American Headscratcher

[LightingElectrical]

Hotpoint HVF344 no motor action. Fills/drains OK
Went straight to brushes. Brushes in perfect condition
Absolute marathon fault finding/swapping session ensues but reveals nothing.
Supply/socket checks all ok
Machine insulation ok

Cust on holiday from America and mother in hospital so pretty desperate for a working machine so lent her a Zanussi machine on following Monday.
This works fine

Customer mentions that her own machine had worked for one wash on Sunday lunchtime then fault returned.
Customers machine taken to workshop
Works ok in workshop

No fault found in workshop despite extensive testing
Returned machine to customer.Guess what? No motor action.
Got electrician to check mains in house. All clear. No problems.Out of desperation tried an extension lead to various house sockets. No change.more checks/swapping on machine: nothing.

Ran extension to garage in desperation Damn thing worked
Plugged extension into house. No motor action
Back to garage.It worked. Back to house. No motor action.
WTF? :haier:
Asked if anyone in household using anything odd and told theres nothing on except “Leon” playing “Solitaire” on his laptop. Asked him to unplug his laptop but Ive still got the fault.
Went to fuse box ready to plunge whole place into darkness except kitchen when lady says she.ll run round house and switch absolutely everything off.
On her way through the lounge she switched off a socket supplying Leons laptop. The machine burst into life.

On closer inspection “Leon” has his laptop plugged into a 240v-110v transformer in the socket. Everytime this was “ON” the washing machine motor goofed up.Switch it off and all was well.
When previously asked to switch off he had just pulled the jack from the laptop. The transformer was still “ON” so fault persisted.
Machine had worked on Sunday lunchtime as he had switced off at wall when called,had lunch and gone for a walk.

The closest i can find to the device is this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simran-Internat … +converter

Simran 1875 Watts International Travel Voltage Converter For 110V USA Products In 220V/240V Countries. Ideal for Hair Dryers, Phone, iPod, Camera Chargers and Shavers Etc. Model SM-1875

His had no brand name and “Made in China”

“And solitaire’s the only game in town
And every road that takes him, takes him down”

:worthy: :scot:

[Author]

Posts