Friday, June 12, 2009

front load washers - Maytag Neptune Update


Front load washers are here to stay! Do you own an earlier Maytag Neptune front loader? If so, you need to be aware of some reliability issues.

First, the door latch wax motor is probably the most problematic component on the Neptune. The original devices short out over time and burn the R11 resistor and the Q6 triac on the machine control board. You can prevent your R11 & Q6 failure by proactively replacing your faulty door latch wax motor. The part number is 12002535 and you can purchase the new replacement at http://www.neptunehelp.com/.

If you have a MAH3000 Neptune, you could have 3 wax motors in there waiting to fail... The soap dispenser on the earlier MAH3000's have 2 wax motors that control the bleach and softener flow and should be replaced.

The original wax motors have the brownish color actuator pin and the new design has the black pin.

Next, we will talk about the next item you should be aware of being a Neptuner.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I have a MAH300AWW that will not do more than tumble when it is time to spin(even if empty of clothes), I have replaced the Machine Control Board, and tested the Motor control board, the balance switches, and the wax motor appears to work, the door locks and the door lock light illuminates. Any ideas?? JG

Jeff said...

Hi Jeff,

I'll bet the button is not being fully pressed in on the spin enable switch which is the right most micro switch or the microswitch is bad. You could swap the two microswitches and try that...

If the wax motor is not scooting over to the right far enough I would try removing the wax motor spring clip, expand it, carefully reinstall it and test again.

Keep in mind that if you are testing the spin cycle with the wax motor exposed it will take over a minute for the tub to start the ramp up. It is like watching grass grow ;>)

By the way: Do you have the new wax motor design with black actuator pin? If not, see http://www.neptunehelp.com/index_files/Page667.htm to order one.

Also, the earlier MAH3000's have 2 more wax motors in the soap dispenser section that will need to be replaced as well.

I hope this helps...

Unknown said...

Thanks, I will try all of the above, one at a time... I believe it has the new wax motor, as this unit came to me via my brother and he had replaced "many" items already including the Machine Control board once. Yes I did not toss the old board. I will do the spring clip, then swap the microswitches...Boy and how!! am I used to watching grass grow waiting to see if this thing spins. It will spin maybe one out of 20 cycles. I will check and replace all wax motors if they are still the brown ones. JG