My Newer Whirlpool Washer Isn't Working Properly, Can I Fix It?
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- Originally recorded January 2, 2023.
Two is one, and one is none. That means is you have two of something, and one breaks, you still have one. If you only have one of something, and that breaks, you have none. That's only one of the reasons I have two washing machines.
And it's a good thing, because I finally did have a failure, this time with my newer Whirlpool direct drive. This I had noticed after doing the last load of laundry I did. Strange sounds. Improper operation.
I ran a couple of test cycles, and each time, indeed, the washer was not fully draining in the allotted time. Many parts-pushers would immediately fault the drain pump and replace it, only to find that the problem was not resolved. As usual, I took a non-conventional approach to my diagnosis. I started from the end back. The problem is obviously within the draining system, and that runs from the outlet, back up through everything, into the machine, and through the drain pump into the washtub. So immediately I have narrowed down the problem to just a few things, instead of "it's broken" which is usually the problem description I would get.
The washer was draining, but it wasn't draining fast enough. I also had an audible clue, the water going into the sump bucket underneath the sink didn't sound normal. And when I opened that up and watched, indeed, I could see that it was not draining properly. Now I had to decipher what was causing this and what the resolution would be.
One audible clue I had was a steady stream of water in the sump bucket, as well as a lot of "churning" when the drain would start. The steady stream of water immediately clued me in that there was a blockage downstream of that.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this setup I engineered, the drain hose is extended into the water in the sump bucket. One might think that wouldn't be a problem, but it's a huge problem. A siphon can set up in either direction. In the normal out direction, any water that goes in the washer will keep draining out of the machine. In the backwards direction, water will enter the washer from the drain, and can have the potential to cause the washer to overflow. I installed an anti-drainback valve, a standard, off-the-shelf part available at your big box home centers. Before that, I installed a vacuum breaker tube, just a small tube that loops up above the water, sealed into the drain hose. This breaks any siphon and acts as a double-safety. Essentially, the off-the shelf part will prevent water from going backwards back into the machine, but the vacuum breaker will prevent water from the machine continuously going down the drain. The reason for all of this is that I wanted the water to drain directly into water, so it's quiet when it drains. That required all the rest. I have rigorously tested this setup and it has been absolutely impeccable, not a single instance of any trouble with it. And when I test things, I test it to the extreme, and give it circumstances that would never happen in normal instances. Only when it passed all of those tests to my satisfaction, does it get my seal of approval.
Of course, in time, everything breaks. I have no idea how this had occurred, but somehow, the "dip tube" of the drain had moved. I had this tube in there pointing in a certain direction and it held pretty steadfastly, so when it will move slightly due to normal drain action, it won't move far out of position. This time, for whatever reason, and still a reason I have not been able to figure out, it had moved and was pointing straight down into the bucket. Normally that wouldn't be a problem either, but it had shifted downwards that it was impeding the flow of water to such a degree to cause these issues. After repositioning the hose, and ensuring once again that it cannot move from where it sits, the problem was solved.
So there actually was no problem with the washer at all. That actually didn't come as any surprise to me, being that direct drive washers have sort of a "Toyota" reliability. It's not that they don't break, it's that they break a lot less often than would otherwise occur. Just like with an older, high-mileage Toyota, things will start breaking, because they are old and used up or worn out. This happens on any car or machine, the more use it's had, the faster things break. But when they are designed properly, the likelihood of that happening is pretty low. So, once again, this washer has had absolutely no repairs, and it's going on 14 years old. Here's to 14 more!
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Just need to get HE washers! Not enough water to go through so the pump almost never runs, and seizes up! Couldn't be more perfect!
And soon enough they will invent the waterless washer
Yeah, that happened at Joe's mother's house after going HE, you remember that!
@@hayden93 I am sure that's not far off!
@@jaykay18 Oh I sure do!
@jaykay18 everything is gonna break.....everything is broken.....everything is gonna break......thank you drive-thru!
No parts fixes are always the best!
Absolutely!
Wow nothing can beat fixing without replacing parts, it should live on now, and its true 2 is 1 and 1 is none, well unless both machines develop faults at same time
Yep, this was a nice little repair. It will live on for some time to come. The likelihood of both machines developing faults at the same time, I probably have a better chance of getting hit by lightning.
The drain pumps are incredibly easy to replace on these washers. The pipes to the drain pump might also be clogged. All you really would need to do is check for blockages and replace the drain pump if necessary. Either way, this problem is going to be an easy fix!!
Try watching more than 3 minutes of the video.
Decent! Always good to use proper troubleshooting techniques, rather than condemning a perfectly good washer, and still have the same problem.
Many years ago, I got a real cheap Amana dryer. The guy had replaced the dryer only to find the same problem with the new dryer, which was the dryer vent was clogged up. His loss was my gain!
Would it be of benefit to install like a 45 degree elbow on the end of the drain pipe, so that doesn't happen again? Even if the pipe rests on the bottom of the drain bucket, water would still be able to chooch out just fine.
Thanks. I have a very unconventional diagnosis procedure that I can't explain nor demonstrate, it's like my brain is hard-wired for it. I work through it fast, and the diagnosis is usually made within a few minutes, if not even seconds. Fixing it, is another story. Just like the electrical box that was rewired, my diagnosis without checking was a reversed hot and neutral. Fixing it took longer.
Excellent gain on your part, I love when people are dumb and you can prosper from it.
Yeah that's not a bad idea, someone else had suggested cutting the pipe at a 45 degree angle, which would accomplish the same thing. I have no idea why this moved to begin with, and it never did before. Fortunately, should it fail as it did, there will be no disastrous results, worst case is the washer would still have water in it. As it turns out, Sharkie had expressed interest in seeing the ultimate Jay test of the setup next time he's here, perhaps I can better secure the pipe then when we're in there. When you go looking for problems, you find problems. I did 2 repairs on 2 different devices, with old plastic, and found out that I shouldn't have messed with them because of the plastic. I was able to fix them both, but they were better off left alone. Videos someday.
So was that bucket/pump there when you moved in for the sink and you just added the washer drains to it or did you install the whole set up? Do you know what brand of pump that is?
I believe the laundry pump I have is a Liberty Pump.
Yes, the bucket and pump were here before I moved in. From what I understand, there used to be some sort of different setup there years ago. On the wall where the timers are, if you recall there is an outlet where the pump plugs in that has a little red light on it. The previous setup, whatever it was, was manually operated. That's a quad box, right side is a standard, always on outlet. Left side has a switch on top and outlet on bottom. The outlet is where I have that analog voltmeter plugged in, and the switch controls that outlet. That used to be where the old pump plugged in; when using the sink you had to turn it on and off manually. That setup was probably installed in the later 50s or early 60s when the basement was partially finished, is my guess. This is based on brief recollections of a lady who grew up in this house when she was a little girl.
No idea when the whole bucket and pump was installed, I can only imagine that the prior owners of the house may have redone it, I know the guy's father was a plumber. He might have been a hack, or maybe the homeowner was a hack, I don't know. When I bought the house, the pipe that couples in to the main drain fitting had a screw-on connector, which was cracked, so it leaked. Their solution was to tie a towel around it to collect the water that seeped out. I replaced that piece with a rubber coupler and painted the pipe green. The washer drain setup I devised and installed, none of that existed. The old GE washer that was here would dump directly into that bucket. But, if the water was at just the right level, it would cover the end of the drain hose. So when the washer would pump out, and shut off, no air was admitted to the line, so a stalled siphon was set up. When the washer went to refill, it would refill for eternity and never fill because the water would go directly out the drain hose. That happened a couple of times until I figured out what the problem was. When the newer Whirlpool was delivered, I devised that whole setup, then mimicked it for the other machine when that came.
I have no idea any information about the pump that's in the bucket. It was just there and working when I bought the house. In fact, I was unsure about that whole setup, and while here with the real estate agent, I told her I needed to see this work several times.
The heat from the hot water probably caused it to shift.
If that were the case, then it would have done it under testing, unless you never made it that far in the video.
@@jaykay18 of course I watched the whole video twice!
@@ItzYaBoyJesse Then you would have known.
@jaykay18 yes.
I also prefer to use hand tools on screws and bolts for the same reason.
Excellent!
@@jaykay18 Also, with coarse thread screws I turn the screw backwards in the hole until I feel it drop into the threads. That stops it from creating new threads and potentially stripping the hole.
@@Jallge Yes, that's a very old trick. I've used that for years. But it's really of no help when the plastic is old and brittle or very soft, because it breaks anyway. Just had that happen on two recent repairs of other items. I got them patched up.
Is this one of those newer belt-drive Whirlpools, or is it the classic Direct Drive? Only thing I'll say is... I wouldn't be caught dead with anything newer than maybe a Whirlpool UltraWash from 2004ish, or the Kenmore 80 Series TL's (the latter, I'm looking for a unit to store long term, as a backup). After Bush's 2nd inauguration, the overzealous EnergyStar crap really started up. It became 8x as bad, under Obummer.
The newer TL's fiddle around with temperatures too much, giving nothing near a HOT or Warm Wash, and just don't provide the cleaning power I am accustomed to. Not to mention, digital controls and lid locks. Blah.
The sound alone gives away the fact that it's a classic direct drive. I won't accept EVERYTHING less! If I ever move, these machines are coming with me, I don't care how much it costs. While this machine has ATC, I have a whole workaround system to allow only hot water, and even implemented a warm rinse option.
@@jaykay18 Would you mind showing your workaround, maybe in a future video? I would love to see it. So far, the only one I've tried is physically shutting off the cold tap, but that's a huge PITA.
@@laundrygeek3330 Try all of these:
ruclips.net/video/jTE6Yo9T_vg/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/-3hwHzs9N9Y/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/boQufGJkeIQ/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/SeWQUssYubk/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/MwdUqCZ0faQ/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/cdlhzab6J0M/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/CYZWO__Cxto/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/JPLvwb_7GYg/видео.html
Did you really think I WOULDN'T have videos on this?
Another thing that will work is if you can cut the end of the pipe at a angle and you'll never have that issue again
That's a good point, and it probably would work well. I will keep that in mind should this happen again.
Octember?
Octember.
My direct drive squeaks and squeals during spin do you know what's causing the noice, and the solution?
If it works, there likely isn't much cause for concern.
Hi Jaykay18! I have a question for you. I have a Kenmore 80 Series direct drive washing machine. My issue I’m having is the washer is slipping into a spin drain some of the time when it should be doing all neutral drains. I just installed a new transmission hoping it would solve the issue but it has not. Do you know why I’m having this spin draining issue? What would be my next trouble shooting fix?🤔 Thank you!
I find it quite interesting how people come to me as if I'm some sort of expert. Well, I am, so then they post their question yet forget the part that I'm not dumb. Clearly, you're a washer twerp. That being the case, on your About page of your channel where it says "I can help and tell you how to fix your washing machine.", you claim to know a thing or two. If you did, you'd never fire the parts cannon at the machine and replace the transmission. Based on your videos, there's no chance you replaced it.
I appreciate your feed back. Please understand, I’m 18 yrs of age, on the spectrum (Autism) and was hoping for your expertise and guidance with this issue. Based on what I do know, replacing the transmission on a 28 year old unit was not the answer to solving this issue! Your time is much appreciated.
@@Dance2564 I'm more interested to know who thought replacing the transmission would be the solution, and who paid for it and who actually installed it.
@@jaykay18 based on my knowledge from watching RUclips videos, thought that replacing the transmission would be the solution. My dad and I replaced it ourselves. We bought it from Genuine Replacement Parts. It’s been a great working machine.
@@Dance2564 That's exactly the kind of story I figured. Things aren't adding up the way your portrayed yourself.
In this video, I used a very methodical approach and stress the absolute importance of diagnosing the problem first. Doing so allowed me to determine the problem and devise a solution. In this instance, no parts were needed, just an adjustment. Now consider what would have happened if I immediately fired the parts cannon: I would have ordered a drain pump, tore the machine apart and replaced it, only to find that the problem persisted. That should sound familiar.
Are this still available in stores?
Not since about 2010.
Well a feller might have to do hot water and bleach with a large load of water every once in a while!
That doesn't wash away fibers, or hair for that matter. Sometimes, a guy's just gotta get his hands dirty.
@jaykay18 right right, then maybe use an scrub brush or an old toothbrush and scrub it!
@@jaykay18 or a guy could just use some cleaning attachments on a drill, nope.....you will probably buff it out.
@@ItzYaBoyJesse It took 12 years to get that way, and what I did will probably buy me at least 10 more.
@@jaykay18 noice!
And to think this thing will turn 15 next year. And its literally the only thing thats happened. Also older whirlpool will turn 30. Heres to many more years
Right, and this wasn't even the machine's fault! The older one I did the agitator dogs twice on. That's it. I'm sure they'll hold on for years to come.
@@jaykay18 absolutely, and exactly, they will certainly still be going strong when all the modern machines hit the landfill, i rekon even the new speed queens including the tc5 will hit the landfills way before these direct drives!
@@declanmarsh7398 Those SQ's are pretty robust. I'll bet they'll be around.