Dead Siemens washer drier

[brianmoooore]

I have a Siemens WD14H420GB washer drier, a couple of years old, which quit yesterday near the end of a wash program. Washing was clean, rinsed, but appeared not to have been spun.
The machine appears to be completely dead, and the only things I’ve discovered so far is that there is 230 volts present at the ‘power in’ terminals on the main circuit board in the bottom/rear of the machine, and that there is no burning smell from this board.
Anyone come across this before and/or can point me in the right direction, please.

[electrofix]

Re: Dead Siemens washer drier

when you get any machine thats dead you have to check for both live and neutral. If the neutral has failed everything will be live but it wont work

try a different socket first

if you have live and neutral to the board then its probably a board failure

Dave

[brianmoooore]

Re: Dead Siemens washer drier

Thanks for the prompt reply. Supply was checked across live and neutral – I’m not inexperienced at electrical repairs, and have seen the ‘broken neutral’ many times.
Yes, I expect it may be a board fault, but I hope to discover what to component level, and even more hopefully, to be able to replace that component(s).
I’ve found plenty on the ‘net’ about various fault codes on these machines, but as yet, have not found anything like mine – totally dead.
I was hoping for “they all go like that, replace x, y and z on the main board, and it’ll spring back into life”, but if no one’s seen anything like this before on one of these (or similar), then it’s going to be a series of stabs in the dark, testing a few likely candidates, such as the opto coupler I’ve spotted near the power supply section.

[electrofix]

Re: Dead Siemens washer drier

the board will have a power supply on it and i suspect that might have failed. if your going to try a repair on that you would need to be experienced in soldering components onto boards.

you also have to be careful as they normally change the voltage to dc first which mean there is about 350 volts DC on the board

Dave

there are places that might repair the board for you like http://www.qer.biz/servReps.htm

[brianmoooore]

Re: Dead Siemens washer drier

PSU failure was going to be my first port of call, although there’s no sign of a catastrophic failure of anything, as tends to happen when switched mode supplies fail. The opto coupler I mentioned above will be part of its feedback loop, and I’ve come across a few failed ones of those before.
When I first started soldering electronic components, ‘circuit boards’ didn’t even exist, and 350-0-350 mains transformer secondaries were commonplace. 700 volts AC going to close to 500 volts DC, with plenty of current available, all built on a metal chassis with tag strips, and often the chassis connected to mains neutral to add to the fun. And that was only ‘neutral’ if the mains plug had been wired correctly, or 50:50 chance if it was a two pin plug!
Suffice it to say, I’ve had a fair bit of experience, and am wary of high voltage electrolytic capacitors, even if the equipment hasn’t been powered for a week.
Main circuit board seems to have a thick plastic frame bolted over the top of it, so it looks like I’m going to have to work out how that comes off, and extract the board for a bit of ‘cold testing’ first.

[brianmoooore]

Re: Dead Siemens washer drier

Final (hopefully) update on this.
With the help of Electrofix (on here), Google and the good people of China, I discovered that this is a known common fault, and that there was a small kit of three parts available to fix it.
Kit was duly ordered, for a few pounds, half of which was postage, but due to the unfortunate timing of a major Chinese holiday, only arrived a few days ago, and was fitted yesterday. Eyesight isn’t what it once was (I’ve always been short sighted, and could focus down to a couple of inches once, but no longer), but the parts were fitted without drama, the board refitted, and the machine powered up, and reconnected to the plumbing.
Back in full working order, and so far has successfully completed three washes.
In addition to the main fault, I discovered that heating had been occurring where the mains lead was crimped onto one of the spade terminals that connects it to the circuit board, which hopefully was the root cause of the problem. This was overcome by soldering the mains lead directly to an existing pair of holes in the board, thereby eliminating the potential future trouble spot.
Once again, many thanks to Electrofix for his assistance on this forum and by PM.

[electrofix]

Re: Dead Siemens washer drier

no probs m8 glad you sorted it

Dave

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