17 replies to this topic

[DennisT]

Hi:
New here. Have Fisher & Paykel GWL 11 US in trouble. s/n EAN622542 Product 96151A.

Load starts normally; water enters normally. After water is in, washer, "hums," a while like it's thinking. Does not appear to agitate/wash. After a few minutes washer starts beeping. Opening lid reveals water has drained away.

Wife can get it to spin and remaining water can be heard pumping out.

Washer then appears to turn off, thinking it did a wash but it didn't.

I've spent half the day trying to figure out how to set up and read the diag. code readout. I get pieces of the procedure, but evidently not the whole picture. I also cannot find a list of error codes.

From many, many scattered references to problems with this machine, I now expect to have to pull out the pump and see if it has restrictions. Since it pumps water out and machine is NOT leaking, I'm not sure the pump is entirely bad. After checking pump, I guess the next thing is to order a control board for about $190. (All, "rebuilt;" no new ones available)

This washer is about 8 years old and has performed flawlessly until now. We are rather attached to the darned thing, but too much in repair cost can result in rapidly diminishing returns.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Dennis in E WA state wheatlands, far, far away from F&P repair/service

[J5]

does your model have a diverter valve ?

likely cause is diverter failure or blockage in the divertor leading to pumping out the water instead of recirculating at the beginning
of the wash

[DennisT]

Thank you for the reply. Hmmm. Never thought of diverter valve. (Ha .. I guess that's obvious as I'm at the beginning of the learning curve !!)

I'll go search for diverter valve information. Maybe it's removable and, "cleanable???"

I've still never found an error code chart. I suppose that's in the secret service manual...

Dennis

[DADoESTX]

Yes, certainly a diverter problem ... but could be sourced to a bad board

After Start is pressed to run a load, the machine fills with a small amount of water to saturate the clothes, dissolve the detergent, and prime the pump. This concentrated solution is then pumped up to shower over the clothes (basket rotates at 25 RPM) through a recirculation port for 5 mins or so. The diveter controls whether the water pumps to the recirculation port (energized) or out the drain hose (not energized). The water will drain when it should be recirculating if the valve doesn't shift modes, which the board will read as a fault when it has to "top-up" the recirculation water level too many times.

The diverter can be operated in Diagnostic mode for testing ... I can outline the procedure if needed.

Can be the diverter is electrically bad ... or the linkage on it from the wax motor piston to the valve flapper could be broken ... or the valve may be clogged with debris and not able to fully shift modes.

Can be a bad board not sending voltage to the diverter. Check for approx 100v at the diverter wires when it should be energized.

Diverter should read between 700 and 2.5K ohms resistance across its terminals. Resistance varies with ambient temp and whether the diverter is hot from use.

[J5]

ok further reply

yesterday i had one that had a bad controller , it was not powering the diverter valve , quite uncommon

usual faults are blocked diverter or sometimes the lever breaks

other faults are people with poor drainage or connecting grey water pipe into garden and causing machine to syphon out

but my 1st port of call would be go and check the diverter

first of all feel it , it should be warm after it has been activated , far safer and easier than trying to check for voltage down there

if its warm then pull it off and inspect for blockage or a broken lever

[DennisT]

Good information. I have discovered a, "parts manual," with exploded diagrams; very helpful. But it's only parts; no codes or service info. However, I'm still trying to see how to take off what is necessary to gain access to diverter. I presume diverter can be removed, inspected, cleaned and reinstalled without inducing future leaks. Pump seems to work in lively fashion so perhaps I won't tamper with that.

I'm off now to see if I can find the diverter and inspect it.

PS: Local appliance fellow has never heard of Fisher & Paykel. However, he's the only serviceman within 60 miles. He sells Whirpool and services lots of other appliances including the only electric range ever to be in our 1920 farmhouse: a 1948 model Hotpoint....still serves us well. He also is the Radio Shack store. He also repaires vacuum tube radios and is fire chief. Great guy, just never heard of F&P. All this in a county seat of 1,700 people. Yeah, we're rural. So I'm not taking business away from servicemen sitting way out here in the middle of wheatlands and trying to fix this thing myself.

Dennis in E WA state

[RegUS_PatOff]

FP ALL Washer_Smart_Drive_Diagnostics.pdf 50 pages
smartdrive-gwl11us-ph6-series PARTS 17 pages
FP_GWL11_Supplement to GWL03.pdf 47 PAGES
FP_GWL11_Summary.pdf 4 PAGES
FP_GWL03US_Service_Manual.pdf 75 PAGES

for service manuals, become an apprentice

[DennisT]

Thanks, Reg. I followed your link but the info video did not load. I'll try again, but am tangled up in this washer at the moment.

I just pulled the diverter valve, with washer sitting at 45-degree angle to allow me to lay under it. Easy access. I'm surprised at the hose spring rings actually having long enough, "ears," to allow finger release. Good engineering there. Surprisingly clean underneath. Hoses soft and supple. Only hose at the nylon circle clamp was removal a little awkward.

Diverter valve is extremely clean inside and looks good. I can see the very small pivot and actuating arm for what must be the, "wax," solenoid; all looks like it was manufactured yesterday. Wire connectors same good condition; very clean; well made. Ohm-meter reading on solenoid reads 2.4K ohms which is a little within limits so should be OK. This is with valve at cool, room temperature. If this is a 110V actuated solenoid, the wires feeding it must only be 20-gauge strand or thereabouts. Small. I wondered about applying 110V across was solenoid, but am not sure I want to.

Given the above, if wires up to control board are good, (likely), I'm thinking I have a bad control board that is not talking to or providing voltage to solenoid.

So I'm tempted to order a control board. THOUGHTS? Anything I should check first? Is there a preferable source for ordering control board?

By the way, pump looks nice and dry; some lint, not much. Turning little fan with finger is easy; little resistance and smooth.

Next step? Re-use diverter? Order control board?

Dennis

[DennisT]

For lack of knowing what else to do, I called F&P Service. They answered in NZ. Great gals to talk to and they'll try all they can to help, especially after finding out we live too far out for a service call. I quickly re-installed the diverter valve and attempted to start a wash. After normal water spray came in from back, then larger water stream entered from right side, again, the washer filled some more and, "thought," about things for a while before beeping. Lights when beeping were: 1-dark; 2 blinking green; 3 green; 4 green; 5 green; 6 orange; 7 orange; 8 red. Interestingly, when alarm sounds, our selected, "warm," water light has switched from showing warm, to, "cold," and is blinking.

All of this information relayed to the NZ tech resulted in them not knowing what to think of this light string.

The nice lady in NZ tried to get their real tech guy to talk to me but he declined saying he could loose his license if he advised a non-service person. Swell.

Having some error code info now and instructions to read out the light strip, I tried that. I set machine for diag. Asking it for a, "detailed fault description," merely produced no lights whatsoever on the error light string.

My conclusion: I'm getting NO usable self-diagnosis from the washer. Diverter valve looks great; resistance reading is good; pump kicks water out in grand fashion. Spin works fine. Water entrance works fine.

I'm back to thinking I should order a control board.

Dennis

[RegUS_PatOff]

Page from FP ALL Washer_Smart_Drive_Diagnostics.pdf

[DennisT]

Thanks for diag. instructions. I probably didn't write my previous post clearly, but I already did that. Result produced NO lights whatsoever. I did it again just now, refering this time to your directions......with the same results. So apparently there are NO stored error codes in the machine.

I see no references anywhere on my machine to tell me which, "phase," version this machine is. I take it that, "phase," is their term for version or progressive model variations/modifications in production.

??

Dennis

[RegUS_PatOff]

all GWL11 are phase 6

[J5]

Interestingly, when alarm sounds, our selected, "warm," water light has switched from showing warm, to, "cold," and is blinking.

sounds like you werent getting enough water of either hot or cold

tells you this in the users manual

[DennisT]

Kohai:
Really? Now this is interesting. My wife can't find the manual. Is there one on line?

Dennis

[DennisT]

Discard my last post, please. Found the manual

Dennis

[kdog]

for service manuals, become an apprentice

[jb8103]

Signing up for apprentice is a bargain, Dennis. In my case, less cost than a single service call.

[DennisT]

You are right, I probably will sign up as an apprentice; or is there a lower entry level? Because............

I thought about crawling under the carpet and not returning to this forum. On the other hand, you all have been such a help I know I owe you, and here I am to confess. (Besides, none of you can see the color of my face - "red.")

My problem was a completely clogged cold water inlet screen at the machine end. No kidding.

Cleared/cleaned screen; perfectly working washer.

So the machine was doing/acting just exactly as it was supposed to. The switch to blinking cold water lamp was an indication it was talking to me. I guess the whole array of lights and diag. instructions brought me too quickly to the point of making this way too complicated. We are on a water well and had to have our pump replaced about 2 months ago. I have a sediment filter where all water must pass through before entering the household. I changed that twice in case the well work introduced anything unusual. Apparently it did, and some got past the primary filter to the washer. I trusted the primary filter too much.

But.........I tracked it down before installing any new parts.

Thanks for all your assistance. One thing resulted: I learned a great deal and I have a lot more respect for this machine than I ever did before, and I'm saving all documention.

I'll look in here once in a while, and sign up.

Dennis