LG WM3677HW Adventures with Door Error
So I love my washing machine. I put in dirty laundry and clean, dry laundry comes out. I love it. But I was getting door lock error and 'click click' and it wasn't working. I was sad.
I don't love that it's a bit of a maintenance queen. LG doesn't put an easily accessible filter on the pan (which is just a giant gasket) or the dryer, even on the new models, so I have to tear it down every eighteen to twenty-four months and clean out the dryer and pumps because no matter how often I clean the user-accessible stuff, it does eventually get dirty. If I don't do this, the pumps eventually fail, their motors actually needing their brushings replaced... And they're not units you can do that on. So I do overhauls bi-annually.
On to the subject: The dreaded 'door error'. The door lock light doesn't come on and a big 'dE' flashes and it beeps. Alot. It'd been doing this inconsistently, mostly when it was warm... I didn't know exactly why.
The manual says that if the door isn't latching properly, and power is working, to replace the door lock component. It's something I go right past - on the front face - when I do an overhaul, so I waited until weather was better and to tear it down. But of course, it eventually stopped locking the door, and I had to fix it this week! But I had the component, and I put it in, and... It didn't work. Same symptoms: The machine would go through its sensor sequence (which is a semi-random 4-second wait) and then it would fire the door lock (click) and when the door sensor didn't sense the door was immediately latched, it would fire the lock again (second click). Then it would beep relentlessly to tell me the door wasn't shut.
But of course the door was shut. And there was a new door lock in it. What could it be?
Poking around, I saw that the latch was actually worn down. My washer just turned ten, so that sorta makes sense. But even if I pushed the locking plate in place, and pushed the buttons (with the drains open, and ready to pull the plug if it did start). It still didn't work.
Being the relentless support she is, my spouse suggested I take apart the door lock and figure out how it works. So I did that, and using rubber gloves, she gingerly held it while I plugged it in, and saw it had a hundred volts running through it. We tested each wire, and it had the appropriate voltage (well, within 10%) and poked at its workings.
Then it dawned on me: The way the door lock worked was this bent brass plate. But it wasn't springing the lock into place. At all. It should'e been springy. And it wasn't. Well, brass loses its springiness faster than steel (which is why we use steel springs, after all), but has greater corrosion resistance. And if the door was open... And the lock had been shipped to me with the lock in the open position... Time and heat would make it no longer spring. The lock was stamped with a build date of three years ago. So it's been sitting in a hot warehouse, in the coiled position, for three years before I put it in my washer. No wonder it wasn't working!
So I bent the plate back, and reassembled the lock unit, and now my washer works again. Yay!
I don't love that it's a bit of a maintenance queen. LG doesn't put an easily accessible filter on the pan (which is just a giant gasket) or the dryer, even on the new models, so I have to tear it down every eighteen to twenty-four months and clean out the dryer and pumps because no matter how often I clean the user-accessible stuff, it does eventually get dirty. If I don't do this, the pumps eventually fail, their motors actually needing their brushings replaced... And they're not units you can do that on. So I do overhauls bi-annually.
On to the subject: The dreaded 'door error'. The door lock light doesn't come on and a big 'dE' flashes and it beeps. Alot. It'd been doing this inconsistently, mostly when it was warm... I didn't know exactly why.
The manual says that if the door isn't latching properly, and power is working, to replace the door lock component. It's something I go right past - on the front face - when I do an overhaul, so I waited until weather was better and to tear it down. But of course, it eventually stopped locking the door, and I had to fix it this week! But I had the component, and I put it in, and... It didn't work. Same symptoms: The machine would go through its sensor sequence (which is a semi-random 4-second wait) and then it would fire the door lock (click) and when the door sensor didn't sense the door was immediately latched, it would fire the lock again (second click). Then it would beep relentlessly to tell me the door wasn't shut.
But of course the door was shut. And there was a new door lock in it. What could it be?
Poking around, I saw that the latch was actually worn down. My washer just turned ten, so that sorta makes sense. But even if I pushed the locking plate in place, and pushed the buttons (with the drains open, and ready to pull the plug if it did start). It still didn't work.
Being the relentless support she is, my spouse suggested I take apart the door lock and figure out how it works. So I did that, and using rubber gloves, she gingerly held it while I plugged it in, and saw it had a hundred volts running through it. We tested each wire, and it had the appropriate voltage (well, within 10%) and poked at its workings.
Then it dawned on me: The way the door lock worked was this bent brass plate. But it wasn't springing the lock into place. At all. It should'e been springy. And it wasn't. Well, brass loses its springiness faster than steel (which is why we use steel springs, after all), but has greater corrosion resistance. And if the door was open... And the lock had been shipped to me with the lock in the open position... Time and heat would make it no longer spring. The lock was stamped with a build date of three years ago. So it's been sitting in a hot warehouse, in the coiled position, for three years before I put it in my washer. No wonder it wasn't working!
So I bent the plate back, and reassembled the lock unit, and now my washer works again. Yay!