Hotpoint Ultima 1200 WM35 Spin Problem

[345ARC]

Hi,

A family member has an 8 year old Hotpint WM35, which stopped spinning to full speed. This meant that the wash cycle would operate perfectly until it reached the spin, at which point it would do a slow spin, and then increase speed to almost full speed, then slow down again and stop, followed by a tumble or rearrange, and then repeat the slow spin – increase to nearly full speed – slow down and stop procedure again and again and again……….. The controller would never advance to the Finished position. This happens on all three spin positions.

Her son replaced the brushes, but all that did was cause large amounts of sparking on the commutator, and the same lack of a full spin. I took the motor out and skimmed the commutator (which was badly worn), and while I was checking that I had scraped out the comm slots so there were no shorts, I found that three adjacent comm segments exhibited high resistance between them. ie 0.4 ohms, 0.4 ohms……..0.4, 0.7, 0.7, 0.4, 0.4……..0.4 etc.

This leads me to believe that the armature has one or two windings open circuit, so it is now putting out its rated power, and hence can’t drive the drum up to 1200 revs.

Is this the correct solution, in which case a new armature would fix the problem, or could it be the Out of Balance sensor has gone wonky (the results are the same even with an empty drum), or does it need a new controller :-((

Someone else told me that they had a Hotpoint repairman come out to their much younger machine and all he did was plug his diagnostics unit into the controller, pressed the Reset button, and all was hunky dory. I don’t seem to be able to find a reset button on this machine’s controller, so I guess this is not the answer.

Regards, Iain.

[Martin]

Re: Hotpoint Ultima 1200 WM35 Spin Problem

Iain,

Clearly the armature is no good and needs replacing. What type of motor is fitted to your machine? A replacement armature is available for some but not all. 🙁

[admin]

Re: Hotpoint Ultima 1200 WM35 Spin Problem

Thanks for your reply.

I don’t know what info you need to identify the motor, I didn’t note down any of the serial numbers, etc., cause I thought I’d fixed the problem 🙁
The motor casing looks a bit like an old Lucas 17ACR alternator, with two mounting lugs and a tensioner lug, but of course the innards are totally different. From memory, it has white brush boxes that sort of dovetail into the end bell, a speed sensor mounted on the end of the shaft, and a white multiplug to make all the connections.

I will go round and whip the top off and see if i can find any identifying marks, etc., and come back probably tomorrow.

Regards, iain.

[345ARC]

Re: Hotpoint Ultima 1200 WM35 Spin Problem

Sorry about that Martin, I wasn’t logged in when I replied.

[Martin]

Re: Hotpoint Ultima 1200 WM35 Spin Problem

Your description of the motor is good enough for ID right now. Sadly the genuine armature is no longer available for this motor BUT you can fit (Part No: ARM20) and it will be fine 😀

Just email your request for one to: spares@ukwhitegoods.co.uk

[345ARC]

Re: Hotpoint Ultima 1200 WM35 Spin Problem

Thanks to Martin and the spares team.

Fitted the new armature, bedded in the new brushes, and reinstalled the motor. Spin speed back up to 1200, but still refused to complete the cycle, getting stuck on the fast spin.

Oh, dear! Still, the machine is usable, but has to be manually advanced the last step, so can’t be left unattended. Marilyn is delighted that it spins again, but accepts this limitation.

Three washes later, M is on the phone, and the machine is spinning away merrily, so she ends phonecall and starts towards kitchen……Machine suddenly stops spinning and goes into the untangle part, then finishes. M delighted, and it seems to work every time now.

No idea why, but glad it’s cured itself.

Thanks again, Iain.

PS, anybody wanna buy a slightly second-hand armature???

😀

[Author]

Posts