Door mechanism.
Hey guys,
I bought a NEO washing machine 3 years ago. It has been working rahter well all this time ngl. However, a few days ago the door mechanism broke.
You see, i'd normally take it to repair service, but since it's rather old, the warranty is long over. So i disasbled it and i took a peek inside and removed the faulty mechanism.
Now i'm left with a problem thought...
You see, the washing machine in question uses "metalflex zv-44g" for a lock, but it's all broekn. Anyway, I thought i could just fix this by shorting the 'common' wire to the 'live' wire. But that also did not work ~ the washing machine refused to start.
So my question is really, what am i doing wrong? Any advice is welcome please!
Thank you!
Solution Summary
AI-generated from this discussion
This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
NEO washing machine with failed door lock mechanism
- The problem
- A 3-year-old NEO washing machine would not start after the door lock mechanism failed. The lock fitted was identified as a metalflex zv-44g. The user dismantled the lock and found the internal contact was not making proper contact.
- Likely cause
- Most strongly supported diagnosis is a faulty door lock assembly rather than a confirmed control board fault. The poster reported the bimetal strip was not heating despite live and neutral being present, and the accepted reply said that if the lock bypass had been attempted correctly and the machine still did not run, the fault might not be the lock alone. Exact root cause was not confirmed.
- What fixed it
- The accepted advice was not to bypass the door lock because it is dangerous. The practical recommendation was to obtain and fit a replacement door lock assembly/spare part, and leave the machine out of use until repaired. The exact repair was not confirmed in the thread.
- Checks to try
- Manual checked for the machine's error code
- Door lock mechanism opened and inspected
- Internal contact cleaned and rechecked
- Multimeter used to test the lock
- User reported the bimetal strip was not heating
- User measured 0 ohms across live and neutral on the lock itself
- Parts or tools mentioned
- metalflex zv-44g door lock
- multimeter
Safety: Do not bypass the door lock/interlock. Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
4 Answers
Hello there. Unfortunately all I can advise is that it is very dangerous to bypass the door lock. They appreciate you may consider it okay and that you will be careful but the washing machine door would open at any time and it is operating, especially during high spin. For an engineer to bypass the door lock it would be criminally negligent. If you have definitely connected the correct wires then it would properly bypass the door lock. So if it's still not working it can't be the door lock. If you connect the neutral and common wires together then nothing would happen but if you connect the neutral and live where together I'm sure you know what would happen :-) so either you've accidentally connected the common and neutral all it's not the door lock at fault. If it has three wires there should be a live wire that goes to a coil and a neutral wire that allows the coil to heat up. Once heated up a bimetal strip should then make the connection to the other way that passes power onto the rest of the washing machine.
I do have a good explanation of how a door lock works here How does the washing machine door lock work
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I did all the correct things.
At first, I checked the manual for the error code the machine was displaying.
After I opened the door lock mechanism, the metal that is supposed to connect to the underneath connector when the bimetal strip heats up wasn't making proper conntact. After I scrubbed it off a bit with a sharp box opener, I tested with the multimeter and it was all fine. I put it back together and i tested it out. ~ nothing.
Later i found out that for some reason the bimetal strip is not heating up, even thought it was connected to neutral and live.
So my only solution would be to bypass the lock. I have no children, so It is of no concern to me. I also do realize and acknowledge that it is extremly dangerous to do this. However, I do not want to pay 100 bucks for a technician, or else throw the machien away just for this little issue.
Also, I just noticed a few hours ago (before making my previous post), that the resistance across the Live and nutural is 0 ohms (I am talking about the lock, not the wires themselfs). So would that actually mean it's more of circuit failure?
Hello. If you are capable of bypassing a lock then fitting a new one would be much easier. Have you thought about trying to find a spare part? The problem with having a potentially dangerous appliance in the home is that you never know what circumstances may happen whereby someone who does not know ends up using the washing machine or somehow a child ends up visiting. I appreciate you don't need preaching to but those are the things to bear in mind.
I'm not sure about the resistance across live and neutral. It's not something that as an engineer I've ever measured. I always just measured to see if power was getting to a specific place, or that there is a neutral return to the plug, or across particular parts.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Your reasons are completely valid, and I respect that.
I also acknowledge that even I despise people who are just outright careless and just do things the easy way and never care about safety.
I'd have to admit that in my intentions I might've just been rushing things and that is very bad and I did not display any sort of reasonability.
I'll just shove the washing machine away until I find a spare part to replace the door mechanism.
I just fear that it might be the circuit board.... oh well, i guess we will see.
Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.
Kind regards.
Vilian
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