WWW FTW (for the wash)

Three days ago, our washing machine conked out. I did some digging around online, and discovered that a fairly common problem afflicts front-loading Maytags in the Neptune line—common enough, in fact, that it sparked a class-action lawsuit a few years ago, which led to a settlement on the part of the company.

A guy named Jeff Hartman had even set up a Blogspot blog called Maytag Neptune Washer, mostly to explain the problem and sell inexpensive repair kits (you can buy the kits here and read his how-to here). The kits include a so-called wax motor (a sort of slow-motion solenoid that locks the washer door when the tub is full) along with a component called a triac (Q6) and a resistor (R11) for the main control circuit. It seems that the original wax motors were defective (hence the lawsuit) in that they would draw too much voltage through the triac, which would short out—and that, in turn, would fry the resistor.

The kits cost about $50, but entail snipping the bad components off the computer board and soldering on the replacements. Though I’d done a fair amount of soldering and circuit assembly as a kid, I was a little apprehensive, and kept browsing.

Yesterday, I called the service company Maytag suggested in the area (apparently, such referrals are what the Maytag means by the Priority One Service touted as one of the benefits of Neptune ownership). A service call would be $90 (plus tax), which seemed a reasonable fee for the peace of mind, and besides, they had someone in the area who could be here in 30 minutes. The guy showed up, asked me what the problem was, and then told me exactly what I had read online: The machine would probably need a new wax motor and control board. “Oh, so it’s the R11/Q6 problem,” I said. He looked at me, answered, “What?” paused, and then added, “Well, you may also need a new water valve, since the tub isn’t filling, and a motor and motor-control board. The motor will be under warranty, but you’ll have to pay for labor.” He wrote this up on a service form, took my money, and said the shop would call with an estimate.

I went back online and found that sometimes other components on the control board get fried, which may have been why the tub wasn’t filling. In any case, I found a source for a new wax motor and control board: RepairClinic.com, which you can call at 800-269-2609, though it was very easy to find what I needed with the on-site search. For a total of about $200, I had the parts overnighted to our apartment.

Yesterday morning, the appliance-repair shop called to tell me it would cost $550 (plus tax) to replace the wax motor and control board. If that didn’t solve the problem, it would be another $250 (plus tax) to put in a new water valve and/or motor. This is on top of the $100 I’d already paid for the diagnostic visit. So all in, somewhere north of $900. I told him I’d have to think about it.

Two hours later, FedEx delivered the parts. It took a little over an hour to open the machine, swap in the new parts, and put everything back together. The washing machine is operating perfectly again.

My only regret in all of this is that I didn’t try repairing the control board first.

If you have a broken front-loading standalone Maytag, check the links above before you call a repairman. For a walk-through of the process for a stacked washer-dryer, go to the jump.

Here’s how to replace the control board and wax motor of a Maytag Neptune stacked washer-dryer (model MLE2000AYW, but I’m guessing that any of the 2000-series stackers would be similar). You can read about why I did this here.

I’m not a professional appliance repairman, and am in no way connected to Maytag. So it goes without saying that there’s no guarantee, implied or otherwise, that following these steps will fix your washing machine or make your life better in any other way.

That said, this is not some feat of high-level engineering. And if it does fix your problem, it will save you several hundred dollars.

You’ll need a Phillips screwdriver, a 5/16″ hex wrench (a small ratchet set will make things go more smoothly—especially if your machine is, like ours, mounted in a cabinet), a T-15 Torx screwdriver, a broomstick, and some coffee. And about an hour and a half of your time—less (or more) if you have an assistant.

Click on any of the images below for a full-size version. Captions are all below the image to which they refer.

This is the sick machine, sleeping quietly in its cabinet. Before you do anything, unplug your machine or kill the power by flipping the appropriate circuit breaker.

The first thing to do is remove the outward-slanting panel in the machine’s midsection. You do this by unscrewing the two white-painted Phillips-head screws on either side and then pulling the top of the panel down and toward you. You may find, taped to the inside of the panel, a folded sheet of paper that includes a schematic diagram of the machine. This can help you visualize what you’ll be looking at in a few minutes.

This is the machine with the panel removed.

In the middle of the opening you’ve just made, probably beneath a bundle of wires (which you can just push out of the way), you’ll find the 5/16″ hex screw that holds the wax-motor-assembly cover. Unscrew this and slide the assembly cover toward you until it clears the latch along the bottom of the front edge.

The rectangular brown object circled in red is the wax motor. We’ll come back to that shortly (stupid electrical pun).

In order to get at the control board, which is inside the machine at top right, you’ll need to open the dryer-door housing. In order to to that, you’ll need to first remove the control panel—the piece with the dials and buttons. This is held in place by two Torx T-15 screws, which are oriented vertically in the locations circled. (Note that this picture shows the wax-motor-assembly cover still in place, though that will have been removed by this point.)

Because of the position of the screws and of the brackets that hold in place the first panel you removed, you may have to angle the Torx screwdriver a bit. After you remove the screws, pull the bottom of the control panel toward you, which will release the two clips that hold the top of the panel in place. You can let the control panel hang against the washer door by the attached wires, though be careful not to scratch the door.

To open the dryer-door housing, unscrew the two 5/16″ hex screws on the top of the machine.

There are also two screws (Torx T-15) at the bottom of the dryer-door housing that must be removed. I don’t have a picture of them exposed, but you’ll see them in the locations indicated when the control panel has been removed

You can now fold the dryer-door housing down, leaving the bottom edge hooked inside the dryer and the top edge resting on the broomstick. You can detach the wires and remove the door completely if you prefer, but there’s really no need.

At top right inside the dryer enclosure is the control board you’ll be replacing. The bracket in which it rests is held in place by two 5/16″ hex screws on the left side and by a tab-and-slot arrangement on the right.

Unscrew the two hex screws on the top of the machine that hold the control-board bracket (the frontmost screw is shown above).

Unscrew the two 5/16″ hex screws holding the front edge of the machine’s top in place. These are the second screws down from the top; the uppermost screws merely serve to fasten the brackets you see. At this point, you can lift up gently on the front edge of the machine’s top and remove the control-board bracket, which may require a bit of jiggling because of the tab (the photo, obviously, shows that assembly already removed).

With the control-board bracket removed, you can clearly see the screw holes in the top and the slot into which the bracket tab fits.

This is the control-board assembly. Circled in red are the two screws that fasten the board to the bracket. Remove these and then slide the board until it clears the plastic tabs. Circled in yellow are two of these tabs, under which you’ll need to slide the new board.

This is what a fried R11 resistor looks like. If yours looks similar, it should help confirm that the problem with your machine is related to the wax motor’s having zapped the control board.

This is the control board removed from the bracket. If you place the new board next to the old one, you can remove the plugs one at a time and reattach them to the new board. Once you’ve done this, slide the new board into the bracket, replace the two screws, and put the whole thing back where you found it. Circled in red is the location of the vertical tab that will have to go into the slot on the right-hand side. On our machine, there are two slots, and the tab goes into the one toward the front of the machine. (in any case, make sure the left-side screw holes align before you refasten the top).

Replace the bracket screws, refasten the front edge of the machine’s top, fold the dryer-door housing back up into place, put back the Torx screws on the bottom and the hex screws on top, and move on to the wax motor.

You might find it handy to use a spring clip to hold the green plastic cable out of the way.

At this point, just follow the directions that come with the new wax motor. (If for some reason you got a replacement without instructions, email me and I can send you a scan.) Note that the bad motor has a brown pin; the new motor should have a black pin. Part of the replacement procedure involves removing the spring clip that holds the wax motor in place. Besides the small screwdriver the instructions suggest, you might want to use an Allen wrench or one of the wrenches from your last Ikea project (pictured above) to extract the clip.

Now it’s time to replace the wax-motor-assembly cover and the first panel you removed.

Sip some coffee and check your work area for “extra” parts. If all seems OK, plug the machine in or flip the circuit breaker back on.

Put in a load of laundry and hit the Start button. If all went well, you’ll see the Door Locked indicator light up eventually.

If so, cheers! And have some fun with the money you saved.