philco Ecotronic gone berserk

[tonyshaw]

First it would not click through programme but that was not a worry as it just meant a single click between 3 and 4 and it would work perfectly. Now machine turns and click through programme but no water goes in. All pipes OK.
ANy suggestion please.

 

[breezer]

no water at all?

is therea humming noise when it fills? (or at least supposed to fill?)

 

[fido]

It could be that the machine thinks it is already full of water. This can happen if the water level system gets blocked. I'm not too familiar with the Philco but there shound be a round component with some wires and a thin hose attached, mounted toward the top of the machine. This is a pressure switch. If you trace this down to its lower end you will find a small container, a pressure vessel. Sometimes this vessel gets choked with soap powder residue.
If it was a faulty electric water valve I would expect it to stick at the start of the programme and not move on.

 

[tonyshaw]

Thank you Breezer & Fido. Not strickly true that no water. I have disconnected the three rubber hoses into the dispensing tray. (The first is cold water to the prewash tray, the second is hot to the wash tray and the third is cold to the conditioner tray.) I then turned the dial from programme to programme. No water comes out at any programme except 5 and 11 which are both the condition rinse. There is indeed a hose which goes from a large bottom hose which connects with the tray which catches button s and coins. There is no blockage there.

The machine spins OK , I have just put in a woolen sweater that I hand washed and masses of water came out .

The machine makes a whirling and clicking noise in the bit of electronics which is obviously the programmer (the thing on the otherside of the programme dial! Oh one thing the programme knob seems to get stuck in .. and the programmer, as I said before, has for some time needed to be just clicked on manually between certain events , irritating but not a disaster. Now a new whole new set of difficulties seems to have arisen.

Sorry could not reply/update sooner ...DIYNOT seemed to be having some technical problems :

 

[breezer]

but does the m/c humm at "inital fill" i think the inlet valve has "gone"

 

[fido]

There will be a double solenoid valve to supply the two cold feeds you mention. It is possible that the coil for the normal wash/rinse feed has burnt out. You could check this by swapping over the pairs of wires between the 2 sections of the valve and repeating the experiment you describe. On a lot of these valves the coil part can be pulled off so you could effect a temporary cure by fitting the coil for the hot feed in place of the faulty one. This would also save money as you could then buy a new single valve instead of a double.

 

[tonyshaw]

Thanks,
No hum on clicking through. But a whirling sort of noise from the Programme selector.
Jiggled around with wires to the "solenoids" on inlets and found that the one solenoid works when the cold option is linked to it and the hot option is linked to it. So electronic signal to open tap is getting through! Then put my curcuit tester to terminals of each of the three solenoids. Found that the one that is working shows a closed curcuit and the others have a break in the curcuit. I have now removed the double and the single solenoid from the machine and if I suck on the inlet side I can hear the sucking sound on the outward hose on those pipes which were NOT giving water and cannot hear anything on the pipe that was giving water. I am therefore assuming that the broken condition is when 1 there is a break in the curcuit and 2 a sucking noise transmitted through the pipe. With this information I am going to local skip to see if I can find good solenoids. Hope you both approve. I cannot bear to throw the machine away 10 because I cannot aford one as good as mine was and 2) I am sentimental about a machine that has served so well.

 

[fido]

Yes, I rarely fit brand new valves as they usually last the life of the machine so you are safe enough with secondhand. It is very unusual to have 2 valves with open circuit coils on the same machine. Perhaps the hot one failed some time ago but the machine carried on working OK with just cold fill.

 

[tonyshaw]

Thanks folks. With your help I have fixed the machine. I went to the scrap yeard in the snow and clambered over junk to find a few machines and unbolted three solenoids and went back and replaced the ones on my own machine. (The scrap man let me have them for nothing " call it an early Xmas present" he said. Many years ago when I had money I used to employ his mother.)
Oh the pleasure of the whole enterprise. To get the machine back to work. .... and how it was done....such a joy. I have not had such fun in years. Thank you Breezer and Fido