Our million-dollar, incredible, computerized Maytag Neptune washing machine went kaput on us last week for the first time in over 6 years. Michael, a jack-of-all-trades, somehow managed to figure out what was wrong with it and ordered a new motor and a new gasket (the leak likely killed the motor, from my understanding...). After a long day of work, he came home oh-so-happy to find the parts waiting for him to tackle. He replaced the motor within about a half hour, but the silly gasket was the killer! Alex initially tried to help him, and then I did, and my arms are still sore! There was this cord that seals the gasket on, and, by incredible strength or a special tool, you are supposed to stretch a metal spring to hold the cord together. Michael and I could not manage it, no matter how we tried. I was actually quite worried that one of us would get injured, and Michael did get a gash on his hand at one point. After a bit of this, and my arms shaking from prolonged effort, I came up with brainstorming ideas of implements and strategies to help us. While my ideas didn't really have a lot of practical substance, they set Michael's mind churning, and he rigged up a home-brew anchor to one end and a pulley (devised of a thin rope and a metal ring) onto the spring. It worked without a whole lot of to-do!
The analogy with how humans became the dominant creatures of the earth through using their tools and wits came to me while I observed his cleverness. I'm not sure a man of twice his brute strength could have pulled those ends together!
I am happy to say that we have our first load of clothes in almost a week washing in our machine right now. Yay for Michael!
1 comment:
Yeah... Those Maytag Neptune door boots can be a bear to get on..
The older Neptunes, such as the 2000 Stackers, MAH3000, MAH4000 and the MAH5500A series had some issues which I am sure Maytag has corrected these issues in the newer machines...
There are thousands who have been burnt by the door latch wax motor failure. What happens is the machine will stop spinning because the door latch will fail to lock. Deep inside it is caused by the mechanism that locks the door. The wax motor will draw too much current and damage the control board by burning a resistor (R11) and a triac (Q6).
However, if Neptune owners know to replace the door latch wax motor they can prevent the control board failure from happening. Please tell everyone you know about this important fact.
The older Neptune’s also have a couple additional issues such as the moldy door boot and the reliability of the motor / motor control board. All three of these issues were involved in the class action lawsuit a couple of years ago. See http://www.neptunewaxmotor.com for more Neptune information.
In addition, I just now started offering a bearing and seal kit for the Neptunes because when the bearings fail Maytag wants you to replace the whole outer tub for a service quote of around $900 or so. Why replace the whole outer tub? Just replace the worn bearings and 12002022 seal… Plus I rent the famous tony tool Neptune bearing tool! See http://www.neptunebearing.com for the Neptune bearing kit information.
The older Neptunes run great once you take care of some small details...
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