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S/N 207263214 * 80260970000 – Purchased May 2003
The machine is stopping at the rinse stage in any program with the usual ‘spinning dial’ syndrome (don’t have access to the fault code at the moment because I’m on my break at work!!)
I checked for blockages, filter, pump failure – all ok.
The machine has been attended to three times by Merloni engineers.
First visit went like this. Engineer takes lid off and taps pressure switch as ‘that usually fixes it’ 🙄 No effect. Next he removes the module, gets a replacement from his van, sweats a bit in case he doesn’t have the appropriate eeprom in case he has to use his laptop to program one, finds eeprom then refits the original module in error. Spots his mistake then fits replacement module without the eeprom. Of course machine doesn’t work!
Spots his mistake again and removes and refits module with eeprom. Still not working.
Eventually he gets out laptop and hitches up ‘Wash Doctor’. It flags a fault with a component (I wasn’t quick enough to notice which was reported as faulty) to which engineer respons ‘they never go, it must be the wiring loom has a bad connection’. He promptly orders a new loom, and a pressure switch and replacement dial for good measure and arrangements are made for a second visit when parts arrive.
Second visit (3 days later) – same engineer. New pressure switch and dial fitted but loom can’t go on as it has the wrong connectors (not the IDC type) – engineer blames the parts database for this mistake. Turns out new loom is out of stock and he mutters something about a concessionary replacement machine.
Third visit (3 weeks later due to wait for correct loom) – different engineer who assumes the loom fault was diagnosed correctly so replaces this without checking the rest of the machine. Still not functioning. This engineer condemns the machine and we are now waiting for an offer from Merloni over a replacement.
The impression I am getting is that the engineers are reluctant to repair these machines, and the machine’s reputation is discouraging them from investigating faults properly – vicious circle. However I am not convinced that a 16 month old machine that has been subject to light but frequent use is scrap.
Why I am here is that I am hoping I can find an independant engineer in the Glasgow area with the savvy to fix what the original engineer found, but chose to ignore, and not hum and haw over the machine because of what it is but instead look at it objectively.
The bad reputation for this machine is a self-fulfilling prophecy if Merloni engineers ignore the faults reported by their own technology, fergawdsake!!!!
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
r11co,
Many thanks for sharing that horror story with us. Your experience doesn’t go unnoticed and I hope all future purchases of washing machine prove more rewarding for you and yours.
My heart goes out to Merloni though for all the stress they must have endured in order NOT to resolve your problem. At least 2 Merloni engineers now will not be able to sleep at night knowing they failed to fix your machine 😯
But you and I have other ideas I’m sure 😉
…. but Hey! think of it as a positive step in realising todays technological breakthrough in washing machine design does literally ends up on tomorrows rubbish tip (well similar timescale at least)…the only winners in this case are those that made and sold it to you. Now think of the future…..what to buy as a replacement?
I still swear by Bosch and not at Bosch, so you might take that as a recommendation from someone who is at least “in the know” 😉
Happy washdays!
Martin
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
Hi r11co,
Here’s the deal…
I am an independent and my primary stomping ground is Glasgow postcodes and the surrounding areas, but I won’t touch Indesit/Ariston/Hotpoint if I can avoid it for one simple reason. That reason is, like other manufacturers, they have delivered appliances to market and not offered the trade any technical assistance with them at all and on many of these new machines that are totally electronically controlled, without the technical information you’re sunk.
Whether or not the Ariston engineer was correct or not in his diagnosis in this instance is irrelevant really, the fact is in three visits and several loads of spares they’ve not solved the problem. Again, things like that can happen, we all get one of “those” calls every now and then that are a problem, but with a van full of spares and all the technical information to hand the manufacturer couldn’t repair it so I’m doubting that we could really do that much for you.
In all honesty a lot of the low-cost machines get scrapped the first time they require a service call as people don’t even want to pay a reasonable service fee on them. You pays your money…
K.
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
kwatt wrote:
but I won’t touch Indesit/Ariston/Hotpoint if I can avoid it for one simple reason. That reason is, like other manufacturers, they have delivered appliances to market and not offered the trade any technical assistance with them at all
I heard that statement over the ‘phone a few times now when I’ve been ringing round for a second opinion…
kwatt wrote:
Whether or not the Ariston engineer was correct or not in his diagnosis in this instance is irrelevant really, the fact is in three visits and several loads of spares they’ve not solved the problem. Again, things like that can happen, we all get one of “those” calls every now and then that are a problem, but with a van full of spares and all the technical information to hand the manufacturer couldn’t repair it.
What I was trying to get at with my initial post is that there has grown a wall of reluctance to even attempt to repair these machines, and the engineers in my case have strung out an act which will inevitably finish in them condemning the machine whether the fault was simple or not. I hate to say it, but the cynicism that follows the machine in this forum just adds weight to that belief (no smoke without fire perhaps, but….!).
But to ignore one reported fault and change a related part is fine providing communication doesn’t break down and the reason why that decision was made doesn’t get lost between engineers, as was my case
I don’t know what the politics between the engineers and the company is and whether this is their solution to dealing with a hopeless parts supply infrastructure, or perhaps they are being encouraged to condemn machines so they can be reclaimed under exchange and repaired at base then turn up at my local Comet ‘scratch-n-dent’ warehouse, I don’t know.
kwatt wrote:
In all honesty a lot of the low-cost machines get scrapped the first time they require a service call as people don’t even want to pay a reasonable service fee on them. You pays your money…Money isn’t a problem as long as the job gets done, but it’s the time that costs – isn’t it, and in this case time has been wasted by an engineer who got it wrong, and now the machine is suffering because of that wasted time and money. I’m still not convinced that the course of action to condemn the machine has been taken for the right reason, but with no-one out there having access to the same resources as the dumb-dumb who had the diagnostics and chose to ignore them…..
🙄
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
Yeah, most of us tend to stick with what we know as much as possible and that only compounds the problem you’ve seen. Sad I know, but any responsible business as all that are here are (as best I know) will not want to risk your time and your money learning the hard way how to repair an appliance. As you rightly say, the time (and hassle factor) sitting about waiting on an engineer to call is probably the biggest cost and it’s in our best interest to repair as much as possible on the first visit. Not having the correct information to attain that gives us grief from customers as well as the customers grief, so there’s little or no point in it.
However, you have to respect the repairers that have told you this honestly rather than trying to fleece you and there are still some out there liable to leave spur marks in the lino I’m afraid.
As to the spares problem, there’s generally no problems getting them, albeit with delays in some cases, but when a module costs way in excess of 25{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the purchase price of the entire machine it’s a risk to replace them. Plus, more often than not, the customer will refuse to have the repair based on the cost.
In your last sentence you mention not using the fault diagnosis correctly, well as I am always saying… fault codes only point an engineer in the direction and nature of the fault, they do not offer a specific cause and that’s where good old human diagnosis skills kick in. 😉
K.
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
kwatt wrote:
In your last sentence you mention not using the fault diagnosis correctly, well as I am always saying… fault codes only point an engineer in the direction and nature of the fault, they do not offer a specific cause and that’s where good old human diagnosis skills kick in. 😉
I know what you mean exactly – my own area of expertise is electronics (which is why I had a little titter to myself when the poor engineer broke into a sweat over programming an eeprom – it’s something I do several times daily and I was trying desperately hard not to intervene and appear a smart arse) and I’ve found myself having the same thought process as him ie. those bits never fail so it must be something else. Then you find yourself disappearing down a blind alley having convinced yourself ‘from experience’ that you’re right – I’ve done it a few times.
The trouble now, though, is that thanks to a break in the line of communication the second engineer is taking as read the fault was the loom and the original possibility has been overlooked – it’s difficult not to trust your colleagues but it is something else I’ve learned to do, even if it does seem a waste of time, and that is to check someone elses work (discreetly of course 😉 ) from scratch when they are claiming something doesn’t work – but that’s time again, isn’t it.
Anyhoo – the fault code is 8 flashes…. 😆
Isn’t 8 flashes heater not coming on? Can be dry joints at relay on digiboard.
Unplug it first……..
Regards,
Penguin45.Penguin45 wrote:Isn’t 8 flashes heater not coming on? Can be dry joints at relay on digiboard.
Unplug it first……..
Regards,
Penguin45.Hey – thanks for jogging my memory. That’s what ‘Wash Doctor’ flashed up ie. something regards a heater…..
AFAIK ‘digiboard’ has been replaced, unless that is something different from the module.
Interesting……
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
OK. I broke the golden rule and opened the machine – figured the engineers have lost interest so I’ve nothing to lose.
First thing I discovered was a stray 2-pin connector in the loom which mates to the top-most edge conector on ‘the module’. Straight away I’m even more suspicious about the egineer’s dedication to the job – why was this left unplugged?? And I’ve been conned – it’s the original board that is in the machine as it has the soldered rather than socketed eeprom – he must have switched them again when I was making him a cuppa!!
I’ve looked at the loom he left lying on the kitchen floor and one of the connectors to the heater look scorched and the plastic around it is melted – likewise the socket on the circuit board looks a little melted!!
If I can find this why can’t the engineers spot it???
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
OK – latest news.
I’ve just put the machine through a cold wash cycle, from start to finish without so much as a hiccup.
Plus the wife has just confirmed to me the last wash she put it through before it started playing up was a boil wash.
Any guesses what the fault is????
😀 😀
PS – can someone confirm to me that the heater is the item bolted into the bottom of the drum with the heavy wires running to it before I make a complete tit of myself.Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
r11co wrote:PS – can someone confirm to me that the heater is the item bolted into the bottom of the drum with the heavy wires running to it before I make a complete tit of myself.
Yep, that’ll be the wash heater. 😉
K.
Hi rc11co,
You said that there was a connector off the board? If this is a heavy two wireplug, it is the heater supply. If you have run a zero temperature wash, the heater is not required, therefore no fault will be detected.If the two wire lead is a lightweight on it may be the thermistor (temperature control) feed, although this should (theoretically) give a different fault code!
You said that the last wash was a boil wash, this requires extended use of the heater, any heat distortion or burning can be linked to a poor connection or dry joint.
If you are VERY lucky you may be able to repair this kind of surface damage, otherwise you ARE looking at a replacement board.
The heater should read 20-30 ohms by the way, with absolutely minimal earth leakage.
I repeat though, you should shout the house down to Merloni about this, they have had three goes at this and failed, and you appear to have been misled as well as to what has actually been done.
It’s worth bearing in mind that Merloni people read these forums, so when you phone you may even be offered some service!
Best regards,
Penguin45.First of all may I say thanks for all the help so far guys – much appreciated.
Penguin45 wrote:
You said that there was a connector off the board? If this is a heavy two wireplug, it is the heater supply. If you have run a zero temperature wash, the heater is not required, therefore no fault will be detected.If the two wire lead is a lightweight on it may be the thermistor (temperature control) feed, although this should (theoretically) give a different fault code!
The two wires were actually heading up to the top of the machine somewhere. I am assuming (first time in a washing machine) that the thermistor is fitted just above the wash heater and the wires going to it are blue while the loose connector had red wires, so probably unrelated to the fault being reported.
Penguin45 wrote:
You said that the last wash was a boil wash, this requires extended use of the heater, any heat distortion or burning can be linked to a poor connection or dry joint.The heater should read 20-30 ohms by the way, with absolutely minimal earth leakage.
You are thinking along the same lines as me Penguin. It seems that the engineer(s) have changed parts in isolation and when the fault hasn’t gone swapped the original parts back, with the exception of the loom which was probably too much hassle to remove and replace again. The heater is showing exactly 30 ohms and no earth leakage. I’m convinced that the melted loom plug AND module were to blame and the fact that I can run cold and cool washes (managed 30 and 40 degree washes too) means the fault is squarely at the heater circuit.
I really don’t know what they were doing messing around with pressure switches and dials 😕 .
Penguin45 wrote:
I repeat though, you should shout the house down to Merloni about this, they have had three goes at this and failed, and you appear to have been misled as well as to what has actually been done.It’s worth bearing in mind that Merloni people read these forums, so when you phone you may even be offered some service!
I’ll be calling them again today, and I’ll keep you posted…..
Re: Ariston AWD12S (again!!!) – reluctance to repair.
One more question before I start the butt-kicking. Does this machine use the same heating circuit for washing and drying?? The reason I ask is I just got a call from the missus saying she’d tried the machine through a dry cycle. Went through the motions but clothes came out damp – no heat.
If they are one and the same circuit it sort of adds fuel to my fire.
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