Miele W842 flashing rinses light -> PCB failure. Cause?

[robhiston]

I have a 15 year old Miele W842. It failed recently when my daughter loaded it up with towels. There was a loud bang, then flashing rinse light and drum won’t turn.
Investigation revealed that the motor polarity switching relay on the PCB has failed. This is easily repairable, but I’m wondering what caused the failure to avoid a repeat. The motor brushes look OK, about 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} wear, but I will replace them anyway. However I suspect the suspension legs may be worn, allowing the drum to thrash about when overloaded. Original suspension legs are manufactured by AWECO 9003 10 z<0 115N Miele part 4181311. The only replacements I can find are SUSPA but these are all rated at 120N. Would these be OK? And anyway, am I on the right track?

[Muv]

Re: Miele W842 flashing rinses light -> PCB failure. Cause?

Hi, yes you are correect in thinking it may be the shockers, this and iverloading the machine causes the problems you have.
It either puts a heavy load on the motor when it initially trys to turn the load during spin,or the flywheel hits the rear casing of the machine,momentarily causing it to slow down and then this can also put load on the motor, and this in turn causes the relay contacts to actually fuse together, and then the safery fuse will blow..
Non genuine shocks are available on ebay, i have fitted quite a few to customers machine at their request, and have not had any problems reported back… As for the board you will need to change both components… If you need this done, i currently charge £35 for the board repair, inc return postage, and a 6 month warranty…

Hope this helps
Martin

[robhiston]

Re: Miele W842 flashing rinses light -> PCB failure. Cause?

Hi Martin, Thanks for reply and offer of board repair. Unfortunately I had already sent the board off to a repairer I found on eBay before I saw your post. I have just got the board back and installed it in the machine, along with 2 new Suspa shocks which I bought on Amazon shipped from Germany for less than one seventh of the cost of the Miele branded parts listed on UK spares sites. The difference in resistance between the old and new shocks is remarkable! I have tested the machine with light/moderate loads and all seems well, with spinning seemingly more effective than before the failure.

Although I don’t think it was the problem in my case, the board repairer put a note with the repair saying that, as a condition of the repair warranty, the motor brushes should be replaced and “Genuine Miele Motor Brushes Recommended”. However, once again the Miele branded brushes are eye-wateringly expensive and non-branded alternatives are available around one tenth of the price. Any thoughts on the differences? Am I risking my (very expensive!) motor by using cheaper brushes?

Thanks again for your help!

Rob

[Muv]

Re: Miele W842 flashing rinses light -> PCB failure. Cause?

Hi Rob, glad to hear your machine is now up,and running again.
As regard to the brushes, genuine ones do last a lot longer than non genuine, in my experience with MIele brushes, the genuine ones do seem to last around 7 to 10 years under normal usage, and non genuine ones around 3 years, .. All down to the quality of the carbon and the way they are manufactured.
As for risking the motor, i dont think you need worry to much,the motor is around 10 year old already, and used repalcements are not that badly priced..just check the brushes annually to keep an eye on them, and at the same time clean up any carbon deposits around the holder.

Hopefully someone with more expert knowledge on brushes and motors can advise further

Martin

[robhiston]

Re: Miele W842 flashing rinses light -> PCB failure. Cause?

Martin, Thanks for reply. I must say I’m baffled by the carbon brushes market. Replacement brushes are available for my machine at many price points from £5.99 up to £58.99 for the Miele branded parts, so a factor of 10 in cost. All the non-Miele branded parts (of course) claim to be “quality replacements”. What is the poor consumer to make of this? Are the replacement parts good enough to do the job without (a) wearing out fast, (b)not working properly, or (c) causing harm to the motor commutator? Are Miele just taking the mickey by asking so much for such a simple looking part?

Rob

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