AEG L16810 Not drying

[admin]

AEG Lavamat L16810 Washer Dryer
PNC (?) – P6359678
Prod. No. 914601605/02
Serial No. 33800048

Purchased Oct 2003

Having just got past the guarantee period my Washer Dryer is now intermittent on the drying cycle. 95{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the time it wont dry.

If I set the dry cycle to say 40 mins it finishes in about 4 mins and the heater doesn’t kick in.

Most of the time the Dryer fan starts up OK but the air coming out of the system isn’t warm.

Machine water supply and drainage all fine for the wash cycles and I have had the machine out and lid off. All the connections seemed sound and I had resistance across the two sets of terminals in the neater block in the fan heater system (about 40 ohms and 120 ohms respectively)

The belt between the motor & fan spindle is fine and rotates freely.

The only time the machine does ‘dry’ or at least pump hot air around the system is when the drum doesn’t have any clothes in.

I’m at a bit of a loss as to what could be wrong. Anyone any ideas?

Failing that any idea how much the key parts would cost to for this machine (local call out charges seem to be about £60 +VAT.

(and there was me thinking the German stuff would last longer 🙁 )
TIA

Neil

[Penguin45]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

Basic problem is that this is a Zanussi washer dryer in a posh skirt……

Your problem will almost certainly be the condenser housing in the rear right corner of the machine as you look at it. It fills with fluff to such a degree that it restricts the air flow around the machine. Accessing it involves splitting the rear casing from the machine and thoroughly cleaning out.

Power off please………

Regards,
Penguin45.

[admin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

Ok thanks, I’ll take a look. Given that it kicked in briefly yesterday with a slight ‘fluff’ burning smell I think you could be right.

(Don’t worry about power off….. Chartered Electronic Eng and have worked on high voltage stuff (KV) before now 🙂 )

Neil

[admin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

Ok so far so good.

Have got machine apart and sure enough there were handfulls of fluff, washed paper etc in the air vent between the drum and fan restricting the air flow. Have cleared all that out and re-assembled.

However, the heater still doesnt kick in and the timer counts down at less that 1 minute intervals as before.

Now looking at the heater and the venting around it it appears there are 3 sensors in the hot part of the vent pipe. I am presuming these are safety sensors?

Two of them are low impedance (0.75 and .3 ohms respectively) but the last one is open circuit. I have tried removing it and sticking it in a cup of boiling water so see if it would go low resistance when hot but that didn’t work either.

Is this likely to be a faulty or blown sensor?

This sensor was located near the vent outlet into the drum rather than towards the heater end itself. On the device is written TR-306 and T-200

Picture of the heater vent pipe here – the sensor in question is to the left of the picture with the Orange wires going to it.

Picture of said sensorhere

Note that the volts across the Orange wires show as -5v AC (which seems odd) so I am wondering if I short these terminals out it will tell if it is indeed the sensor that is no more?

Otherwise any other ideas?

Neil

[admin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

Further update – looks like said item is a Thermister – so upped the range on the meter and sure enough it has a resistance of about 5K so looks like it might be OK.

Slight update on the resistance of the other sensors. In fact they are 4.8 ohms and 0.3 ohm (not 0.75 as previously posted).

Also checked that water was running through the venting pipes and that the water solenoid works (can see trickles of water running through).

So I am now rather stumped!

🙁

Neil

[Penguin45]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

From the front of the machine, the sensors are the thermistor, 110c thermostat and 150c safety stat. This last one should have a little red pip on it, as it is a manual reset type. If you have not split the wiring off it, you may be getting a back reading from the rest of the circuit.

We don’t advise people to test with the machine live, so for the benefit of others who may read this thread, please use extreme caution.

Regards,
Penguin45.

[admin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

Ok that all makes sense and yes the 150c does have a red pip on it.

Have tried pushing it in but to no avail. I presume the red pip should be sticking out about 1-2 mm?

I disconnected all the wiring from the sensors before testing. So no back door path.

Which tends to suggest they are all OK?

(Note this WAS with the power disconnected 😀 )

Any other suggestions?

Neil

[Penguin45]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

Hmm – looking more like control circuit problems – possible board fault. This machine uses “fuzzy logic” as parft of the dryer control – it is possible that the absence of soggy laundry is not letting the temperature gradient be established. Try “AutoDry” with some laundry might be the best next step.

Regards,
Penguin45.

[admin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

That didn’t work either.

Might just check the cutout/sensors again.

Can you just confirm that in normal mode the following are correct?

1) 150C safety sensor is zero (ish) Ohms
2) The thermostat (when calling for heat) is zero (ish) Ohms
3) The Thermistor is 5K Ohms or lower depending on temperature of air?

Also is there a 2nd safety cut out somewhere I have missed? Thought I had read there were always 2 now a days?

Finally if it is the controller board that has gone faulty any ballpark idea of the cost of a replacement? £50, £100, £150 etc?

Sorry for all the questions but your help is much appreciated!

TIA

Neil

[farmboy]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

All those readings sound right – there is another sensor mounted near the bottom of the plastuc condenser tank at the back. Does the dryer work on manual ? – if it doesnt then then its unlikely to be a sensor fault.

Bear in mind that if you have to change the board you will have to configure it before use & you wont get instructions on how to do this.

[admin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

No the dryer doesnt work on manual.

Well I got the thing into test mode. As I have no idea how to test/configure it I just switched it to off again! 🙂

Neil

[dpm]

4.8ohms is a lot of resistance for a closed contact, probably enough to lose your heater current through. Even if it’s only a control voltage going through it that resistance could be an issue…

[Martin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

You’re now ‘barking up the wrong tree’ ❓

The fault is the Triple Water Inlet Valve, the solenoid that feeds water to the condenser has failed 😉

[admin]

Re: AEG L16810 Not drying

Checked the the triple way valve and could hear water running through the pipes so think that valve hasn’t failed.

(Having taken the lid off the top of that valve it’s only a small jet of water anyway that trickles through the clear plastic condenser and I could see some water flowing so not that.

Interesting thought about the 4ohm resistance. Heaters are 1000w arent they? – Measured resistance of heater about 50 ohms (from memory) so you would lose about 16 volts across the contact. However, having said that the drop in current might be enough to confuse the Fuzzy Logic so guess the next thing to do is reduce the resistance of that sensor.

However, that might have to wait until next weekend now.

Neil

[admin]

Where did you find how to put it into test mode? Info like that is generally like rocking-horse droppings…

[Author]

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