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anyone know anything about this? 519000 washers to be replaced or repaired. the report said door lock fault I would guess the usual terminal block burn out which we replace with amptags and new lock. but if customers are going to get a brand new machine for anything up to five years old we can say goodbye to a good chunk of our work.
wilf
I *just* heard about it as a customer was on moaning that they wanted it sorted… to UKW spares!!!
K.
As much as I could find out quickly here:
K.
I wonder how we stand when fitting a replacement interlock to a hotpoint which new parts maybe affected as these interlocks fit many models
I’d wager the weakness is with the type of small contact area idc terminals used, rather than the interlock itself, possibly exacerbated by vibration caused by misaligned appliance feet.
Have any of you guys (and gals) seen one of these incidents of an interlock that caught fire?
over the years I have seen many “burned out’ I/Locks, usually at the spade connectors/amp tags.
It has never been a “fire risk” issue.My personal opinion, to call it a fire risk is a bit of an overreaction.
The lock might overheat and burn out, fair enough. But “fire”, really?
K.
Is there a solution to the problem. If replacement parts are ordered will they be the same as originally fitted or have Whirlpool upgraded the loom or interlock?
this has been a good source of work I did one yesterday burnt out completely but certainly not a fire risk. Another problem to get customers thinking they can get new machines for free,
I suspect we are going to see a lot more models added to the list. Most notably I can’t believe there are only 3 Indesit models affected. Maybe this is the real reason the site has been taken down.
Of a quick sample of 5 recent models I’ve come across with burnt out lock connector blocks this year, 3 are on the list, 2 are not (HE8L493GUK, WMAQC641PUK).
Has anyone heard what the modification comprises?
Mo3426 wrote:I wonder how we stand when fitting a replacement interlock to a hotpoint which new parts maybe affected as these interlocks fit many models
Good question.
I would recommend carrying out the repair but advising the customer afterwards on your invoice to check their machine on the Whirlpool website to see if they are affected by the recall.I’ve been doing this job for 30 years.
Have seen many burnt out door interlocks in that time which cover many makes and models.
I’d say with a high degree of certainty that Hotpoint / Indesit models are by far the worst.
The weakness is not the interlock – the weakness is a combination of the wiring loom and the inadequate current rating of the door interlock terminal block.
In my opinion there is a large random element on why the terminal block fails – for example; badly assembled from the outset leading to a poor connection and thus heat, a customer who uses more high temperature washes than average and thus draws more current through the door lock and variations in the length of the loom which causes the spare length of wire to vibrate far more than others.
The failure is essentially a ‘decay cycle’ – meaning that the problem starts off as a small amount of excessive heat due to the current being drawn through the door look and associated wiring loom. This heat starts to alter the characteristics of the two brown wires in the loom in two ways – firstly it lessens the current carrying capacity of the mental conductor within the loom – secondly it hardens the plastic sheathing which covers the conductor. This in turn leads to more heat build up (in terms of the conductor) and a burning of the sheathing. The sheathing then cracks meaning that the conductor is all that is keeping the loom attached to the interlock.
I’ve always solved the problem by crimping new spade connectors to the loom and fitting a new interlock. I’ve never been called back for a repeat failure where that modification was made. Critical with this modification is to ensure that you trim the loom back to completely undamaged cable – the conductor should be shiny copper in colour and the sheathing should be soft in nature. Sometimes it’s necessary to ease the loom up from the control board to gain the require extra length of wiring.
Bottom line (in my opinion) is that we’ve got nothing to worry about in terms of repairs which have been already carried out where the terminal block has been removed and replaced with individual spades along with the new interlock.Seen on the news this morning one member of the public reported flames shooting out the rear of the machine which would be interesting to check that machine out.
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