12 replies to this topic

[Brad02131]

Appliance-san,
Thank you for allowing me into your Dojo. I hope to be worthy.

I bought a Maytage Neptune washer and dryer in 2000 for about $1600 for the set. Such a deal. "Generally problem free" by current Maytag standards. But when you consider I do one or two loads a week and travel a lot, this has worked out to about 250 loads or $6.66 per load. Talk about Mark of the Beast. Since I bought them, the dryer has had to have the circuit board replaced; its on-board transformer cooked the board. Just today the washer S.T.B., gave up the ghost. I get a fault code that says "Lr", no spinning, partial draining, timer continues to run and stares at me. Stares. I am not paranoid. Stares. Laundry sits in there, wet dumb and happy. I go to your site and just tonight find out that I was not the only one wiping the drum and seals with Clorox wipes for mildew. The settlement seams to point out to a coupon to by another Maytag (fat chance at this point). But the Staber seems to have merit. I would love your thoughts.

I throw myself at your feet, Sensei. You are Ichiban.

(Bow, full, 30 degrees)

B.

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

This Neptune has been such a black eye for Maydaytag and they continue to suck hind tit on this and all their other junk, too; GE's little brother. :pisser:

You most likely need a new motor and motor control board.  They just came out with a revision on this for certain model numbers.  Post your model number number and I can look it up for you.


Update:  the tech bulletin I posted previously on the motor abd control board update is in this thread.

[Brad02131]

Thank you, Sensei.

My vintage 2000 Maytag Neptune is a MAH5500B. Do you think it is worth sinking more $ into such a beast, or do I cut and run?

Thank you for all you are doing with this site!

[edwardh1]

How can you decide if the newer model Maytag has been cured?
Sounds like Maytag is saying (like GM) our new Vega will not rust)?????

[mastertech011]

The more people abandon these and get new machines, the more spare parts for those who cannot purchase new machines and can get spare used parts cheap.... go for new machines! We peasants will love you for it! :)

 

Im getting used control boards for as little as 35 bucks, brand new motor and control board kits for under 75 bucks, used for 40.... and fixing up my own for cheap, and have enough spare parts to last till I die... LOL

We can repair some boards for as little as 2 bucks. Of course they are the older model 3000 and 4000. My message is that you shouldnt just abandon a ship because the cost of retail paid labor and parts are outrageous. Sometimes you have to do it yourself to salvage a bad situation. Jumping ship doesnt necessarily end up in joy. Ask those who sold thier Neptunes and bought a Calypso!

[Brad02131]

Ah, thank you. One would hope that the cause of appliance death would not be caused by the parts you seek to reclaim.

(For example, The South, home of Chicken Fried Steak, probably is not a good place to look for a heart transplant donor ;)

I will give them one chance. Maybe. But if I were to buy a new horizontal axis washer, what do you see the least in terms of repair visits?

Thank you for all this!

BEW

[mastertech011]

The master appliantologists can tell you best on dependability brands, but I have heard a lot of good about HE4, Duet, Bosch, Fisher and Paykel. But just bear in mind that Maytags have been in production for 8 years approximately so the newer models havent shown their true colors yet.

 

As far as used parts, you are correct that many seek the same parts but many do not. IE, someone may need a motor and motor controller, some may need a machine control board and wax motor, others may need the outer tub assembly, etc. Not many machines will have all these items broken.  But many owners are bailing on thier 1000.00 dollar machines for new because of huge estimates, rather than investigating possible do it yourself repairs. If you search the intenet right now you will find dozens of sites to help you with that, including this magnificent one right here.

[Mad Mac]

An excellent site on the long running saga of the control board:

http://members.shaw.ca/gavb/

[Brad02131]

Excellent Wisdom, MasterTech-San.

Can you or anyone tell me what the fault code "Lr" means? That is what shows up on the LED display.

Could be it "Latch Release"?
To me it says "Loser" or "Lost Revolutions" because it does not spin.

My hope is that this points out to some of the circuit board issues in Mad Mac's helpful posting.

My model number is MAH 5500 BWW by the way.

Your Worthy Grasshoppa

[Mad Mac]

"Lr" is locked rotor - basically, the computer thinke the motor has locked up because it's sending the correct command to move it but getting no feedback to indicate that its actually moving. It could be a motor issue, it could be a board issue. There should be a tech sheet in the console with some diagnostic info.

[denrayr]

call maytag to see if your model of neptune is coverd by the settlement. if so they will fix it on their dime.

[Trying to help]

The 5500 with all the improvements is a very good machine. Prior to that, the earlier models were...............................lets say not so good. The 5500's made today are as good a front loader that is out there. It took a while for me to get rid of my old set of top loaders, but I upgraded 6 months back to the 5500 set. I remember 15 years ago when I was replacing FSP direct drive couplers left and right how techs were trashing the new design. How could they get rid of the belt drive?? Bring back the WigWag!! This thing's a piece of junk! Now 95% of the Techs recommend this unit because you stock a pump, coupler, motor and lid switch asm and you have 80% of it licked. It makes good business sense. No one wants to trash a unit that gets you a 80% or higher completion ratio on first trips. Techs will warm up to a design if is not complicated, easy to work on and they make coin off it.