My '99 neptune F/L

[cfz2882]

just got a 1999 neptune mah3000aww in non-working order,but
very good cosmetic condition for $25 from a 2nd hand store-
seller got it from abandoned storage and tried it-said it
filled up,started to tumble,timer did not advance,door then
popped open and flooded his work area.
I tried it and found:
-starts to tumble as soon as turned on
-fills up to the center of the drum then shuts off-"on"light
turns off-center of drum way overfilled?
-"door lock"light does not come on
-will drain but will not spin if timer manually advanced to
spin (timer does move so motor working)
-feels like something in outer tub is rubbing/catching on drum
(bearings are good and no axial or radial movement of drum)
-inspection of control board revealed a resistor next to a
gray capacitor burnt and a transistor badly overheated-did
not test the transistor to see if it was bad.

Does this sound like "wax motor"related problems?
What could be rubbing behind the tub?

 

[gowest84]

Pictures to Post

Do you have any pictures to post?

 

[cfz2882]

indeed wax motor problems...

i will take some pics of this if i can get it running(looking
good so far!)
Tracing the circuit from the burnt transistor(actually it's a
tiny triac),led straight to the wax motor...the wax motor
consists of a wax chamber with piston-just tike a car radiator
thermostat only about 1/4 the size,a resistor pellet is clipped
to the side of the chamber-edge of the resistor pellet is about
1/16" thick between the conductive faces and not insulated...
-looks like it got damp and flashed over,blowing the triac
and resistor on the board.Dispenser has two of the same wax
motors swithed by the same type triacs,will unsolder and swap
one of those along with one of the wax motors from the dispens
and try the machine-if it works will carefully rework the
wax motor and add a 1/2a fuse to the circuit!
As far as the rubbing behind the tub,the black hose that feeds
the pressure switch had somehow gotten dislodged from the well
it fits into and was rubbing drum-removed one of the rear
paddles for access,hose out of position probably caused the
overfill too.
can't wait to try this thing out!

 

[cfz2882]

getting close!

still overfills and shuts off,but now locks the door and spins
just fine-was able to complete a load by manually advancing
after the fill and restarting
-time to dig in and do some checking...

 

[cfz2882]

fixed!!

pressure switch hose was plugged!-working great now-to bad the
matching dryer worked and was sold.
After the hot valve gets it's triac back and i rework the wax
motor,time for a good cleaning-boot is moldy and yechh!

 

[cfz2882]

really like this washer,but...

...a couple minor nits have been noticed:
-no window-cannot check suds,dirtiness of water,or watch
-boot retains water and gunk
-washed a throw rug in it to see what would happen-washed the
rug great,but could not find balance on final spin-just did
a fast tumble,rug was still sopping wet-threw it in the '81
filter flo which danced a bit,but happily spun the rug out.

 

[mysteryclock]

"-no window-cannot check suds,dirtiness of water,or watch
-boot retains water and gunk "

And right there, you've hit on two of the biggest design flaws of the Neptune. Because it came out at the beginning of the FL wave here in the US and had no window, folks (myself included) tended to use way WAY too much detergent and fabric softener, which almost certainly led to buildup. And the fact that the tub was so tilted and the boot retained so much gunk led to the dawn of the moldy-washer era, lawsuits, etc.

It truly was the product that killed Maytag, which is a shame.

 

[combo52]

THE PRODUCT THAT KILLED MAYTAG

The neptune was one of many Maytag products that ruined thier reputation for reliable appliances.I would add all the Norge laundry , the amana designed washers that lasted less than 5 years before major problems, also the Magic Chef gas & electric ranges were never any good but certainly not worth what MT was charging for them. And the admiral built refrigerators were again never frist class when montgomery wards sold them but at least they sold them for closer to what they were worth.The problems were many I could go on all night the sad thing is MT was well on the way to correcting most of these problems when the stock holders said no more sell to WP. If they had a little patience MT would stile be with us as a great manufacturer of appliances today.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Sooooo, what DID you care for at Maytag?!?!?

I will agree about the Amana/Sercy, AK. laundry. Just a disaster. BUT, Neptune was a great idea that just wasn't tested far enough before release. The machine did indeed have inherent issues that helped the mold/mildew problem along but there was a large amount of user fault as well, either due to not enough information on proper usage or just incompetence. The latest gen MAH55/65/7500's were finally good enough that I'd put them up against anyone's on the market. Carrying the Neptune name over to the Samsung sourced machines was the worst decision ever. I feel that Neptune was possibly on it's way to overcoming the stigma it had developed BUT the Samsung machines with their vibration issues and the absolutely insane prices for the parts trashed any hope for the Neptune name...

The Norge/Magic Chef laundry out of Herrin, IL. filled a needed niche. True, it was no Dependable Care BUT it did what it was supposed to do. A extra large capacity washer/dryer with a few nice features but available at a reasonable price point to put it in reach of families. Wards, HD, Lowes and sears sold the HELL out of them in it's varied forms. Was it durable enough to outlast a Dependable Care? No. But many of them lasted a long time and really weren't that difficult to repair.

The Maytag cooking has always been a solid performer thru the years with few issues/recalls. I think Gemini really set a standard with the two ovens in a 30" range without it being a Hi-Low. Accellis (Maytag's experiment with microwave assist baking) was probably too complicated for the avg user but still was a novel idea.

I agree that Maytag was improving it's product up to it's being bought by Whirlpool but I think it was still good product before.

RCD

 

[combo52]

WHAT I LIKED AT MAYTAG

Everything MT designed and built was quite good it was mainly all the acquisitions that caused the biggest problems. All the helical drive dependable care washers were probably thier greatest product they made them for more than 50 years. But they should been updated to keep up with the times, if MT had spent 1/3 of the money improving the factories at Newton Iowa they spent buying Norge & Amana laundry factories they would have been much better off. But the MT management was so anti union they weren't going to invest in Iowa. But the products they designed and built were all good after several years production. Every product they brought out did have many things changed in the first few years ,the Neptune was typical of this but not unusual. the first AMP automatics the first water condenser dryers the first helical dr washers the first HOH dryers the first built in dishwashers the belt drive DWs the tall tub DWs and even thier excellent disposer all went through many changes in the first few years of production. And they went no to become excellent products over time. I think it made sense for MT to have bought Amana and Jennair to expand into a full line company. The Amana refs were good and the SQ designed washers and dryers were quite good, SQ is selling almost the same machines today with almost no problems. With Amana they also got the very good Caloric gas and electric range plants. But the others should have been left to go out of business as they eventually did. Magic Chef never made a good quality electric range and hadn't made good gas ranges since the early 1970s. It may be true that the MT [ mc] ranges worked well but they were never high quality or deserving of the Maytag name or price. As for the others Norge Hardwick & Adrimal they should have never seen the maytag name on them if they had to buy these companies they should have kept their original names and maytag should have kept thier distance.

 

[jetcone]

Interesting point about the Unions & Maytag if true then

Workers need a stake in the company and they need to feel the ups and downs of loss and profit years too. But they are insulated from that by the structure of modern corporations they are also insulated from the risk of making decisions about the future, so they just keep demandind more in a vacuum.

A better stucture would invovle workers with management and marketing with the mix of profit and loss and risk. In Japan that system is in place and all employees are members of one union. Then there is no artificial division which creates animosity.