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I lowered the water pressure and haven’t seen the problem again. The machine is still running fine 3+ years later with no repeat of the problems.
My water pressure is 3 bar at its maximum. I reduced the cold water input pressure on the ISE and that appears to have been the resolution. A possible explanation for the sometimes working, sometimes not is that my water supply is from a borehole and I have a large, pressurised buffer tank to minimise pump operations. So, the “mains” pressure is a maximum of 3 bar immediately following a fill and slowly drops to 1.5 bar before automatically filling again.
Two days later, the motor turned twice and then stopped turning with the usual hang/abort. Two days later… it worked perfectly.
And then today, all washing programs functioned normally and the test programs ran all the way through without a problem. No doubt it won’t when I next try it.
I had a week of normal washing machine operation and that was nice: but ultimately there hadn’t been a definite repair and I had to expect another failure. Intermittent problems are the very devil.
This week, it was back to the first step: start a wash, fill, some drum movement, abort by draining. Next time: fill, no drum movement, abort by draining. Thermistor resistance was in the range 8.1 – 7.4 k Ohm and it has been warmer, so as an NTC that made sense – unless it is still behaving as an NTC but in the wrong range.
I removed the control panel and dismantled it. Getting down to the individual buttons that make up the panel made something clear and hopefully it will help someone. I was able to see that S4/S5 were actually underneath the temperature select button on my machine and that it only pushes S4. This allowed me to finally put the machine into test mode. There are two relays on the circuit board that are of interest and I’ll get to them shortly.
If someone could help me with the result of the test mode then I’d be grateful. The filling and level test mode operated correctly. For the second part of the test mode, it should start to heat, turn the drum and then stop heating when it reaches 20 C and then continue with rinse fills and other things. I heard the heater relay close and it was accompanied by kettle-like noise from the element: so far, so good. The washing cycle should then commence, i.e. the motor runs. It didn’t. I’ll have to look at the circuit board to see if the second relay is connected to the motor output. I didn’t hear the second relay close and shortly after that, the heating element relay opened and the test cycle aborted with a drain. Running it again with a fresh fill to ensure that it was heating from cold, the heater started, the motor didn’t run, the heater stopped and the machine hung.
Am I correct in thinking that the motor control, at its most basic, is controlled by the second relay on the control panel circuit? If it is then I suspect that the source of the intermittent fault may well be this relay. I plan to check the circuit for motor control sense and then remove and test this relay. I know that board replacement is a common solution rather than component repair but the risk of replacing the control board blindly isn’t a cost effective move if I’m wrong and if it’s “just” a relay that is likely fairly easily replaceable and more readily available than some ISE parts.
I’m now thinking that the motor control is the problem with this and that lack of motor movement is the cause of programs stopping or aborting. I ran a quick wash today and the drum turned for a short while and then didn’t move again on any other program. This has been the pattern over the past few days. I aborted the program and started the spin program: again, no drum movement at all. I’ve checked most of the connections, from the board to the motor, that I can for continuity. I’m going to remove the motor control PCB and have another and closer look at it. I don’t know if the 1606 was fitted with different motors but this one is a three phase induction motor (Asko 8065833). Short of removing the board and testing every component (apart from the ICs), I’m at a loss as to how to approach it sensibly. It may well be a dry joint that I haven’t spotted or a crack in a trace line, or it’s a faulty IC and it’s new machine time; as the risk of replacing the PCB and it not being the solution isn’t worth it. Any advice on checking this would be enormously helpful.
On another point, I’d found a leak that ran from the dispenser-drum hose where it attached to the drum. I checked that the breather hose was clear, as well as the dispenser-drum hose. This leak tracked all the way down to the thermistor location and the thermistor was wet. I dried it and the tub surroundings and hoped that I’d made an amazing difference to it and the breather hose and that all would be well (a born optimist). It wasn’t. I’d though that the thermistor could be providing confusing resistances to the control board and causing programs to stop. The resistance of the thermistor was 7 – 8 k Ohms: is this a sensible value at room temperature?
Thanks for reading.
How tight should the drive belt be? When should it be replaced? Mine has been on the machine since it was new.
I’ve been wondering about the drive belt and drive pulley: forgive me for asking but it may be related. Is it possible that the drive pulley can become worn? Would this be possible if the machine had been out of level and on a wooden floor for a time? Could it become of a shape that looks fairly true to the amateur eye but causes the belt to align close to the lip of the drive pulley and cause squealing? Could that same worn drive pulley then cause the machine to vibrate somewhat on spinning because it wasn’t completely true any more?
