Mexican VMWs
No one is making any inflammatory remarks, just people expressing their informed point of view as you are expressing yours. We both know this.
The brake band and solenoid approach (one failure point {continuous duty solenoids rarely fail}) in the long term is still more reliable than having a lid lock, the shifter position input, optical sensor, motorized actuator and control board logic to tie it all together (6 failure probabilities).
Approximately 2 out of ever 100 Whirlpool washers are lemons, no doubt about it. A certain percentage of washers will always have brake failures in the first 5 years just as they will have lid lock/control/actuator failures. I do not dispute that.
However, in the long term 10-15 years far more user will experience issues with the hexa combo than a brake band failure.
Mexican VMWs are much more simple. In wash mode contact 4B is closed whereby a simple triac board will cycle power between each leg of the motor to achieve agitation. In drain 4T closes, energizing both the drain pump and clutch/brake solenoid. After the pump out elapses, 8B closes sending the motor directly into spin. If the lid is opened, all 3 parts (motor, solenoid, pump de-energize) causing the brake band to engage squeezing the splutch drum. Close the lid all the energize and accelerate the tub. At the end of the cycle 8B opens with 4T following several seconds latter causing the tub to brake and come to a quick stop.
Worse that happens is the brake band does not disengage or becomes tangled along the brake drum causing the motor to hum until its thermal protector opens. Wet clothes mean repair. Or the brake does not engage, tub just comes to a stop on its own.
In the US version, the control board has to make sure the lid is closed, pulse the lid lock motor correctly until the lock switch is satisfied, then pulse the shifter motor correctly without over or under travel, have the correct shifter position input, pulse the motor a bit to get the splutch teeth in, ramp to spin as the control is looking for exactly the correct speed inputs whole time, spin to speed, drop the motor, then wait for the optical sensor to read the targeted speed required to begin the whole process in reverse of unlocking the lid and disengaging the splutch. Any discrepancies trigger a failure code, or don't unlock the lid at the end leaving users with a washer that won't open (it does happen).
The whole complex of logic and applied feedback is unnecessarily complex, and given the cheap parts that loose tolerance, thats a given and in part why VMWs are filling up the scrap yards in 5 years.
Great for Whirlpool, not the user. Mexican customers do not have that worry 98 out of 100 times.
