Replacing System board – Good money after bad? (Zanussi)

Hi there,

My skills: Unemployed, but work in IT, very happy rebuilding PC’s etc. Good carpentry, basic building, plumbing and electronics (have a meter, soldering kit, most power tools, etc). I’m pretty practical and handy, but have no specific knowledge in this field.

Background: This is an older machine (Zanussi ZWD1471W condenser washer dryer (which we’d need to replace with same)), probably bought in 2007/8 but then put into store 12-18 months later and only taken out last month. So it’s older, and has sat around (and been moved twice), but it’s not actually done that much work (maybe one load a fortnight for those 12-18 months).

History: When I installed it and tried to run it it came up with a door lock error. I fiddled around with the door lock in case of loose connections, etc to no avail, but since it was a cheap part, I got a new one, fitted it, and that fixed things. I got one wash out of it, to then get the next problem…

Problem: Basically when you start a wash program it runs 30 seconds then pauses, if you click reset->pause it will restart for a second or two, lather/rinse/repeat. I have got it to run a full cycle once. If you skip past the wash then the spin, drain and dry functions work fine.

Looking up online shows that it’s likely a system board error, and being intermittent, could well be a loose connection, etc. I have opened up the top, unscrewed several sub-assemblies, unplugged all plugs I can, and wriggled and pushed tight those I couldn’t get out. I also cleaned the contacts where I could, although to be fair they all looked immaculate anyway.

I wouldn’t swear that there isn’t a loose connection somewhere (I only opened the top, didn’t disassemble the sides, nor remove the drum/spring assembly but I’ve done everything that was accessible, and it all looked pretty good anyway, although there was a little room to push in a few plugs.

The next stage unless anyone more knowledgeable has an alternative seems to be replace that system board, but that’s really pricey. I have someone on here trying to track down the right spare part, but from what I can gather this is likely to be really expensive (like ~50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of a new machine) and that’s if I’m able to fit it all myself – if it needs an engineer visit presumably a hell of a lot more.

I’m unemployed, we just moved house, and like everyone else, money is very tight. If we have to get a new machine, then we can probably reorganise priorities and/or borrow some to do it, but I’m loathe to write off what seems to be a great condition and low usage machine with a ‘small’ fault (this could be rubbish and just viewing plumbing faults through an IT lens).

Sorry, that’s a big wall of text, but my experience of being on the fault finding and support side of things is that more info is always better. I guess what my succinct question is, is: At what point is trying to repair an old but low usage machine (probably only done 30-50 washes) a waste of money, and throwing good money after bad?

My feeling was that replacing the door lock was quite cheap and a good gamble, but if the board is gone then I could be looking at something like £120-180 with VAT and delivery, and more if it needs an engineer (I read somewhere about having to have a new board ‘programmed’?). That’s a significant chunk of money to spend especially when that could fix this, and then just reveal the next error to come up… A new condensing washer/dryer seems to be of the £300-350 order possibly with delivery on top.

Is there any recommended {e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of replacement where it’s advised to quit and get a new one (similar to car write-offs?). I’m willing to get the part and fix it, I just worry I’ll do all that, and then still need a new machine, and have made it cost 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} more in the process… 🙁

Many thanks in advance for all of your help,

Jonathan