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Hi gurus of washing machine land! My first post, but I’ve had a good trawl round for a likely solution and not found one, so here goes!….
Machine – Indesit wg820, about 3 years old.
Previous repairs – new pump, broken door hinge fixed.Problem – trips out the mains RCB.
Isolated down to the main motor. Pump works ok. Intake valves work ok. Timer works ok. Heater works ok. When motor due to start moving the drum it trips out. Disconnecting motor at it’s multi-way plug cures the problem.
Thought that a worn/broken brush may have been causing undue arcing, but they’re both fine. No sign of shorting out in the wiring of the motor unit or in any of the fixed wiring that I can see. No sparking visible anywhere when lights turned out and it’s made to trip the RCB. I get resistance readings of about 4 ohms from the armature and static coils, but not sure if that’s within spec as I can’t find a spec for this Indesco motor. Resistance measured across the mains points after the machine has tripped and before other cutouts cut in is about 150 ohms. I was hoping for a zero but surprised not to get it. Could the solid-state control box be in line and masking the motor? I’ve no circuit diagram to follow, so a bit blind in this area. Oh, and the inside of the machine is dry.
So, gurus, any ideas what could be causing this problem? I’m well and truly stumped.
Cheers,
Ian
(Status – experienced amateur…)
Re: Indesit WG820 tripping out RCB
Ahhh…. I may have it! I mentioned the pump failure – well, at the same time (Law of Sod) a bit of dirt stuck the inlet valve slightly open, overfilling the drum, making it heavier than usual, causing the suspended part to move into contact with a rear strengthening bar, rubbing the main pulley wheel and sprinkling some tiny metal shards into the machine. Found one lying right next to, but not quite touching, the connector for the static coils. So, theory says a multi-meter wouldn’t see it, but 400 volts of mains probably would. A high voltage insulation tester would probably have found it, but I don’t have one handy 😉 . I’ll give the whole thing a good vacuum out, and re-assemble it tomorrow to see if that’s a fix, or I’ve just mis-led myself again 🙄
Ian
Re: Indesit WG820 tripping out RCB
Oops – misled myself again! Problem still persists…. Now looking for a rubbing wire. Anyone else any ideas/experience of this sort of thing, best place to look, etc?
Cheers,
Ian 🙁
Re: Indesit WG820 tripping out RCB
I would say you’re probably right! Got an occasional reading (as in dependent upon rotor position) of less than 50 ohms between brush and motor chassis. Fair to say that the coil insulation is breaking down? Or could it be (metallic) dirt build-up and clean-out-able?
Cheers,
Ian
Re: Indesit WG820 tripping out RCB
Reading to earth from any pin on the motor should be 2Mohms or greater at least.
A good clean up will do no harm – get all the old carbon dust out, it might make a difference.
If not, we’ll need the full model reference as there are two versions of this machine.
Indesit motors tend to be in the order of £80-£100, so it might be coming towards decision time.
Regards,
Penguin45.Re: Indesit WG820 tripping out RCB
Thanks for all the help, but seems like the motor was totally ‘goosed’, so, following all the other little problems that we’d had, a new machine was bought.
I reckon that the motor had overheated from a previous incident and the coil insulation had burnt/melted on the armature, shorting the power to the chassis. Can’t do much about that.
More data into the well of experience…
Cheers,
Ian
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