Thank GOD for this forum and sleepyhead and breezer and all the other unnamed long grey wispy bearded experts putting their time into it..
I stupidly told the wife I knew best and that the 4 year old hard worked, faithfull and never let us down Indesit WD10 needed a long overdue 90 degree wash with a blast of wash soda as it was scumming up pretty bad.(Note1)
We nipped out for half an hour and returned to what can only be described as a massive kettle boiling and the heart breaking smell of burning circuit board.
The machine had locked into some kind of emergency mode of purging cold water in and pumping it out - the hot water pipe was also on and the pump was just managing to hold it's own against the two.
I gravity drained and checked that the filter was clear, then switched on again.
It clicked a relay somewhere in its bowels on and off every few seconds then with no program selected it began the emergency flush.
I found this forum and read posts for 6 hours solid and built up a picture of what had happened.
I tipped the machine up and found the main Ariston control board.
Pulled the plugs and found the board had burned right through a large area down the left hand side when viewed from the component side.
The tracks lead back via 6 small interface Triacs to some outputs on the actual central processor on the board. which to the non-electronic minded are a method of changing the very low voltage and current signals from the CPU 'brain' to the high voltage and current needed to switch on the hot, cold and condenser cold valves and the heating elements.
I read that this is a design issue with this board due to condensation afecting this side of the board and that the advice is get it replaced (at £150 + the diagnosis and re-fitting). I just wanted to say what an otherwise very robust board it is! despite delivering the energy required to blast a significant area of the board right through, the triacs and CPU were still in full working order and 10 minutes to solder bridge wires from the convenient triac connections to the edge connector beyond the destruction, then ensuring no raised tracks around the burnt area were in danger of contacting each other resulted in a total new lease of life for an otherwise condemned board.
Note1.
The Boil wash is maybe just coincedence, but I read another post describing the board burnout after a rare 90 deg wash from another poster.
Probably the position of the power signal tracks with exposure to condensation and close proximity of the 6 tracks and the nature of the high current signals will cause a gradual breakdown leading to the the catastrophic breakdown and burning. But why the Boil wash triggering it? If anything, the only difference between this and and say 'Daily wash' is the activation of the hot water solenoid (one of the 6 tracks) which is never used under a 60 degree wash and in our case probably hadnt been fired up in 12 months.
Sorry if i'm going on and on but have really got into the whole washing machine thing now after repairing it!! The wife thinks am a hero but I accept I'm just lucky with a soldering iron while standing on the shoulders of giants hehehe.
So really, Is it just that simple for 90% of the people with diagnostic indicating a possible heater fault (or any circuit board burn smell) to just pop the board and look at the solenoid tracks and give it to any competent soldering person to repair?
Seems a waste to scrap a good machine for the sake of 6 burn tracks.
P.S I really like the WD10 We must have just got a good apple heheh Even more so now I had to get 'Intimate' with it.
Also really enjoy reading the superb diagnostic work from the regulars. Am hooked.
Any thoughts ?
I stupidly told the wife I knew best and that the 4 year old hard worked, faithfull and never let us down Indesit WD10 needed a long overdue 90 degree wash with a blast of wash soda as it was scumming up pretty bad.(Note1)
We nipped out for half an hour and returned to what can only be described as a massive kettle boiling and the heart breaking smell of burning circuit board.
The machine had locked into some kind of emergency mode of purging cold water in and pumping it out - the hot water pipe was also on and the pump was just managing to hold it's own against the two.
I gravity drained and checked that the filter was clear, then switched on again.
It clicked a relay somewhere in its bowels on and off every few seconds then with no program selected it began the emergency flush.
I found this forum and read posts for 6 hours solid and built up a picture of what had happened.
I tipped the machine up and found the main Ariston control board.
Pulled the plugs and found the board had burned right through a large area down the left hand side when viewed from the component side.
The tracks lead back via 6 small interface Triacs to some outputs on the actual central processor on the board. which to the non-electronic minded are a method of changing the very low voltage and current signals from the CPU 'brain' to the high voltage and current needed to switch on the hot, cold and condenser cold valves and the heating elements.
I read that this is a design issue with this board due to condensation afecting this side of the board and that the advice is get it replaced (at £150 + the diagnosis and re-fitting). I just wanted to say what an otherwise very robust board it is! despite delivering the energy required to blast a significant area of the board right through, the triacs and CPU were still in full working order and 10 minutes to solder bridge wires from the convenient triac connections to the edge connector beyond the destruction, then ensuring no raised tracks around the burnt area were in danger of contacting each other resulted in a total new lease of life for an otherwise condemned board.
Note1.
The Boil wash is maybe just coincedence, but I read another post describing the board burnout after a rare 90 deg wash from another poster.
Probably the position of the power signal tracks with exposure to condensation and close proximity of the 6 tracks and the nature of the high current signals will cause a gradual breakdown leading to the the catastrophic breakdown and burning. But why the Boil wash triggering it? If anything, the only difference between this and and say 'Daily wash' is the activation of the hot water solenoid (one of the 6 tracks) which is never used under a 60 degree wash and in our case probably hadnt been fired up in 12 months.
Sorry if i'm going on and on but have really got into the whole washing machine thing now after repairing it!! The wife thinks am a hero but I accept I'm just lucky with a soldering iron while standing on the shoulders of giants hehehe.
So really, Is it just that simple for 90% of the people with diagnostic indicating a possible heater fault (or any circuit board burn smell) to just pop the board and look at the solenoid tracks and give it to any competent soldering person to repair?
Seems a waste to scrap a good machine for the sake of 6 burn tracks.
P.S I really like the WD10 We must have just got a good apple heheh Even more so now I had to get 'Intimate' with it.
Also really enjoy reading the superb diagnostic work from the regulars. Am hooked.
Any thoughts ?