Fisher & P 608 switches to hot water a few mins after st

[lisaellamaurice]

I have a Fisher & Paykel 608 6.5Kg Smartdrive washing machine which is about 10 years old. Been OK but suffers electronic problems each year or 2.
The latest one. The machine is set up for Cold/Warm water on start up. Once the machine is started it switches itself after a few minutes to HOT water and starts intermittently beeping. It is also taking a very long time to fill the bowl. I can open the lid very slightly without stopping the filling of the machine and see that the water is only filling the machine at about 3-4 litres per minute. Our mains water pressure is very good.
If I need to go into diagnostic mode please provide guidance on how to do this however based on some other posts IF IT IS As follows Then:
Hold temp down and press power on. Press spin up until the “Slow and Hold” lights illuminate. At this point none of the 8 wash cycle lights are illuminated so the code left to right would be 00000000.
Any clues would be appreciated

[Penguin45]

Re: Fisher & P 608 switches to hot water a few mins afte

Welcome back………

You are correct, the zeroes indicate no fault. Consider that the machine has no heater, therefore the computer board juggles the cold and hot supplies in order to achieve wash temperature. If the hot supply is from a tank, the fill pressure will be lower than the cold – the machine will fill more slowly. Hot water is also dirty water, so it will be worth checking the mesh filters in the hoses and valves for sludging – again, slows the fill. As for the beeps, I’m sorry, I’ve no idea!

The diagnostic system is not infallible, so it is possible that a fault exists.

HTH,
Regards,
Penguin45.

[lisaellamaurice]

Re: Fisher & P 608 switches to hot water a few mins afte

I checked and cleaned the mesh filters in the hoses and also removed and cleaned the filters in the hot and cold water soleniod valves. Neither were very dirty. I also checked the hot and cold water flow from each supply hose at the washing machine end and both were substantial (30+ litres per minute). I then turned the machine on. If filling with cold water only the fill rate was quite reasonable. Once I adjusted up the temperature (to any of: cold warm, warm, warm hot, hot) the fill rate slowed substantially.
1) Do I have the correct method of obtaining fault codes as above?
2) It would appear that the water fill temperature is controlled by a small tank which is mixing hot and cold water. Are the hot & cold solenoids either fully closed or Fully open or are they variably open depending on the fill water setting?

[Penguin45]

Re: Fisher & P 608 switches to hot water a few mins afte

1) Diagnostic method correct.
2) The hot valve is either open or closed, the cold valve has proportional control to adjust the flow rate. The mixing tank has a thermistor attached to it, which measures the water temperature.

Is your hot water supplied from a demand boiler? If so, it will share its cold supply with the machine; activating the boiler splits the feed and will cause an overall drop in pressure.

Regards,
Penguin45.

[lisaellamaurice]

Re: Fisher & P 608 switches to hot water a few mins afte

Hot water is via a gas heated tank on mains pressure and I am sure there is very high pressures an the hot and cold. I can lift the lid slightly and see the water fill rate is very low when on a mixed hot and cold fill temperature. Perhaps the thermistor in the mixing tank is faulty. I have reset the default machine setting to cold and the machine is now functioning properly. If the thermister was faulty would the diagnostics indicate the fault.

[Penguin45]

Re: Fisher & P 608 switches to hot water a few mins afte

More likely to be a dodgy cold water valve, Lisa. When the machine is set to cold fill only, the valve gets the full 24v and is held fully open. When mixing for a warm fill, the “proportional” control of the valve comes into play – Alexa, a previous F+P wizard explained that all sorts of funny things could then happen. P/no is 425320 if you wish to try substituting it.

By the way, you do actually need a certain amount of heat in the wash water in order to get the powders activated properly.

Regards,
Penguin45.

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