Sunday, February 24, 2008

Maytag Neptune 12002535 waxmotor melt down final - Affected Model / Serial number information

Looking at the models with the defective wax motors in the dispenser section I came up with the following models: 

MAH3000AEW 10-29 serial number prefix MAH3000AAW 10-29 serial number prefix MAH3000AGW 10-29 serial number prefix MAH3000AKW 10-29 serial number prefix MAH3000AWA 10-25 serial number prefix MAH3000AWQ 10-25 serial number prefix MAH3000AWW 10-25 serial number prefix MAH3000BGW N/A 

It looks like the MAH3000 is the only model affected. 

The MAH4000, MAH5500 integrates the water valve with the bleach and softener valves as one assembly.

See previous posts regarding the 12002535 wax motor melt down in the dispenser section of Neptune front loader. I know of two different failures where the circuit breaker trips while the machine is running a wash cycle. If you get this symptom, unplug the two dispenser wax motors and rerun washer and see if the breaker trips. 

For you MAH3000 owners, I put up a (2) wax motor special on my www.neptunewaxmotor.com site. If you have any questions about this important wax motor issue please send me an email at info@neptunewaxmotor.com.

Until next time...

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Beware if you get an egreeting!

I just received an email saying it is from 'egreetings.com' and the subject line reads 'You've received a greeting from a family member!'. 

What ever you do don't click on the link!!! If you run your mouse over the link (but don't click!) You should see that it shows the link as'http://host.pekod.ru/postcard.exe' even though it displays 'http://www2.postcards.org/?a91-valets-cloud-31337'. 

This is a common trick in emails such as phishing where they want you to think you are clicking an a familiar link but it is not what you think it is... If you click on this link it will actually execute the file named postcard.exe and who knows what it will install on your computer! 

You should never ever click on an .exe file if you don't know exactly what it is. Do a search in Google on 'postcard.exe' and you will see that other sites have info on this file and what it can do to your machine. 

 As always, if you know anyone with a Maytag Neptune front loader please have them go to my http://www.neptunewaxmotor.com/ site for valuable information to help keep their washer in tip top shape and get more reliability out of their machine.

Until next time...

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Calling all Maytag Neptune Owners!

Well, it is freezing back in Columbus, Ohio and I would like to go back to Orlando! I was getting used to the mid 70's in February for the 5 days I was down there!

In the meantime, Neptune owners are writing me because I put together a Neptune bearing and seal kit so you can land your Neptune in spin cycle... What am I talking about... landing your Neptune?

The tell tale sign that your Neptune's bearings are going is that it sounds like an jet airplane taking off in spin cycle. That is if your spin cycle is still working due to the door latch wax motor failure waiting to happen... See previous posts for important info on the 12002535 wax motor issue.








Here is a picture of a dead Neptune bearing. Maytag wants you to buy a new outer tub. If you have a service guy perform the repair it will set you back $900 - $1,200. You can do it yourself for much less and spin a few more years out of that Neptune.







I usually have the bearings in stock... It's those darn seal kits I'm always waiting for to arrive. 

On my http://www.neptunebearing.com/ site order form I will have 'Out of Stock' when I am waiting for the seal kits. If you go ahead and order, I will place you on the pre-order list and your order will ship as soon as I receive the seal kits on a first ordered - first shipped basis. I will also email you an ebook which offers different ways to do the change out and other tips to help you.

Until next time...

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

How many Maytag Neptunes went down since I left?

Hello, I just got back from Disney in Orlando, Florida this afternoon! 

Boy, was the weather great! It was mid seventies and it was only like 10°/F back in the Columbus, Ohio area! I feel I got my money's worth just because of the temperature difference. 

What a great time. We landed in Orlando and drove to New Smyrna Beach on Saturday and stayed all night in a relative's beach condo, woo hoo! The kids had a great time out in the Atlantic... at first they were just going to 'wade' in the water but they ended up getting soaked! Thanks uncle Perry! 

Sunday we left and headed to Epcot for a few hours. Monday and Tuesday we went to Magic Kingdom and closed it down both nights! I also found out that your patience can really be tested when you have a 3 and a 5 year old on a Disney vacation! 

Now that I am back in the cold Ohio weather... I need to get back to work. I sold three Maytag Neptune R11 Q6 + 12002535 wax motor repair kits today and it got me thinking about how many times Neptune owners come home from vacation to find out their door latch wax motor has failed? That has to be terrible with all of that vacation laundry piled up! 

I am trying to reach as many Maytag Neptune owners as I can so they can prevent this failure from happening!!! If you know any Neptune owners please send them to www.neptunewaxmotor.com as soon as possible to check out the door latch wax motor information!

Until next time...

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Maytag Neptune 12002535 waxmotor melt down final

So far I have not received any feedback from Maytag Neptune customers that have had the bleach and/ or softener waxmotors fail. 

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...

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Neptune 12002535 wax motor meltdown conclusion...

At this time, it seems like we should keep an close eye on the 12002535 wax motors located in the dispenser area. 

This is the first wax motor failure I am aware of in the dispenser module in the two years I have been providing wax motors and R11 & Q6 repair kits to Neptune owners. 

One day I will add up how much I have saved Neptune owners and post it on my blog. It has to be in the 10's of thousands already... 

I have in the past received questions asking why the door latch wax motor fails but the other two wax motors don't? I thought at first it was maybe that the door latch wax motor is exposed to more moisture than the bleach & softener wax motors were. I don't think that is the case because the whole laundry room can be humid. 

The other theory is that if the door boot has a bad seal around the top maybe steam could escape and expose the wax motor to higher moisture levels? Another theory is that it could be based on the actual operation time the wax motors are on. 

The door latch runs at a much higher duty cycle than the bleach & softener wax motors operate. I guess for now I should caution you that if your machine trips the breaker beware that if you keep resetting the breaker you could have a wax motor meltdown! 

Let's use the power of the information superhighway to locate other folks who might of had Neptune wax motors fail in the dispenser area... Have you or do you know anyone who has a neptune and has had a wax motor failure in the dispenser area?

Until next time...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Potential Maytag wax motor meltdown?

Yesterday, I received an email from a customer asking: "Jeff just curious why the wax motors on the door lock fail but the ones on the bleach and softner don’t (model 3000) ???" 

I responded: "Hi, I'm not sure why the door lock wax motors fail but the bleach / softener ones do not... I have not sold a WM to replace the bleach and softener WM's in the two years I have been supplying them except for yours. It could have something to do with the time the wax motors are activated. The door lock WM gets a lot more run time than the others. 

Then it dawned on me that maybe all of the Neptune wax motors should be replaced. If you did not see the picture of the wax motor meltdown please take a look at my last post. This failed 12002535 wax motor was located in the detergent dispenser of a MAH3000 Neptune. 

I wondered if the door latch wax motor would melt down if it weren’t for the sacrificial Q6 triac. I believe it would meltdown as it did in the photo. The reason, when the Q6 triac on the machine control board shorts out internally and fails it severely limits the current to the wax motor. This allows the door latch wax motor to not draw enough current to really disintegrate where as the failed wax motor in the photo tripped the circuit breaker because it is fed directly by the timer contacts which can supply much more current than the Q6 triac can. 

It is true the door lock wax motor gets more use than the bleach and softener wax motors do. So maybe it is a matter of time before the two wax motors in the dispenser go? I don't believe the wax motor in the picture would have burned up so badly with the first breaker trip. But what concerns me is the multiple breaker trips and resets customers might apply to a failed wax motor simply trying to investigate what is tripping the breaker... I will continue my thoughts on this post next time.