If you have not been following this Maytag Neptune blog I had a customer recently experience a 120025325 wax motor meltdown. We determined that this is a serious failure because the 15 amps from the wall outlet can overheat the failed wax motor to where it actually melts down.
See my Saturday, January 12, 2008 post for pictures.
The wax motor in the door latch assembly fails without incident because the machine control circuit board offers a higher impedance so a smaller current is allowed to flow into the wax motor like the weakest link in a chain.
Usually the Q6 opens up and it is possible if the Q6 triac shorts that the next likely victim will be the copper traces on the machine control board. The copper traces will act like a fuse if the current get high enough.
The theory is that these bleach and softener wax motors will fail eventually and it is probably because they get much less operation time than the door latch wax motor.
This is the first wax motor I have replaced in the dispenser area or the Neptune in the two+ years I have been providing replacement parts.
Just be aware that if your breaker trips and you reset it over and over... you will probably smell something hot in your Neptune.
Until next time...
6 comments:
Something on our Neptune MAH3000 is tripping the dedicated 20 amp circuit breaker. The breaker doesn't trip right away, but after about 5 minutes of operation. I opened it up tonight and the dispenser wax motors look fine, as does the control board. I already have the updated black wax motor for the door lock, so I don't believe that is the problem. No moisture on the power cord. Any ideas? If the dispenser wax motor(s) were going, would this be noticeable, or do I have to check the impedance on them?
thanks
Hi Frank,
You could run a load with the two wax motors disconnected and see if the breaker trips. If breaker does not trip then you have it isolated down to the wax motors. Connect one back up and run another load and see if breaker trips, if so, that is the bad wax motor. If not, reconnect the second wax motor and run another load. The motor control board also has the ability to draw enough current to trip the breaker. It could be on its way out after it runs a few minutes and would require a 12002039 motor and motor control board conversion kit.
Jeff,
After my first post I went and tested the resistance across the two motors, and they were the same - about 1K each. I then tested the door lock motor and it was about the same. Then, as a test, I disconnected the ground leads to the two dispenser motors (this was before I read your post) and ran a test load. It made it through the entire cycle without tripping breaker! I returned here to post the results and then saw you suggestion :). I'm going to run a couple more loads, and if this works, I'll just replace both motors rather that trying to figure out which one is bad. I figure if one is bad, the other can't be too far behind.
I'll let you know.
Thanks
Frank, let me know what you found with the bleach & softener wax motors. I just updated my www.neptunewaxmotor.com website with a (2) wax motor special. Jeff
Jeff,
Sorry for the delay - I just got back last night from a week in the Czech Republic.
We did run a few more loads without any problem before we left for out trip, so I feel rather confident that there is an issue with at least one of the two motors.
I just placed an order for the two motors on your website. I'll let you know how things go once I get them installed.
thanks,
Frank
Jeff,
I had forgotten to update you with the results. After receiving the two new motors from you and replacing them, the washer has been working fine (no more tripped breaker).
Thanks for running this site and providing information and parts for us Neptune owners.
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