- This topic has 20 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hi,
I’m hoping someone might be able to help me. The above machine started playing up today for the first time since we got it, when checking on a load, I found the machine was doing nothing partway through a cycle with the following LEDs flashing (the four buttons in a row – stain removal, easy iron, extra rinse, 1000-500 – I will number from 1 to 4, starting from left-most button ‘stain removal’):
2, 3, 4 flashing at a rate of 1 per second, no pauses. Red LED beneath padlock symbol flashing very rapidly – more flickering than flashing, the rate was so high.
Now, I know this is annoying, but when I came in to write this after resetting the machine, I couldn’t recall if, in fact, the light sequence had been 1, 2, 3 flashing. It was a group of three in a row, so can only be one or the other. The original sequence I wrote in the paragraph above is the one I think is correct, rather than the one in this paragraph.
Anyway, reset the machine and it started working like normal from the start of the selected cycle. Went in some time after (the fabric softener had gone from the tray, so it was past that cycle) to find that it was doing the following repetitively: drum rotating once, filling with more water, drum rotating once, filling with more water… I quickly realised the water was being syphoned out through the drain hose, so I gathered the drain solenoid was being kept open. I turned the machine off with the button on the front and waited 30 seconds while the syphoning continued until the drum was empty. I’ve now turned it back on and it’s just going through the wash cycle. I’m waiting to see if, when it next empties, it doesn’t cut off the syphoning and so it does the same as before.
Any ideas please on the fault code being flashed, and the cause of the problem it showed next? The problem with the water being syphoned straight out didn’t present any fault flashes. Incidentally, it was being syphoned – the pump motor wasn’t running.
Thanks, James.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
Start by pulling the drain hose back up the drain pipe until the end is at least an inch above the halfway line of the drum. There is no drain solenoid, the water is retained in the machine on the “U Bend” principal, so if it’s too far down, the water runs in, the water runs out.
I imagine your code represents no fill in the time allowed.
Penguin45.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
Penguin45 wrote:if it’s too far down, the water runs in, the water runs out. I imagine your code represents no fill in the time allowed.
Thanks for your reply. Surely, as long as the top of the U-bend is above the machine’s waterline, water won’t be able to run in and straight back out, regardless of how far the end of the hose is pushed into the solid drain pipe? The solid drain pipe behind my machine has its end coming way above the waterline, so the bend has to be way above also, of course. The effect of having the end of the flexible hose pushed too far into the solid drain pipe is that if it goes below the machine’s waterline, a syphon situation can occur if fresh water starts going in before waste water has finished flowing out the drain hose, and the syphon will continue ad infinitum, which is what I had happening.
So, is it normal that it starts putting fresh water in before waste water has finished flowing out the drain hose? Because that’s the only way a syphon can occur that pulls the fresh water straight out, triggering a cycle of the machine continuously refilling as the pressure sensor detects a lack of water in the drum.
Seems odd that all of a sudden it’d start syphoning water out when none of the pipework or hose has been touched, and that after restarting it following the fault flashes I left it for a very long time doing the cycle of filling/emptying and yet no faults came up.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
actually, it does matter, if the end of the drain hose itself is lower than the water level, it will cause the machine to syphon
much like syphoning petrol out of a tank, once the pipe is lower than the level of the petrol in the tank, and a vacuum is created, the petrol will syphon until theres none left
mr p is spot on, the end of the hose must ultimately be higher than the water level of the machine.. thats why theres usually a red line on the back of the machine somewhere
basic physics really
I know it’s basic physics and I know the level of the end of the hose is important; I actually explained it in my post:
The effect of having the end of the flexible hose pushed too far into the solid drain pipe is that if it goes below the machine’s waterline, a syphon situation can occur if fresh water starts going in before waste water has finished flowing out the drain hose
At no point did I say it didn’t matter. My point was that the only way the fresh water going in could be syphoned straight back out – as it was doing in my machine – is if fresh water is added before the waste water has finished flowing out (so a syphon is still in progress). I always assumed these machines finished emptying the waste water completely before starting to fill the drum with fresh water. Obviously that assumption is wrong, or such a situation with my machine could not have developed. Of course, the fact a syphon was occurring means the end of the flexible hose is lower than the waterline in the drum, so the overall diagnosis from Penguin is spot-on. I just thought something must be wrong for fresh water to be going in while waste water is still going out, but hey, if there’s no solenoid valve in place and the machine does indeed start filling before it’s finished emptying waste water and the hose is too low in the pipe, then it looks like there’s nothing functionally wrong with the machine.
I was also just saying that the end of the hose being below the waterline does not cause water added to the drum to flow in and straight back out, as long as the U-bend’s top is above the waterline, unless a syphon is already present from the waste water being pumped out.
The other thing was that it showed no error flashes when it was stuck in the filling/emptying cycle even though I left it half an hour doing that. I don’t know what preceded the error flashes the first time, as we hadn’t been near the machine for at least 8 hours after it was set to wash a load.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
What can and often does happen when an outlet hose is pushed to far down the waste pipe is that a build up of gunge, soap residue etc will build up around the pipe.
This effectively seals the washer outlet pipe to the waste pipe so that the end of the ‘outlet’ is not the end of the washing machine hose but the lowest level of the waste pipe. If the machine has been used with more detergent than is required then it can oversoap, this will lead to poor draining and some water will still be in the drum when the next rinse/fill cycle begins leading to a syphoning situation.I had a machine this week that was syphoning, it had not been moved for five years or more but the fixed outlet plumbing had dropped slightly allowing the pipe to remain full of water, the end of the washer outlet pipe which was pushed right down into the waste pipe was permanently submerged in this water and was syphoning on every cycle.
The outlet pipe should go down the waste no more the six inches or so.
Jim.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
Thanks for reply as well iadom, found hose was really far into pipe and have lifted it above center line of machine, however, I’m sure it’s been like that a while, so not sure why it started syphoning now.
Anyway, I’m still unsure if the machine’s happy. After the syphoning problem earlier, I reset it and started the wash cycle afresh set to white cotton cycle at 90 degrees. It’s been going for over 2 and a half hours now still on the wash cycle, and there’s no warmth perceptible at all from the door front, even though there normally is despite the double layer constuction simply because 90 degrees is so hot it spreads eventually.
Is there any way I can decipher the flashing LEDs and discover what it thought was wrong initially, before I noticed the syphon problem after resetting the machine following the error flashes?
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
I’m glad you did what I suggested.
Based on your original post, we don’t actually know which lamps were flashing. Consider this – it’s an immersion heater, so if the water syphons out and exposes the element to air, it’s life expectancy can be measured in seconds.
Pull the plug, remove the rear cover and check for continuity through the element – a resistance check should show 20-30 ohms with the leads disconnected.
Penguin45.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
I’ll try that. Don’t these elements have closely coupled thermostats with thermal cut-outs attached?
There are only two possible combinations of flashing LEDs because it was three in a row, I just couldn’t recall if it was the left-hand three of the four LEDs, or the right-hand three.
So, it’s either 1,2,3 flashing, or 2,3,4. And whichever of those two combinations it was, the red LED above the padlock symbol was flickering very fast. Even if bth combinations of flashing LEDs actually exists and points to an error, only one will likely make sense in the context of the perceived symptoms.
**Edit**
After 4 hours and still being on the wash cycle, I’ve had to turn the machine off, as I like some electricity left in the meter. Any known cause of this?!
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
Chappers wrote:I’ll try that. Don’t these elements have closely coupled thermostats with thermal cut-outs attached?
No thermostats in these machines, temperature is controlled by a small NTC, either slotted into the heater plate or mounted on the back of the drum. Thermal protection is via one or sometimes two microtemp cut outs embedded inside the element itself. These are one shot devices and will not reset.
Jim.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
Ah, I see. Thanks for that. Does look like the heater isn’t working, water’s always cold. Do you think that the heater not working would cause it to be stuck on wash cycle forever? We’ve tried more loads (haven’t tried a cold wash yet, though) and it just stays on wash cycle indefinitely. I’m wondering if it’s waiting for the water temperature to get to the right level, and since that’s not happening, it just carries on tumbling the clothes about while it waits…and waits…and waits.
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
yes that sounds right, may also just be a heater wire broken, had it several times before, either way not too bad to fix
Re: Indesit WIDL102 washer/dryer flashing LEDs
I’ve checked and the heater element is open-circuit. Must be as Penguin said, that when it was syphoning, the element was left exposed in air and cooked itself. I’ll price a new one on this website.
There is a white disc component in a rubber bung just above the heater element – I gather this is the NTC thermistor? The thing is, it’s not measuring like a standard thermistor. With the test probes one way around on the pins, it reads 600KOhm, if I swap the leads over, it reads 100KOhm, but each time the reading goes up and up on both readings, as though there’s a capacitor built in. Any idea on this?
I want to make sure I order all the parts I’m going to need in one go, but a thermistor behaving like that and not obviously changing resistance when warmed and cooled, just going up in resistance as though being charged by my meter, then dropping when the meter’s disconnected, is very odd.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.