Thursday, April 22, 2010

Maytag Neptune MAH5500AWW Won't Unlock the Door

Here is a recent question about the Maytag Neptune front loader repair...

Q: "I have a Maytag Neptune MAH5500AWW Front Load Washer. A couple years ago I replaced the R11 & Q??, and Wax Motor (with black plunger) to fix a problem in which the spin cycle did not fully run and left the clothes wet. The washer worked without fail until last week. The current problem I am experiencing is that the washer runs through the entire wash cycle, including spin, however, the "on" light and "door lock" light stay on. Door stays locked and the washer stays in a state in which the drum sounds like it spins 1/2 turn every 15 seconds. It never turns off."

A: There are a couple of issues that can cause the wax motor to stay energized after replacing R11 resistor and Q6 triac.

The first cause could be that one of the R11 leads is no longer connected to the Q6 pins #1 and #2. If either lead of R11 becomes disconnected the wax motor will stay energized. If you have an ohmmeter, you can verify that each lead does in fact connect to either pin #1 or pin #2 of the Q6. Note: pin 1 on the Q6 triac is looking at the flat side the very left pin. Pin 2 is center pin and pin three is the far right pin when looking at the flat side. If you flip board over keep in mind the Q6 orientation.

After verifying that the R11 leads are in fact connected... The other cause could be that the Q2 and Q7 transistors need replaced. It is possible these took a 'hit' when the first R11 burnt because AC voltage can be backfed when the Q6 triac shorted out. There is a STAGE 2 kit at the Neptune Help order form where you get the Q2 and Q7 replacements.

3 comments:

Tom Spors said...

Turns out that the fix only fixed the problem for a week or so. Now I"m back to the same problem. Ideas? Time for a new mother board?

Jeff said...

Hi Tom,

Does the door locked light still come on when it should be in the spin cycle? If so, then I would remove the spring clip that holds the wax motor in and expand it and reinstall it carefully without compressing it too much and try it again.

You could also swap the two microswitches and see if that helps.

Jeff

Tom Spors said...

Yes. The door locked light stays on even after the spin cycle completes. It is exactly the same behavior as before I installed the two new components on the circuit board. I had also previously completed the steps you are desribing (remove wax motor and replace plus swapping the microswitches. The interesting part is why was the problem fixed, then reappear after such a short time??