Washing Machine Woes

[dexters_lab]

Tonight the washing machine went 

it's now fixed

[Psi]

hehe, i called 'bad caps' at the start of the video

[Rick Law]

hehe, i called 'bad caps' at the start of the video

Funny to watch this while I am waiting for my order of capacitor to arrive.  The PSU for my PC went, I took out my backup "new" PSU (unused, stored for 3 years as backup) and it didn't work either.  Open the "new" PSU and I saw 3 fat-caps just like the video - and I don't have the right caps in stock.

So, instead of putting in my back-up PSU and repair the blown one at my leisure, I have nothing working and needs to attempt repair immediately.

The original blown PSU has a few 3 fat cap also, but I was able to savage a couple of ok-looking caps (of the right value), together with a new one I have in stock, I managed to get part of my "new" PSU working - 2 out of 3 of the power cables works - enough to have the machine working.

I am waiting for my new capacitors to come so I can do a proper repair job on both PSU.

[SeanB]

My old washing machine died not from bad caps but from sheer old age. Spares needed was more than the cost of a new machine. New main bearings, new drain pump, new inlet valves, new motor brushes, new heater were needed. AEG spares are not exactly cheap though.

[Rick Law]

My old washing machine died not from bad caps but from sheer old age. Spares needed was more than the cost of a new machine. New main bearings, new drain pump, new inlet valves, new motor brushes, new heater were needed. AEG spares are not exactly cheap though.

The old ones probably lasts a lot longer.  My old (Phillips) microwave oven lasted for >10 years ($600+).  Repaired one blown fuse and that was it in 10+ years.  Eventually, it died and I got a new one (GE) - larger, more features, but lasted under a year.  I ended up buying a cheap junk - expecting it to work for a year and die.

My old Sears washing machine (20yrs) and it is still running.  I replaced the timing motor last year, and the water valves this year.  It runs so well I almost want to replace the mechanical timing assembly with my own MCU controller so I can have more control of it's cycles.

The new stuff are flashy, blinks, bleeps, thinks it is smarter than an average human being, and can even chat on the internet; but they just don't go the distance.

[retiredcaps]

Over at badcaps.net, we call them Crapxon.  Capxon is most likely the worst capacitor brand in existance. They rarely last 5 years.

I can't complain too much as I repaired a lot of equipment with bad Capxon capacitors from people tossing them out in the garbage.  If you know what consumer items use Capxon capacitors, you can pickup a lot of dead/not working items for cheap or free.

Sadly, a lot of repair people won't/don't have the skills to replace simply capacitors and would just swap boards for $100 or more not including their travel/house call fee.  Sadly, all these unnecessarily ends up in the landfills.

[dexters_lab]

Sadly, a lot of repair people won't/don't have the skills to replace simply capacitors and would just swap boards for $100 or more not including their travel/house call fee.  Sadly, all these unnecessarily ends up in the landfills.

to be honest i wonder if they do, and then sell the repaired board as a new one!

[saturation]

Good job.  I had to change one of a pair washing machines 8 years ago; it was just old, but the failed parts were easily fixable [ motor or drive belt]; I replace it with a similar analog updated version of same model washer dryer combi; old style 100% electromechanical controls.  Its twin is still working since 1987, 27+ years old.  Now that these 2 units are offset each other by many years,  the chance that both will fail at near the same time is very remote, so worse case there will be at least one working machine to use until the other is repaired/replaced. 

[SeanB]

My one was an old AEG LAVAMAT Deluxe Electronic, which was one of the first microprocessor controlled washing machines. It was new in around 1977, and had a mask ROM processor on it ( and to confuse things they took the chip and reversed the pins so you could not trace the actual micro, but as the pins were all correct but mirrored I found the data sheet in my data book) and a separate power board that drove the DC motor. I had to repair that a few times, dead diodes, dead resistors and dead SAA speed controller,  but never a dead Siemens capacitor ever, though there were a lot of dry joints and hot resistors that fell off. Micro had a crystal fail, so I unsoldered it and turned it around and it worked ( famous fault on Apple boards as well, something about too high a drive level) for years again. Plastic parts that broke and were repaired with epoxy and steel sleeves, and rusting case as well. When you could hear it in a spin cycle 3 floors down through a closed door I decided it was time to retire it.

[GreyWoolfe]

"Over at badcaps.net, we call them Crapxon.  Capxon is most likely the worst capacitor brand in existence. They rarely last 5 years" 

Over 2000 Dell OptiPlex 270 computers deployed in the field back in 2006, I think, with the bad caps and 12 techs covering the state.  Dell sent pallets of system boards and paid my company per board to replace them plus extended the extended warranty for an additional year free.  Still, very painful to go onsite and interrupt work flow to change as many as 25 boards per site.  Later we found the same Crapxon caps in Dell 15" LCD monitor power supply/inverter boards.  I ended up with the job of repairing them out of warranty as the cheapest quote was $65 USD each-for about $1.00 in parts.  Badcaps.net was instrumental in providing insight as to the whole Crapxon dust up.  I still have the site bookmarked.

[miguelvp]

Usually my washing machine repair amounts to changing this part:



Done it so many times I can do it in my sleep now.

[expitaxial]

Nice repair job and video

[aflex]

I think this is good news for you. And this is  nice job with nice video on washing machine flashing repair.

[linux-works]

Usually my washing machine repair amounts to changing this part:

your machine has a FLUX CAPACITOR in it?  wow, it can go back in time before the clothes are dirty, then!