Speaking of uproc controlled appliance junk - The bought new for too much money Maytag Neptune (MHW3000AAW, for those keeping score) bit the shed without notice after an amazing run of almost 8 years. The short version is that the door lock runs on some whacky thing called a "Wax Motor". They cheezed on the door lock, and saved about 2 bux max on solenoids, and associated parts to control them... since the Wax Motor (which I had never heard of) runs on... WAX! There's a stupid PTC thermistor next to a 1/4" square little metal box filled with, ummm... WAX, and a plunger with a pin coming out the other side - it runs off 120vac, heats the box, the WAX expands after a while... pushes the door latch closed... take off the heat, it opens... oh JOY!
Weel, they used a 500ma triac and a 1/8watt resistor with said triac to run this nominal 1.2kohm PTC... apparently something goes beserk from time to time with the PTC and it goes LOW somehow, destroying the triac and the 1/8 watt resistor... which as often as not takes out the uproc that controls the gate of the triac. Rendering the Retail ~$200 board junk. Which coupled with a service call makes it a ~400$$ repair.
I was able to replace the triac with a 2.5a unit and put a 1/2 watt resistor in the hole, but the uproc had already been fried and it refused to run the timer... so I had to replace the whole board, which after schmoozing the counter guy at the wholesale place, I got at the "employeeeee" price, which save a few bux, and it works now...
BUT, this is what put Maytag out of business... class action suit that they lost. Apparently they knew the design sucked. (they never heard of opto isolators??) Anyhow, what's the lesson?
SEND IN YOUR WARRANTY CARDS VIA RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED FOR MAJOR APPLIANCES!!
(oh, and buy ur replacement parts wholesale...
![Wink](http://amfone.net/Amforum/Smileys/classic/wink.gif)
)
Heh, we never got notified about the class action suit, nor the "free" fixes, and the time limit is up... now they say, "not our problem..." Needless to say, we have no proof, so no recourse. Time limit is up to file.
![Angry](http://amfone.net/Amforum/Smileys/classic/angry.gif)
But it gets the clothes clean... the drive motor runs on electronically produced 3 phase, which is nice... too bad they cheezed on opto isolators and ummm... a fuse?
_-_-WBear2GCR