cycling stat isn't doing it's job..?

If I look very carefully at the picture it looks like the resettable thermostat at the back and the non-resettable stat at the front are wired in series. Does that make any sense..? The front resettable thermostat looks like it controls power to both elements.

I could do with a wiring diagram for this beast...

[ I take pictures of everything before I start any job so I can figure out where all the left over bits go.. ]

[img]http://www.spicyware.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/public/133-3310_IMG.JPG[/img]

[bzz67]

airflow problems are common, check for fluff blockages in fan chamber and mostly in small bent hose that connects condenser to drum, condenser can also block or fan speed fault.

[SpicyChicken]

Much cleaning: big clod of 'grey' in the rubber hose at the bottom of the condenser unit which connects to the drum (below the main condenser unit to drum connection). Cleaned the condenser unit itself with a bottle brush and de-fluffed the vanes of the fan. Checked the water input at the top of the condenser and it's clear too.

I'll see what it's like now. Next step might be to replace all the thermostats.

This seems to fit the bill for the resettable stats: http://shop.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/Washing+ ... ostat.html but I can't find anything for the non-resettable device. Any clues..?

Also noticed the drum housing was cracked, which probably isn't related: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=38450