Maytag 8100 Front-Loader: Spin Problem

[mark_wpduet]

@ washerdude

There are two alarming things about that link you posted:

A) the price
B) the fact that it's OUT OF STOCK!

 

[DADoES]

 
Mark,

The stator is the non-moving part of the drum drive motor. It generates a magnetic field (forward and reverse) to turn the rotor, drive shaft, and drum.

The online parts source I've been using lists it at $198 and claims in-stock.

 

[henene4]

Hmmm

As far as I know these are driven 3-phase... So some imperfections in the stator could cause the MCU to get wrong readings in terms of power draw, making it belife there is a OOB situation...

It could be one of those "multiple slight issues, but non causing a fault alone" situations:
-aging dampers
-bug in MCU software (calibration drifting out of sync, and the beeps might be recalibration signals or such).
-loose connections
-slight irregularities in the motor itself
-enviroment (fluctuations in the power grid, maybe stray radio signals, such random stuff)

I guess actually troubleshooting this without a fixed constant to work off of will be more a guessing game then help.

On another note: Someone mentioned these don't use hall sensors. How do they monitor speed then? Some feedback winding in the stator, or are they just taking the frequency they drive the motor with as ensured speed, basicly keeping a tumbling speed without any feedback about it?

Latter could be another possibility: The MCU registering any parameters that might suggest something wrong with the motor...
Does anyone have a service manual for one of those Duets or clones with the DD motor?

 

[washerdude]

@henene4

Yep there are no hall sensors on WP based units. Seems you can only see them on Samsung and LG units. My assumption is that speed control and direction are heavily controlled by the CCU. I remember on the older generation of DD WP FL's, they actually used two control boards. A motor control board, and a main control board. After the first or second generations, the second board was ditched and it now seems to be fully controlled by the main board.

Not sure if this has anything to do with it, but I noticed on certain heavier loads on my washer, the tub sometimes spins the opposite direction it intended to and it causes a clunk, then a slight buzz followed by a pause and then spins the proper direction. On Deans videos of his LG, i have never heard that, maybe this is because of more accurate feedback thanks to the hall sensor?

Whirlpool is generally good about fixing issues and bugs like these without causing a huge scene *Cough Samsung Cough*, and often the issues are no longer present in the newer versions of the machines. It makes me wonder now, could this be a reason why Whirlpool updated their previous line of DD FL's? I wonder if its fixed on the present models.

 

[hvtech42]

Service bulletin

I just checked, and Whirlpool has a service pointer out for this issue on this model. Their solution is to replace the main board, which differs from the above fixes of reconnecting the stator motor and replacing the stator. I notice they only listed a limited serial range (40th week of 2015 thru 36th week of 2016 manufacture dates). There are also a lot of direct drive front load models missing from the list.

http://https//s3.amazonaws.com/sm-backend-production-attachments/09001a508042c10e/Service%20Pointer%20-%20W10913408.pdf

 

[mark_wpduet]

Well

I'm glad they are aware of it and updating it. I was worried since my next washer is going to be either a Duet or Maytag.

Frigilux - You haven't posted about this in forever.

 

[frigilux]

Haven't had it looked at, yet. It appears to be reaching the proper spin speed, so I'm reluctant to bring in a service guy at this point.

 

[johnb300m]

another incident

So I had another incident last night, washing a medium load of jeans in my 5100.
5 pairs so it was about 2/3 full.
Done this many times before.

But when it got to the point of the final 2 minutes of the spin, where it ramps all the way up to 1400rpm briefly, things went awry.

As it ramped up to 1400, the noise and vibration became excessive enough to shake my whole 2nd floor, and the machine promptly ended the spin cycle.
Nothing was so bad where the stacked unit did not shift at all in place. But it was still excessively loud and prompted a shut-down.
Thinking something might've just shifted on that ramp-up, I ran the jeans again through a separate "Drain/Spin" cycle.
SAME outcome.
Regular spin ramp ups seemed fine. Even the high speed right before full ramp up seemed ok.
Just when things went full tilt to 1400 did it go all crazy.

I still cannot discern if there's anything truly wrong in the suspension.
There's still excessive horizontal oscillation in the suspension during spins.
But it's been rather well behaved recently. Until last night.

I tried several times, really hard, to hold the tub steady, and put upward force on the steel basket to sense play.
I'm just not sure.
I DID feel a very slight "click" as I pressed upward on the basket.
I don't know if that's normal, or if that's the sign of a loose seated bearing, or a weakness in the spider.......

I may have to induce it again, and record it on video, for a future repair call.

 

[mark_wpduet]

John -

I forgot you too basically have the same machine as Frigilux - I want to keep an eye on this post to see if the mystery ever gets solved.

 

[washerdude]

Jeans and FL's

Washing jeans in my WP Duet clone have never been consistent when it comes to the spin cycle, washing yes, but not spin. A couple weeks back we did a load of 5 pairs of jeans and at the second spin, everything seemed balanced and there was little tub movement, until it began ramping up. The tub went completely out of tilt and began hitting the door so hard to the point the door began shaking and the ENTIRE machine began shifting like an off balance top loader, I did stop it nonetheless, I just find it strange how the CCU thinks that this is fine...

Anyways.

Here's something a little off about my washer after all. When you look at the tub directly across, the tub DOES NOT look perfectly on center at all. It seems to dip down towards the front left. I should note, when I grab the tub and swing it against the cabinet towards the left, it seems VERY easy to do, but when I try to do the same on right, it takes some force and effort to make the tub hit the right side of the cabinet.

 

[appnut]

Well, my jeans cycle default spin is medium and if that's what Whirlpool thinks it's best to be, I won't up it.  And I don't have problems.

 

[frigilux]

Don't see how spinning a load of jeans at 1400 rpm could be any more difficult for the machine than doing the same with a BobLoad of bath towels. I spin everything but dress shirts/pants at 1400---even comforters.

Haven't owned a pair of jeans for years, so the Maytag 8100 has never washed any.