New Front Loader Quest

[imperial70]

love the kitchen

Very stylish. I hope you are as happy with your GE washer and dryer as I am with mine. I am in a condo and now have the compact 24" units. They clean well, dry well. Both are very energy efficient. The dryer could be a little quieter but hey, it's laundry, some noise is expected. Washer is so quiet you really don't notice it until high speed spin.

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, there's always Milnor... Only $699!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MILNOR-COM...e1bba8dcf0a7fc26640&pid=100005&rk=6&rkt=12&me

 

[appnut]

Congratulations Harry.  Looks very nice!!!  Bob

 

[sudsmaster]

Lest I be exposed, I would be remiss not to add that the Neptune 7500 has not been trouble free in the past some 20 years. I had got a 3 year extended warranty, which was a good thing, since after about two years it started sounding like the tub was coming apart. Turned out the spider (the big wheel at the back that turns the inner drum) had cracked. The repair guy said I was lucky to have caught it before it disintegrated and caused major damage. A new spider plus some control upgrades were all free. After that it's been trouble free for about 17 years. The only issue I recall is that the drum light switch on the washer is a bit sticky - sometimes it doesn't turn the light on when the door is opened. A quick flick turns it on. I may take it apart when I fix the heating issue, since the front will be off at that time.

Been looking at the eLux line again. I think I'd spring for TOL there... the 627's... have to check the dryer venting setup... right now I have the Neptune venting straight down through the floor, under the machine, which works nicely. Don't know if the eLux dryer can do that. I suppose the installation manual will tell me.

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, the replacement heating element for the Neptune 7500 arrived today, a little earlier than expected. I plan on installing it tomorrow. We'll see if that fixes it. It wound up costing me about $40. Considerably less than a new machine, if it works. One potential fly in ointment - the mfg bag was previously opened and stapled shut. But the part does not look like it's seen any usage.

Other than that, I tried running some whites through again just using tap hot water and the extended cycle, plus some Clorox "Dry" non-chlorine bleach powder (sodium perborate, mostly, it seems the active ingredient). It got out most of the stains the previous unheated wash with STPP and Tide Liquid HE left behind. Better living through chemistry.

 

[sudsmaster]

Success!!!

Many thanks again to Wiskybill (Bill) for finding and posting the link to a replacement heating element for the Neptune 7500. That's the kind of community spirit that makes web sites like this so great.

Just got through installing the new heating element. Installing it was the easy part. Getting the old element out was the hard part. I read in a service publication that the rubber on the old element could "take a set" over time. That's an understatement. I probably spent 10 minutes taking apart the front of the washer. That was easy, done it a lot before.

Immediately apparent was the source of the heat failure: a burnt out wire to one of the heater terminals. Why it burnt out, I don't know. But the wire was completely severed. Luckily it didn't contact any sheet metal in the process (that I could see), which could have wrought more damage.

But the old element was really stuck fast inside the oval opening in the outer tub. Wouldn't budge. Finally two channel lock pliers, and some judicious slicing of the rubber where I could safely get at it, finally freed the element from the outer tub.

I crimped on a new female spade connector onto the severed (and cleaned up) wire, covered it with heat shrink insulation, put it all back together. Made sure both power lines to the element had good solid connedtions (female spade connectors can lose their grip over time) Ran a long (34 minute) hot wash with no laundry... temp started out at 93F and after about 25 minutes made it all the way up to 116F. I purposely did not purge the hot water line because I wanted to make sure the heater would perform. Highest temp reached before the washer switched to bleach dispenser flush mode was 126F. Not bad, although purging the hot water line would certainly have got it to 130F.

As for the old element... I'll probably test continuity etc but I suspect it's some sort of toast. Will also test the thermistor that came with it. Providing I didn't mess anything up in the old element extraction, looks like the Neptune may have another 20 years to go.

(yay)

 

[appnut]

Congratulations Rich!!!!!!

 

[sudsmaster]

Thanks, Bob!

Post-mortem:

According to the service manual, the resistance of the heating element and the thermistor both should be 14 ohms. Once I saw the burnt-out wire connection to one of the heater terminals I decided to replace rather than measure.

As it turns out, I just checked the resistance of the old heating element: 14 ohms. However the thermistor resistance if infinity, meaning it's burnt out. It's possible I could have just replaced the thermistor (taking the one out of the new element) and see if that worked. However, I decided the condition of the terminals on the old element were such that I didn't quite trust it. And I didn't realize how easy the thermistor is to replace. Anyway, it's all working again. There's an outside chance the old element is still good (despite my having squeezed the terminals pretty hard to try to remove the element from the tub), so I'll hang onto it. Might also want to see if I can find another thermistor (so far no luck).

Still unknown is why the wire to the element burnt out. I can't see any evidence of its shorting to any other component. Nor did I see any evidence in the cabinet of water leakage onto the element terminal. But it certainly cooked.

 

[combo52]

Burned Wire On A Water heating Element

Hi Rich, I suggested you only had a burned wire when you said it stopped working several weeks ago, all you needed to do was replace the terminal, We see this type of failure all the time.

 

When ever you have a high current connection this type of failure can happen over time, it is a constant problem in older electric dryers and electric ranges.

 

It is usually best to splice in a heaver ga piece of wire with a new high quality terminal to repair this type of connection, and don't wrap and cover it with tape etc as it will allow it to heat up and fail more easily.

 

I have never seen a failed heater element in a US FL washer, they are very long lived because of low wattage and having a SS outer sheath.

 

Hope you get a lot more use out of this rare Maytag washer.

 

John L.

 

[sudsmaster]

Yes, John I remember you said that.

However my testing indicates the thermistor is also bad. The new element came with a good thermistor so it wasn't a waste. I have located some replacement thermistors but some of them cost as much as the element did. Go figure. I might purchase one of the cheaper ones just in case.

It might be best to solder the wires directly to the element terminals. The spade connectors may not be adequate over time. I think they loosen up with heat and time.

We'll see. It's not difficult to pull the front door and panel, so I'll probably check on the terminals in a few months.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

SudsMaster

Very glad your Neptune is functional again! I would hate to see that machine being removed from service. One of my all time favorites.

 

[sudsmaster]

Wow, thanks. I didn't know the Neptune has so many fans. 

 

It has served me well for about 20 years now. Other front loaders have more capacity, and can boost to higher temps, and have doors that allow one to view the washing progress, but I haven't seen any that equal the LCD screen information available on the 7500. 

 

[frigilux]

Update to Reply #81: My neighbors’ 4-month old Whirlpool 6620 developed a leak a couple of weeks ago which has become progressively worse—to the point that a pool of water reaches several feet beyond the washer. The local Whirlpool dealer (who repairs what he sells) paid a visit Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Since then, the young couple who own the machine have surrounded the washer with rolled up bath towels whenever they have to use it.

Bumped into the young woman in the grocery store parking lot this morning and asked what was causing the problem. I couldn’t quite make out what she said, but I think it was “the back seal is bad.” It’s definitely not leaking from the door. At any rate, she said the part is on backorder, so they’re trying to make do in the meantime without flooding the laundry area. The repairman also told her the offending seal has been a problem in several of the new line of Whirlpools he has sold.

Strike one!