Hoover W1120 washing machine short circuit

[spinynorman]

Hi all,

my faithful old Hoover W1120 washer/drier has just developed its first problem in over 12 years.

When I pressed the On switch to start a washing program it tripped the earth leakage switch of my fusebox. I reset the switch and tried the washer again, which worked normally. After the wash cycle I removed a couple of items, set the machine to dry the rest and then it tripped the earth leakage switch again.

Testing with a plugin RCD this time I noticed that it would trip as soon as I turned the drying timer or program dials from a neutral position, even without pressing the On switch.

I looked under the lid and found a severed brown wire which runs from a terminal on a water valve to a double connector on the heating element I stripped back and soldered this wire then covered it with a heatshrink sleeve. The ends hadn't been shorting against anything but I wondered if maybe some other circuit which relies on this one was being overloaded.

After the minor repair I've still got the problem. The remaining wiring appears to be in good condition so is there a component (capacitor?) which fails commonly like this?

Regards,
Tom

 

[rocks1]

Disconnect the dryer heater and switch the dryer on if it don't trip then the heater on the dryer has gone.

 

[spinynorman]

Thanks for your suggestion. I've disconnected all the terminals from the heater housing and still have the problem.

 

[rocks1]

Then the dryer timer has a short in it. Look at the cost first as its 12 years old

 

[spinynorman]

Thanks again. I removed the dryer timer switch and made sure the disconnected terminals didn't touch anything but the RCD trips right away.

 

[spinynorman]

I just removed the mains filter and the insulation of the incoming neutral wire is hard at the terminal and a little green, as if it has been running very hot. The other filter wires are fine.

Could this indicate a faulty mains filter or is it just a symptom of something else?

 

[rocks1]

If the mains filter is faulty it would trip on wash as well. If it trips only on dry then it could only be heater or timer which you disconnected , without a Megga to test the components its poss guess work ie unplug a few more bits till it don't trip

 

[spinynorman]

It trips all the time now but earlier it would happen if I moved either the dryer timer dial or washer program dial to any 'on' position, even without using the On switch which has always been needed to get those functions to operate.

I'm guessing the dials connect the neutral and the On switch provides the live.

 

[rocks1]

try unpluging mains surpresor first see if it trips .then go to motor then wash heater

 

[spinynorman]

Thanks! I'll check further in the morning....I bypassed the filter and the RCD still trips.