[alexGS]

Re: Fisher and Paykel Smartdrive 051 MW051K control panel

Well it all turned out OK – kind of – the ‘extra’ buttons do actually work when it’s all put together.

BUT the machine has other problems. It seems to do a cold wash OK (I tried three, and if it played up at all, it was at the very beginning). Any warm or hot wash leads to random stoppages with various lights illuminated (e.g. spin fast and medium lights), either a continuous beep (not beeps at one second intervals, I mean BEEEEEEEEEEEEE…) or no beep.

The lights that appear seem to be random – sometimes two of the ‘cycle’ button lights, sometimes all spin speed lights come on.

There don’t seem to be any errors (no regular beeps or wash-stage lights, no wash-stage lights in diagnostics mode).

To put it another way, the machine can be working fine at any part of the wash cycle – either just started washing, or filling to rinse, or spinning, and then it will silently stop with a few of the water temp, spin speed, or cycle button (Wool, Heavy Duty etc.) lights lit up. The power button has no effect – it has to be unplugged and plugged back in, whereupon it will restart OK.

I tried searches but it’s difficult when there are no error codes to go on. I just wonder whether anyone else has had this problem or whether there is a special process for diagnosing the ‘non-error’ lights.

Thanks
-Alex

[alexGS]

Re: F&P MW051-U – error 40 + can’t get inner drum out

It’s quite eerie to read through old threads and wonder if a problem was ever solved.

I reckon the bowl was sticking on the splines (mine pulled apart easily), maybe the bearings were stiff/crooked, or maybe the hall effect sensor was at fault.

FWIW I read on a wind turbine-making website (there’s a number of them) that the current-model F&P motors are ‘de-cogged’. That is, there isn’t the ‘cogging’ that most of the motors give. I had never heard the term ‘cogging’ before, I would have called it ‘notchiness’. 😉 It’s never a problem for a washing machine, but a bit of a problem for a wind turbine – prevents it starting in low winds (but then again, probably not much point in a wind turbine if the wind isn’t strong enough to overcome the ‘cogging’.

-Alex

[alexGS]

Re: fisher and paykel 051 wont start

I just discovered something this evening that you might be interested in, Penguin. The lid switch on an 051 is a red plunger to the top console, microswitch on the circuit board. Even though the lid has a magnet in it (tested with a paperclip, just for fun) and the top console has the mounting point for the reed switch…

If the out-of-balance switch is open-circuit, it seems to turn on but then beep with the spin light on when you try and start. Mine did this until I wiggled the plugs.

I got hold of the 051 for free – it was ‘dead’. I opened up the motor controller (totally different to later models – it has water cooling for the transistors!) and found a blown fuse plus evidence of water sitting around the PCB (dry now). I cleaned the circuit board, tested a couple of slightly-scorched resistors (across the largest capacitors), tested a few dodgy-looking PCB tracks (they were fine), and replaced the fuse. Working now 🙂

I notice that the connectors seem to suffer more than they do on my newer (and yet more-used) Smartdrive.

I think I would suggest removing the control panel PCB and test with a multimeter where it says ‘15.5V’. If it’s not quite up to voltage, maybe try cleaning the various small plugs on the motor controller board. Maybe keep playing with the power switch until you can get it to ‘act up’, and then check the voltage?

I’m becoming quite keen on these machines now and suspect I shall have a few more pass through my garage yet 😉

Cheers,
-Alex

[alexGS]

Re: Eelectrical burning smell and power automatically off

Hi, I’m quite new at this so forgive me if I’m wrong, but why not remove the pump and check for blockages? It’s quite easy to do – TURN THE POWER OFF, tip the machine back so that you can work underneath, then locate the pump (it has a small ‘fan’ attached to it), note the white plastic ‘tang’ just above the pump body.

Unplug the wires to the pump motor (one green plug that has to be squeezed to remove, one single wire terminal (earth) that pulls off.

Holding the pump motor with one hand, twist anticlockwise while releasing the white plastic tang wtih the other hand. The seal is quite tight so you have to twist firmly.

From your message I gather the pump is still working to some extent, but I just wonder if the bearings are a little seized or some other restriction is causing it to overheat.

Best of luck,
-Alex

[alexGS]

Re: Fisher and Paykel SmartDrive error 49 beeps during rinse

Well, a happy ending to report.

In order to get the solenoid valves, I bought another ‘dead’ SmartDrive – a ‘Pride’ model (MW059) which was just a couple of hundred metres from my door – picked it up last Sunday. Cost $42. The fault was a dead motor controller PCB. I took it apart and noticed a small transistor (power supply?) with a chunk blown out of it and a round ‘fuse’ that had blown. I decided not to try and fix it.

I swapped over the inlet valve assembly to ‘my’ machine – noticed that it looked completely ‘as-new’, no water discolouration at all – and also swapped over the top panel, as it had more buttons and also looked as-new. That gave a Size Error (code 9) that was easily fixed by referring to this forum 🙂

When I inspected my latest acquisition underneath, I was somewhat annoyed to find NO evidence of water leakage, bearings in perfect condition, and uncracked motor stator. I wished I’d bought this before I replaced bearings & seal in ‘my’ machine!

Anyway I transferred the motor components over to my machine and now I have a complete, working washing machine (no beeps) for a total cost of $102, which isn’t bad… I’ve even listed the leftover bits on Trademe so might get a few dollars back.

Incidentally the two water valves on this model seem to have the same part number so appear to be interchangeable.

Thanks for your help, penguin45! 🙂
-Alex

[alexGS]

Re: Fisher and Paykel SmartDrive error 49 beeps during rinse

…and at nearly 2AM, I’m happy because I reckon I’ve found the problem 🙂

I cleaned the contacts on the solenoids with a small brass wire brush and tweaked the terminals. I put the machine through another wash (almost run out of dirty clothes now, so I washed some towels). And when it got to the Rinse cycle, same problem – only a little water, slow agitation, then beeps.

I immediately put the machine into diagnostic mode and pressed water-temp-cold to open the cold water valve – a beep, but no cold water! I cancelled that and swapped the plug to the ‘hot’ solenoid, and tried again. Yes – the ‘hot’ solenoid opened from the cold signal. But not the cold.

I noticed that the cold solenoid was hot to the touch.

By the time I had got out my multimeter, the resistance was 60 ohms. I re-attached the plug and the solenoid worked again.

Obviously this is a thermal-related intermittent coil on the cold solenoid! Perhaps some windings are shorted (the other solenoid is 64 ohms) and that is why it overheats? It is only hot enough to fail once it has completely filled the machine at the start of the wash cycle…

I took the solenoids out and swapped the hot and cold (machine still full of wet clothes and I wanted to get it going). The machine didn’t seem to like this at all, even though I set it to ‘Cold’ and started the rinse again – the pump would cycle on and off rapidly and I would get more beeps and code 50. That makes sense, though surprising that it was ‘trying’ to activate the ‘hot’ solenoid (which was, of course, now faulty – and faulty even quicker due to the hot water, proving the thermal-intermittent fault).

Eventually I managed to get it to spin and got my clothes out.

The next step is obviously a new solenoid – think I might replace both of them while I’m at it…!

Intermittent problems are always the worst for any kind of technician – but it’s satisfying when you finally catch it acting-up. I no longer think that my motor controller is faulty – potentially a lot of money saved.

I still have my admiration for Fisher and Paykel. We don’t have many companies like this in NZ that have ‘made it’ overseas – about the only other that comes to mind is Gallagher’s – inventors of the electric fence.

Thanks penguin45 for the pointers! 😉
-Alex

[alexGS]

Re: Fisher and Paykel SmartDrive error 49 beeps during rinse

Hi Penguin45,
Thanks for the prompt reply!

Since writing the post I discovered how to open the cold/hot valves while in the diagnostic phase – the Wash Temp up/down buttons – the valves open and close fine there. But I guess this means nothing if the microprocessor ‘thinks’ it has a poor connection! Interestingly I can’t activate the pump (in test mode) because my ‘poverty-pack’ model has no cycle buttons…

I’ve already cleaned the solenoid valve connections but I shall try again. The other ends of the blue/red wire pairs disappear into the Motor Controller module, which has a warranty seal. I’m thinking of ringing F&P to ask if there is any warranty on the latter part. The best I could hope for would be if I could return the motor controller to them to test. If faulty, I would like a replacement, but if not faulty, I’d be happy to pay them for the test, so as to eliminate it from the equation.

I find it an amazing coincidence that you ‘lurk’ in the FIAT Forum (and presumably drive a FIAT) – maybe it takes a special mentality to own/work on Italian cars and New Zealand washing machines. BTW I’m alexGS there as well.

I have my eye on another, newer, Smartdrive which is dead. Hopefully if I buy that, I can try putting the display module onto my machine to see if it reports the same code 49 fault. Then I can try swapping solenoids, etc. I am making the assumption that the motor controller is compatible with different display modules (the newer machine is in the same-shaped casing, ‘Pride’ model, basically the same).

I’m not giving up yet 🙂

Thanks again,
-Alex

[Author]

Posts