Washing machine motor won't start, bad triac ?

does the motor have a start capacitor and a centrifugal speed switch to disconnect it?

Jeff

I thought that was mutually exclusive with having brushes.

Lot's of sparks inside the motor doesn't sound like a bad triac to me. Sounds like a bad motor.

I didn't know washing machines had brushed motors?

They do have variable speed controllers that do fail, along with shorting the motor windings with them! :)

Jamie

See video showing washing machine brushes and how to replace them. (5 min)

interesting, I don't work on such things but the few I have looked at always had induction motors on them. I've never owned nor do I even know any one that's ever had brushes replaced on their washing machine..

Ours gets used almost every day and I replace them on the average of every 5 years or so due to other problems, but never a motor..

In fact, I scabbed the motors from the last 2 I junked and both were just AC induction. (squirrel cage types).

Jamie

Washer/dryer motors in the U.S. have traditionally been induction motors, but apparently, universal/brush motors have/are commonly utilized in Europe (and maybe elsewhere) for washer motors. I found this out the way you did, years ago, by reading SER posts.

Generally, universal motors are cheaper to manufacture, more compact and can operate at higher speeds than common 1750/3600 RPM AC induction motors.

Some applications that were typically AC induction motors here in the U.S. are being replaced by universal motors.. table saws, for example.

-- Cheers, WB .............

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To be very sure you disconect the motor and test it on the mains at a reduced voltage.

The BTB15-600C is hard to find but RS carry the BTB16-600C. Swapping in a new triac made no difference, though.

So I tried exactly what you're suggesting : motor on a big 24 V transformer. If the rotor is a certain angle (or 180° from it), the motor doesn't start when power is applied.

When you reverse the phase on the stator (for reverse), you still have a pair of diametrically opposed "dead spots" but they're at an angle from the original ones.

That doesn't really sound right. Reversing the stator winding current should reverse the force on the rotor, not change a zero force into a non-zero force or vice versa.

I'd have to wonder whether one of the rotor windings has failed open-cicuit. I think that could even account for the sparks. The magnetic field for a winding that is becoming disconnected by the brush action has to collapse because the broken winding that's being connected cannot maintain the field.

Sylvia.

Sylvia Else Inscribed thus:

Sounds like OC segments on the comm...

The old man and I don't know enough about motors to be sure but we did suspect something along the same lines.

We thought that even if we determined which winding is damaged, attempting a fix would be risky and a lot of work. So we got a used (but working) motor from electrodocas.fr. That fixed it.

Thanks folks.

Andre Majorel Inscribed thus:

Its easy enough to test. In the old days a buzz box was used, nowadays no one bothers ! Its far cheaper just to throw it in the scrap box and buy a new one.

I'll bet that if you look very carefully at the commutator segments, you will find that one or more are loose and its likely that the loose segment is OC.

Its very rare for the windings themselves to get damaged. Open or short circuits at the commutator segments is very common. I don't remember the last time I saw anybody repair a bad commutator ! Not on fractional motors/generators anyway.

I reckon that you took the best course of action. :-)

A 'Growler' was used to test the armature in a brush type motor.

Michael A. Terrell Inscribed thus:

Wow ! I haven't heard that term for a long time. Same kit or similar though.

A growler is used to test for shorts, but won't test for opens. To test for opens, one uses a simple ohm meter.

The last reference I saw to one was in a '60s auto repair manual, about rebuilding 12v generators.