Miele Mechanical Timer Not Advancing

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"Unfortunately I think that surfing European spare websites will bring you to nowhere .."

Actually turned up a few Miele 120v/60hz parts in Europe from various spares suppliers. None of them what one needs and alas no timers, but never the less.... One place in France even had the huge double cast iron muet/motor (one side washes, other spins).

Suppose these people bought up job lots of Miele surplus or whatever, but I digress...

Playing around with Miele again today and watching cycle dial carefully can see and hear (know the sound) when it wants to move, but doesn't. Sometimes there is a slight movement, others it just sits.
 
Hi Launderess.
You may have found your own solution - that timer repair place. The website lists brands and Miele is on the list.

I wouldn't yet be 100% confident it is the timer motor. The fact that you can hear it "trying" to move suggests to me the mechanism might be sticky/jammed, rather than the motor failed. I'd give it a shot of contact cleaner spray, something like the link below. This is an Australian retailer, there must be an equivalent product in the USA. I have used this product several times, it is magic.

 

With <span style="text-decoration: underline;">power off</span>, give the timer a good spray.  Turn the timer dial fully round several times nice and slow, let it clunk into every notch before advancing to the next one. This will help spread the cleaner/lube product where it is needed.  Leave it for 24 hours for the spray to work its way into nooks and crannies. After the 24 hours, power up and give it a try.

If that doesn't work, enquire with the timer repair service.

 
Non Advancing Timer

Just connect power to the timer motor and see if the timer advances,

 

Spraying contact cleaner can help, but most often if I have a balky stiff timer I spray a good silicone lubricant in the timer and turn as Chris suggested above.

 

I probably have a used timer for one of these washers somewhere as we did part out a few of the many we have sent to the crusher. If I come across one will let you know.

 

John L.
 
Opposite issue with my similar age Miele

I unfortunately have the total opposite with my Miele w784, it rapidly advances through the complete cycle When you switch it on and won’t stop until it reaches the end Initially the timer just keeps going round and round but eventually it will advance through the cycle and the stop at the end. I have no idea what’s causing it, whether it’s the timer or something else.

Cheers,

Jamie
 
Thanks for suggestions and tips guys.

Heard back from Crouzet, they require information one does not have nor can easily find in order to possibly assist. Things like rpm, spindle diameter, gearing...

All this would have been specified when Miele or whoever placed orders, and obviously company isn't going to give out that sort of information, even if they could lay hands upon. With literally hundreds of permutations of timers "8243" it could be anything.

Meanwhile life keeps tormenting me; someone is throwing away a Miele W1065 on CL, but they haven't responded so assume the thing is gone. Why don't people take adverts down when things are NLA?

Of course can find period proper timer motors from all over Europe, but they are all 220v/50hz

Have found several NOS timers from same period (1980's through early 1990's), but they are all for dishwashers. Know the actual timers wouldn't work in my situation (incorrect cams, etc...), but don't know if the motors would suffice, and cannot find out either. MieleUSA is hopeless, and shan't be bothering with them again on this matter.

Have other things on my plate atm (like getting that huge converter wired up to power the AEG toplader), so won't be opening up the Miele again for now to get at timer.
 
It pays to go into the archives...

At least am gaining better understanding of what's what.

 
Had another peep inside...

This time shut door so could start up washer (forgot Miele techs doing same on each of their (sadly many) service calls); to see what there is.....

First off to settle a matter of some debate on and off regarding age of this washer. Looking around timer for a model and or serial number and not finding any, had to get down on floor to see bottom of unit. There found a sticker saying something about seeing electrical chart for power rating; and date of April 1992.

According to various online sources Miele produced W1065/W1070 (sold in USA only) from 5/1982 - 03/1994. Knowing timer was made in 1992 means this washer could only have been produced between April of that year and March of 1994.

Assume electrical chart referred to is the schematic that should be just behind front door of washer. Miele tech once told us off because he didn't find it there, and accused us of tampering with washer or some such. One did locate the thing later upon subsequent nosing around inside but put it back. Now cannot remember where the darn thing is inside washer. *LOL*

One wonders if Miele didn't bother just making 115v/120v timers for what would have been a comparateivly small market for them at the time. But rather timer is "programmable" to accept power based upon various factors including ratings for timer motors.

With power on started machine up and right timer ticks loudly away and could see gears/cams inside timer rotate.

Left timer is rather quiet but now and then makes audible clicks; sometimes program knob responds (moves to next portion of cycle), other times not.

If one times those clicks, gets things right and manually advance timer cycle will proceed as it should, this especially on spin cycles. If misjudged timer will move "when it should" onto next portion of cycle. At least this happened when messing about with "graduated spin" cycle which does a series of 30 second pulse spins, stops, does a series of distribution spins, pulse spins.....

Maddening thing is Crouzet micro motor timers are avialable all over Europe from spares shops. But these obviously are all 220v/50hz...

https://www.hgt24.de/shop/timermotor-crouzet-p-1305.html?osCsid=t7nvlijkm0kv4boo3bk8qeb7u0

Can lay hands on NOS timers for Miele dishwashers from same period that have Crouzet TMs from same 8243 family. But don't know if one or both would work as replacements when plugged onto my washer.
 
On my W423 which is earlier, when the advance failed on the timer, it was a failure of the plastic gears inside.

Before you buy any parts, maybe just check whether the motor is still turning when commanded. You might find that something has stripped out internally in the timer and then all the palaver of finding a timer motor will not have been worth it.
 
Hi Launderess

You have opened the machine and are "this close." (Said in Maxwell Smart voice.)

Give it a squirt of contact cleaner / lube. (preferably a 2-in-1 product that cleans and lubricates, or just try a silicone lube product.

I strongly prefer a 2 in 1 cleaner / lube, as I said above I have found them to be magic. I even avoided having to buy a $300 brake light switch for my Peugeot car with a short puff of this spray - a bit of burnt muck fell straight out of the switch and problem solved.)

Just make sure the power is off, rotate the knob slowly a couple of times, leave it 24 hours, try it.

What have you got to lose?

 

As an aside, it is perfectly normal for one timer motor to be activated for very brief bursts.

Here's why:

There is one timer motor which runs a lot. It moves a faster gear inside, so it runs the alternating rotation of the drum during wash. It will have one cam that moves the contacts to reverse the direction of the wash, it will do something like (I'm making this number up) six cycles of left-right, then... its other cam comes into play, this cam will, after the set number of drum reverses, switch on the other timer motor to make the timer increment one step. Once the timer has clicked one increment, the second motor should turn off.

So effectively one motor controls the switching of the other motor.

If you have a sticky, dirty or burned contact, you can get erratic operation of the second motor. Not a motor fault, but a fault in power supply to the motor.

because this is a quick and easy thing to try, you should FIRST lubricate and contact-clean the timer. Only if that fails, spend time/effort chasing a replacement timer motor. Do the easy/cheap stuff first. (IMHO...)

Good luck with it.

Chris.
 
More interesting tidbits

Apparently these timers can be opened to some extent.

My German isn't so good but from following it may be possible to get at cams/gears to swap things out.

 
First and foremost would like to thank those who contacted me privately and or via this thread for all their kind words and assistance. Damn good!

Am going to set aside the Miele for now as nothing can be done until find another timer (NOS or used spare), My worry is continued use will simply cause timer to give out totally, then that will be that.

Have been on telephone and reached out to various places in Europe about timer motor. Crouzet no longer makes strictly 115v/120v 60hz timers, but they did have a dual 120v/220v 50/60 hz version. It is in very short supply and one would have to order about forty to get at them. 220v/50z versions everyone has both in Europe and USA, but that does me no good.

Miele USA is hopeless...

Apparently as of new year 2020 there was a major reshuffle of things and technical support (such as it was) got gutted. That department is staffed by persons who can do nothing more than schedule call outs, period. They seemingly no longer have access to part information or anything else. Days of having a tech walk one through diagnostic troubleshooting and or even installing parts are over. Was informed that such things "apparently caused more troubles than they were worth so Miele has stopped....".

It also seems MieleUSA has outsourced much call center activity to India, at least several calls were always answered by someone with that accent, so draw your own conclusions.

Before begin given bum's rush things were summed up as "your machine is old, over thirty years old; we guarantee parts for 15 years after production which is far longer than anyone else. Try finding parts for a Whirlpool washer that is over 30 years old....".

Responded didn't need to "try" as have NOS parts for a thirty year old Whirlpool washer right in my stash (ordered when had the harvest gold portable/convertible washer). Also fired back that unlike Miele Whirlpool didn't keep such a tight lock on spares so there were and still are plenty floating about.

In any event things seemed to be going nowhere with MieleUSA, so that door is closed. There is a promising German hobbyist website (Teamhack), but my language skills aren't what they should be.

Am not the first to deal with an older Miele washer that has timer issues, so that's me for you...

Will keep my eyes peeled and feelers out for used W765, W1070 or W1065 washer that can be harvested for parts.
 
W723

Thanks for suggestions.

Miele W723 is from an earlier model series than the W765, W770,and W772.

Miele actually made improvements and other changes to timer late in W700 range run for mechanical timer controlled units. Have the service manual which outlines some of them, and suffice to say even if the W723 timer would work in my machine (which it won't due to being 220v/50hz) there are some other differences that would need to be sorted.

Timer motors on that programmer are 220v/50hz as well; can find those new all over Europe. What I need is 115v/60hz.

When one gets down to things frequency likely isn't the largest worry. Things would just be 10% faster on 60hz than 50hz; but am not willing to possibly fry entire timer by plugging in 220v timer motors.
 
How about a dishwasher?

Launderess,

Do you think a mechanical dishwasher could be using the same type of motor? Saw it on FB Marketplace and thought about your issues.

 

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