NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/01

[slipshot]

Hi there

We have a NEFF condensing tumble dryer, model R4381x1GB/01, purchased and used in the UK before moving to Melbourne where I am now. It’s about 9 years old but always worked great.

It’s now no longer pumping all the water out into the water container – about 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} is coming up the pipe (edit – now nothing is coming out so I wonder if it was just water left in the pipe), but the remainder is ending up a recess at the back of the machine until this fills up and then leaks out the front.

I’ve had the back and sides off to look inside for anything obvious, but what I cannot see is how the (warm) water is getting into the plastic recess (just the basic moulding of the underside of the machine) and wondered if anyone had any idea on the process of tumbling drying with a condenser and where the water is taken from? Any thoughts or else it’s a call out fee…

I beleive these machines are very similar to Bosch and Siemens models if that helps. My betting is on the pump but your advice would help as it means I can do it myself rather than spend time for someone who is not familiar with the make and model to spend time going through everything. Guidance would be great.

I see there are replacement pumps available on espares (although not via NEFF online incidentally) so maybe this is it. Thanks all…

Andy

PS One of the downsides of relocating to the other side of the world – things like this!

[Allsorts]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

Pull out the condenser and reach into the condenser housing until you can feel the water… Fish around in the water to remove any debris or fluff that is preventing the correct draining of the water.

[slipshot]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

Thanks Allsorts – so are you saying that this is where the water should collect and then be pumped up? SO it;s normal for water to be there, but not for it to stay there?

I’ll have a go but in this model the condenser (or air cooler as NEFF call it) is on the left and the pump on the right and I cannot get any real access to it as it seems part of the route the air takes (and thus surely air and water should not be mixing?

[Allsorts]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

I have no experience of that particular model, but that is the way that condenser dryers normally work.

By the sounds of what you are describing, the area where the water is collecting is either the area from which it is pumped.. or .. the area where it drains into a pumping area.

Also, can you hear the pump running? if it is not pumping then no pump would also cause this to happen.

[Martin]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

slipshot wrote:I see there are replacement pumps available on espares (although not via NEFF online incidentally) so maybe this is it.

All parts for Neff appliances are available on-line DIRECT from Neff. Do not bother with eSpares. For your convenience simply click HERE!!!

The pump incidentally is part no: 263297 and comes out at £69.13 GBP. It could be your problem as 9 years is a good service life for a pump anyway. However it’s best to check this first and that’s not easy as access (under the motor drive pulley) is tricky.

Far better start at the top and work back. By that I mean check first the outlet nozzle of the pump that connects atop the water container. They easily get blocked. Take the black hose off there and blow back through to the pump itself. If all is clear there then the pump may well be your problem.

[slipshot]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

Allsorts – Ok, it makes sense, although I am confused as to why the intake (front of the machine would seem to pass air through the fan, and then through the air cooler before heading up to the heat exchanger?). Anyhow, I assumed that inside the pump there would be a collection area but maybe this is a just a large area where the water collects and is then pumped up.

Question then – how does the pump work? Is it timed, is it on a level that operates the pump when sufficient water is in the holding area or some other method? My thinking is that maybe water is always situated there when in use (but of course I have never had reason to check) and then the pump just operates over a certain timed cycle or…?

[slipshot]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

Martin wrote:
The pump incidentally is part no: 263297 and comes out at £69.13 GBP. It could be your problem as 9 years is a good service life for a pump anyway. However it’s best to check this first and that’s not easy as access (under the motor drive pulley) is tricky.

Far better start at the top and work back. By that I mean check first the outlet nozzle of the pump that connects atop the water container. They easily get blocked. Take the black hose off there and blow back through to the pump itself. If all is clear there then the pump may well be your problem.

Thanks Martin – top help. That is the part number I have seen and indeed via a number of sources. It does look a slightly different shape to mine (located where you said it is under the motor drive pulley) so it’s either a superseded model OR a generic photo. I see a chap selling them on eBay, new, for about £40 so may go that route. Presumably they are direct replacements?

I have taken the black hose out and both sucked and blown – at one stage I sucked all the water out of the pump just to ensure it was working.

OK _ UPDATE. Thought I;d have a go again. Went to listen to the pump with the top and sides off, to see if it was working. Turned the machine on and certainly sounded like a pumping action. Strange me thinks – then turn and see my foot covered in water as the pump is indeed working and spitting out water (as it normally does) when you first turn it on. Hhhmmmm. So have now taken on most of the connectors and blown with a can of compressed air and re-seated them. Now running through wet towels to see what happens…

Question still remains – does the pump work on a timer, or level of water, or at certain stages of the drying? meaning at times there is a collection of water ‘somewhere’ until the pump decides to activate?

[Martin]

NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/01

slipshot wrote:

Martin wrote:
Question still remains – does the pump work on a timer, or level of water, or at certain stages of the drying? meaning at times there is a collection of water ‘somewhere’ until the pump decides to activate?

The pump is operated by the adjacent float switch. When there’s sufficient water in the float/pump chamber the float switch activates the pump. I guess you’ve now confirmed it wasn’t blocked so likely as not the pump could be sticking? The clue to that would be if the pump when running sounds noisy, rattling? If so then time to change it.

Indeed the one featured here is the one you need.

HTH?

[slipshot]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

It does help massively. The test run now worked fine. No issues at all. So either the pump is on its way out (but it does not seem noisy) or it was a dodgy connection caused when we moved the machine from one room to another. I guess we need to keep an eye on the pump but maybe I’ll buy another just to be sure.

Out of interest, in the old room, the drier was on it’s own and the waste pipe went up higher than the machine and inot a large receptacle.

Now we have it adjacent to the washing machine in the luandrym, the pipe then came from connection at the rear of the machine, and up, across the back of the washing machine and into a stand pipe adjacent to the washing machine.

I wondered if the pipe should actually have gone down before going up – so now comes out of the machine, down to ground level, then up to the height of the machine and over and down into a stand pipe. Assume this would be OK?

[slipshot]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

Thinking about it, you say ‘adjacent float switch’. Would that means the float switch is separate to the pump (as in not integral) and thus potentially it could be the float switch that was faulty (albeit a dodgy connection) since one relies on the other to work? Where the pump connects there is another connection right next to it…

[Allsorts]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

It wont be the float switch as you are getting operation of the pump already.. if the float was not working you would have either no operation or permanent operation of the pump.

Check the pipes from the pump to the integrated water vessel for cracks.

[Martin]

NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/01

Allsorts wrote:Check the pipes from the pump to the integrated water vessel for cracks.

Do what George?……it’s a Neff…what machine are you thinking of?

Don’t confuse the guy, he’s upside down in Oz as it is… 😀

[Allsorts]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

Does this one not have a water tray then?

[Martin]

NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/01

Allsorts wrote:Does this one not have a water tray then?

Water Tray? Cracks?………no idea what you mean George sorry.

[Allsorts]

Re: NEFF dryer ‘flooding’ at bottom of machine – R4381X1GB/0

Ok.. This is a condenser dryer is it not… with flooding into the base… determining that the pump (263297) is actually working has been done… Maybe the pump was working all the time and the flooding was coming from elsewhere.. hence, as a follow-up, check for splits or cracks in the hose (094041) connecting the pump to the condensed water container (289544)(Water tray) which would in effect, even though the pump is operable, fill the base with water.

Understand now?

[Author]

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