Ariston H2O Error Code.
Hi.
Greetings from the colonies ! I'm in Australia but info is thin on the ground and I'm hoping some help from the 'old country' can assist me.
I have an Ariston AQXXF 129 front loading washing machine.
The machine will start a wash cycle OK. Water can been seen / felt being drawn in. However when it changes to the rinse / spin cycle an Error message : H2O is displayed on the LCD. Research suggests that this relates to a problem with water in / water out. I don't think it's drawing water when switching to spin cycle as I can neither feel or hear water in the pipes then.
I've checked the pipes and there are no blocks, issues with water pressure / FOD in the filter.
I've checked the outlet pipe and it's clean. The pump impeller is free and turns when the machine is on. The drain pipe from the drum to the pump is free and clean.
I've checked the vacuum sensor pipe and it seems OK.
I've pretty technically minded / good with machines and have and can use a multimeter so any suggests as to diagnosis / remedy appreciated. Being a fair way from a major city getting it repaired is going to be a very costly matter and typically it's out of warranty.
Some info suggests maybe a problem with the intake valves, but if that's the case surely the machine would present the error code at the start of the wash cycle ?
Anyway - thanks for any assistance or advise anyone can provide.
Solution Summary
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This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
Ariston AQXXF 129 showing H2O during rinse due to failed cold inlet solenoid
- The problem
- Ariston AQXXF 129 front-loading washing machine started wash cycles normally and took in water at the beginning, but displayed H2O when changing to rinse/spin. The owner could not hear or feel water entering at that stage.
- Likely cause
- Confirmed fault in the cold water inlet assembly: it has two solenoid valves, described as low-flow and high-flow, and one had failed. This matched the symptom of filling initially but failing on rinse.
- What fixed it
- Machine was taken to a repair centre. The failed cold water inlet solenoid valve was replaced, after which the machine operated normally.
- Checks to try
- Checked inlet pipes for blockages
- Checked water pressure and inlet filter for debris
- Checked outlet pipe and found it clean
- Checked pump impeller was free and turning
- Checked drum-to-pump drain hose was clear
- Checked pressure/vacuum sensor pipe
- Confirmed hot and cold supplies had good flow off the machine
- Observed initial fill stopped normally, suggesting it was not continuously siphoning
- Parts or tools mentioned
- Cold water inlet solenoid valve assembly
Safety: Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
4 Answers
G'day mate :-) Yes H20 is pretty much universally used to indicate a water fill problem. Either no water is getting into the machine or it's so slow it's timing out. It might be worth going through all the steps in my article on washing machine not taking in water in case it reveals something or at least to say you've eliminated everything else.
Also make sure it isn't siphoning - washing machine fills with water which just goes down the drain although if it were siphoning you should be hearing it fill constantly even though not much water appears to get into the machine.
As yours appears to fill initially, but then indicates a fill error during rinses it may be a weird fault unless it's a hot and cold fill washing machine and there's a fault preventing the cold water getting in but it's filling ok with hot on the initial wash.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Thanks. I've done a fair bit of experimentation thus far. Depending on the wash program selected the volume of water being drawn in initially varies. I can feel and hear it coming in on both the hot and cold supplies (I've checked these for flow rates off the machine and their fine). Once the initial fill completes the flow stops which would suggest that it's not siphoning. It seems that as soon as it changes to the rinse cycle that the slow / restricted water intake issue presents. I'm leaning towards a problem perhaps in the controller, my next test would be to see what voltage is being delivered to the inlet valves during the initial fill and then compare that with what happens when the rinse cycle is selected.
Any suggestions as to how to test the valves would be useful, in terms of expected resistance across the terminals ?
The machine model name is also Aqualatis, I'm not sure if that has any links to the Hoover machine of the same name and whether this maybe a common fault ?
Thanks for any suggestions you can make !
The siphoning doesn't occur with the valves, it occurs at the other end. Water can slowly seep out of the washing machine down the drain hose and into the drain. The washer detects there isn't enough water so allows more water in but because the water is siphoning out as fast as it goes in this sets of a vicious circle of filling and draining so the washer never gets enough water in and could [produce a water related error code. If that was happening though (most likely on rinses) the washer should be filling excessively but not getting enough water in
Aqualtis is a Hotpoint brand in the UK. The valves must be ok if they are energising ok on wash.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
I bit the bullet and took the machine to a repair centre. The fault was :
The cold water inlet has two solenoid valves, one of which is low flow, the other high. One of those valves had failed. Once replaced the machine is working fine again. I post this in the hope it will assist others with the same fault.
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