I have been having some minor problems over the last couple of years with this machine, which have, to date, been easily got round.

 

Whilst using the  easy care/synthetics program, the machine keeps  stopping   during cold water fill at the start of each of the rinse cycles (3) with the Error Code E10 -  Insufficient flow. Up to now, I have remedied this by simply depressing the start button, after which the error code disappears and the machine continues to fill and proceed with the rinse.

 

The machine is 13 years old, but has had limited use (Max of 2-3 uses a week on a 40 degree easy care/synthetics program) and has  been well maintained, with piping, filters and trays regularly and thoroughly cleaned to remove detritus and deposits. And every three months its treated with a pack of supermarket brand of washing machine cleaner.  And more recently its been treated with AEG's own enzyematic washing machine cleaner.

 

Put still the problem persists. It does occur in other programs e.g. the delicates (Max temp 40C). However, when I occasionally use the cotton/linens program @ 60 C, you don't get the stoppages.

 

More recently, its started show an odd-digit in the timer display, so that, for example,  within a second of me selecting  the figure of 40 minutes for drying (Via a push button cumulative addition in 10s of units), the display changes to 41 minutes. Similarly for any other figure selected.

 

And, in the new year, its begun stopping with an Error Code E20 -drain blocked -

 

I suspect that a faulty component is causing this e.g. the electronics in the display board (Which I understand has connections to the inlet valves and drain pump). I also suspect a faulty temperature thermistor,  this may explain why the tub fill error only occurs in the 40 C programs. The other possibility is a faulty pressure switch, but  that would leave normal operation at 60 C unexplained.

 

Anybody got specific experience of this with AEG or similarly constructed machines (I understand a lot of Electrolux parts are used/substitutable for AEG).

 

Thanks,

 

 

Nick

Edited 12 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

There are too many different things for me to think sensors; I suspect it is the main board controller chip, I have had one of these go sour on me with an otherwise perfect Zanussi machine; everything worked perfectly - except it wouldnt spin at the end of a cycle, but if you selected "spin only" it would work!!

 

My experience is, they wont sell a component, only the whole board, and the price I was quoted amounted to about £50 MORE than the cost of  a new machine.

 

Just remember, 13 years is into the bell curve for electronic devices, after 10 years the chances of a fault start to increase quite quickly, so it might be time to plan for a new machine

There's definitely something wrong with the fill on the rinses.

 

I ran a test   this morning on a complete Easy Care' s wash programme and the machine stopped about two thirds of the way through each rinse fill with error code E10.  On the third rinse, I timed the fill and it took 7 minutes before it issued an E10 error code and, after restart, it took a further 5 minutes before the drum started rotating for the rinse action and a further 5 minutes before the fill stopped. At which point the rinse cycle ended, drum rotation stopped and in started to empty !

 

Now I know I've got low water pressure at my location but  I know its somewhere between 1 bar and 2 bar because I'm able to top-up (Just about !) the water in  my domestic heating system, which operates at +2 bar, from the mains supply. Also, I've recently measured the water flow at the kitchen tap, and although low and slow, it  issues a litre in 1 minute 20 seconds. So the drum, which I assume holds at least a gallon when the fill  is designed to stop, should fill in a maximum of 6 minutes. Not the 17 minutes its currently taking.

 

Apparently, AEG machines should operate OK will a incoming water pressure of .75 Bar, whilst the Jap and Korean machines are OK with 0,5 bar.

 

Also, previously unknown to me, OFWAT legislated in 2008/2009 that the Water Companies should supply a minimum pressure of .75 bar. I wondered why the supply, in this traditionally low-water pressure  area, with high density 1980s in-fill building development, had started to trickle out the tap after that point. Courtesy of the French Water company (And successor) trying to reduce its leakages bill, I presume.

 

As a secondary problem, I am finding that the extended fill time, is making the programmer count-down timing display run out of time by the end of the wash programme, so its sticks on 1 minute for at least 15 minutes !

 

It also seemed to me, from the noises that were being made,  as if the drain pump was operating during the fill - maybe that's why its been taking so long to fill !

 

Last night, after consulting the you tube videos and website of  "Whitegoods.co.,uk" I managed to get some more specific information on the fault in terms of what they call an Engineers Code. By depressing and holding down the pre-wash and soak buttons and simultaneously rotating the programmer clockwise to the first programme position (Cottons @ 90C), the machine enters self-diagnostic mode  and with further clockwise rotation of the programmer knob to Long-Spin, the Engineers fault code is displayed. In this case it was E21, which according to the description implicates one or all of the following, main board PCB, pressure switch or drain pump or associated wiring.

 

My guess is that the main PCB has gone on the fritz, cause the machine is  not overflowing (Pressure switch) and the drain pump is working fine. Perhaps I'll have the lid -off PM and do some multimetering. And, of course, this machine was  German built circa 2002-2003, so probably caught the tail-end of the "Re-unification quality whitegoods" standard.

 

Quick scan of the on-line spares sites indicates a new board is between £80-£90.

 

That's a bit better than the £700 that John Lewis want for the only new AEG machine to get any reviews (All decent) on their website. But only a two year guarantee.

 

The reviews of  similarly priced Samsungs and LG's, which are priced +£50 more, say that clothes handling and drying on these are pants (Sorry !)- contrary, apparently WHICH were raving about them a few years ago.

 

Its going to be an expensive year this year, Cam belts on the car + a possible gear box rebuild/exchange (Whine on 1st and 2nd) + normal annual service. So, before laying out for a new one, I think I'll have a look around inside.

 

In any event, thank goodness for 0% for 12 months credit card offers.

 

Nick

Edited 13 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

On delving into the Whitregoods UK website, I found advice that says the PCB boards usually give up the ghost because of a failed Triac (A solid state relay) with max price in the open market of £7.

 

Sounds like  . . . fudge.

 

 

Nick

Edited 13 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

Nick ,is that http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/forumsphpbb3/.

Another solution might be to try the D & G SITE. D & G do the registration of new machines, and offer out of warranty cover for machines. But something not known is that they also do a repair option ,which comes with two options

1) - Pay fro the repair at fixed price.

2) Pay for that repair and any others in the next 12 months. Very little difference in price, but the extra cover is well worth it.Came as a surprise to me.

Prices depend on new price of machine

Board -£80 -90. I was quoted around similar for our Bosch washer dryer for cover, and I know that repair cover is only slightly more.

Bonus is that if you know anyone working for D&G ,price is 75% ot that to MOP.

Relative working for them - IT'S 50% OFF.

Phone - 0800 561 4493

They live in Bedworth.

http://www.domesticandgeneral.com/content/contact-domestic-general

On delving into the Whitregoods UK website, I found advice that says the PCB boards usually give up the ghost because of a failed Triac (A solid state relay) with max price in the open market of £7.

 

Sounds like  . . . fudge.

 

 

Nick

 

The triac will be used to control the motor, the fact the motor turns suggests the triac is OK, so I dont think £7 is going to save your machine, the drain pump going at the same time as the inlet valve is open suggests the controller chip is screwed - and these are usually soldered to the board and they wont sell you one on its own (probably a £20 part IF you can identify its real make and model, not the WM makers print-over).

 

So, £90 for a new board that might fix a 13 year old machine, or blow your stash on a new machine with a warranty?

1 litre flow in 80seconds is pretty slow. While the presure might be in the right range, the flow rate may be too slow for the machine... thats a rate of 0.75litres/min. Pretty sure our LG (bought last summer to replace a friday build Nordmende) washer-dryer stipulates a min flow of 3or4 litres/min... as wel as 0.5bar pressure.

I've just done some more measurements of flow rates at the supply pipes to the washing machine (After doubling checking that all the mains stop-clocks were wide open !) and found that the mains water cold supply for the washing machine delivers at 3 litres a minute whilst the hot supply (Used for the dishwasher and fed from a hot water tank in the roof (20 foot head of water) delivers 6 litres a minute.

 

So, apart from discovering another little problem, i.e. that there's a blockage in the monobloc sink tap, I decided to swap the feed for the washing machine (Which is supposed to be cold feed only) from the cold supply to the hot supply from the roof tank and ran the rinse only program - Surprise, surprise, the rinse fill took about six minutes, completing before the end of each rinse cycle and there were no mid-cycle stoppages and E10 - Insufficient flow error codes. However, on post-run diagnostic,  another error code revealed itself, E61 - heater element/temperature sensor/Main PCB fault - this feels very much like engine management diagnostics on the Fabia !

 

And, as soon as I swapped the back to the cold supply from the mains and ran the same rinse program again, a stoppage occurred after 9 minutes, with the E10 error code showing  and, after restarting the fill continued to the end of the rinse cycle at 15 minutes. A subsequent diagnostic run then showed E11 error code -poor fill rate. I'd say that's confirmation.

 

So it definitely looks as if the cold water supply pressure is OK @ 2.4 bar (That's how much the mains was able to pressurise my heating system this morning), but that the flow rate from the washing machine cold supply pipe @ 3 litres a minute might not be adequate for the machine.

 

A bit of  research bears this out. The specification page in the washer's manual states that the minimum input water pressure required is 50 Kilopascals i.e. 0.5 bar, and on-line sources state that AEG drum fill times are limited by the PCB hardware/software to 10 minutes max.

 

Consequently, I'm a little confused as to what's going on here, because even if the fully-charged drum held 2 gallons, i.e. approx. 10 litres, at that flow rate it would only take 3 1/3 minutes to fill from the cold supply. The fact that the machine was OK until a couple of years back suggests to me that the current stoppages are being caused by the cold solenoid inlet valve at the back of the machine not opening fully i.e. mains cold water supply is offering up a flow of 3 litres a minute and the inlet solenoid is not allowing all of that through.  So, more multimetering this evening on the solenoid coils, which I'm told should have a resistance of 3.6 - 4.00 k ohms. Of course it could be the PCB isn't sending the right power level to one or other of the solendoids (I think they're are at least two in the back of the machine controlling water supply) - if that is the case, then a quick swap of the leads between the tray solenoid and the recirculation supply solenoid should prove the case.

 

As an aside, I also had the lid off the machine last night, just to check for possible leaks, loose and burnt wiring and found nothing in that regard. But I did find some water staining on the front top directly above the PCB command panel - this had possibly come from defrosted ice from a table-top- freezer on the work surface above.  After a bit of fiddling around with the PCB seating, six or so of the special function buttons which previously had gone "Dead", came to life.  In a perfect world, I'd have preferred to take the whole PCB out and clean it and the contacts, but the number of bits that have to be removed to get at it looks horrendous and I'ld have probably done more damage taking it out. May be I can squirt some contact cleaner through the button holes ?

 

Nick

Edited 14 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

With a machine your age, if it is a solenoid, you may well find the coil is a standard fitting used across a wide range of machines; however I would urge caution, usually there things just die, they dont part open.

 

You could take it out and have a look inside, you say you found a blockage in a mixer tap, is it something that might also have worked its way into the WM valve and got stuck??

 

Unusual in a mains feed, but I have had it happen when the feed came via a header tank in the loft, the cover had slipped and all sorts of nasty things started appearing in the cold and hot water (dead insects and a soggy fag); and did have a small, freshwater shrimp pop out of the bath cold tap many, many, MANY years ago when living in Halesowen.

 

You have decided the drain pump isnt going at the same time then??

Technician on Just Answers tells me it is the solenoid group (Even gave me the AEG part No)

 

Apparently the coils don't fail, but the plastic valve that they actuate jams, allowing only partial flow. Apparently, that slows the fill and the PCB calls time (@ 8-9 minutes on my machine) and it throws an E10 error code  That confirms what I've read, since yesterday,   in other web posts.

 

I measured the coils this morning, power-off, solenoids at rest (There are three, one each for each part of the dispenser tray i.e. special treatments, detergent and rinse),  for  continuity and resistances. All three are closed circuit, with respective resistances of 4.12, 4.62 and 3.7 K ohms. That seems to confirm what the technician is saying. Similarly the power consumption measured at the 3 pin plug didn't varying between wash and rinse programs when the machine was just cold filling (11 watts) - but one might have expected the power consumption to rise when the machine threw an E10 @ 8-9 minutes into each rinse, reflecting the increased electrical effort needed to push the jamming valve - but according to my readings it didn't - Germans defying all the logic, including electrical, again - a normal electric motor would ?

 

So its £35 at the on-line spares shop - Checked out the official AEG spares site yesterday and they don't stock the part but others stock the equivalent                  Electrolux/Zanussi  part.

 

I also ordered an aerosol can of  contacts cleaner @ £7 from the South American company so that I can do the front panel switches - apparently the front panel and PCB aren't as hard to remove  as I thought according to this strip down video of a Zanussi Timeline:-

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXOIi2nbjMo

 

Apart from the door and the front panel design the internals are the same as my AEG - wonder how that was priced when it originally went on sale ?

 

That's better than £700 for a new 'un

 

Nick

Edited 15 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

The ohms resistance isnt a very good indicator, a short circuit or burnt out windings would give pretty much the same reading with a standard meter, only an insulation tester could really tell you if the coils were gone.

 

SO the engineer says the valve jam, that IS news to me; I used to buy/repair/sell old wm, and never came across this issue; 9 out of 10 times the machines being thrown away had a burnt out coil on the cold fill inlet valve - a £1 part at the time, assuming I didnt have spares from a machine I had stripped for parts - due to it being rusty.

 

I used to buy the machines for £1 - £10 and sell them on for £40 - £100.

No doubting your previous acquired expertise.

 

We'll see who has the correct take.

 

All done for £43, including a modified connector for the cold fill orifice.

 

Come-on, be reasonable,  Private Equity capital, has spent a lot a time and money setting-up these on-line spares providers - they need a decent return on capital. It was either spares business in Europe or the much, much risker proposition of  solar cell farms in the North African Magreb, and that would have involved supping with the temporal representatives of the enlightened one !

 

The valves on these are integral in a moulded plastic unit which contains the 3 x coil + wiring connectors and  also incorporates the filler orifice + FILTER. Wouldn't have thought it would stand disassembly. 

 

This fault has been knocking around for the last two years, at least, and its only now that I have felt well enough and had the time to fix it.  I stand to be corrected, but I wouldn't have thought a burnt out coil would have allowed the machine to have been re-started, as this machine has been doing for the last two years. I frrely admit that the noise I thought was the drain pump grinding away was in fact, when I took the lid off, gi-normous hum coming from the coils. So they may well have been on the way out, but, like their operator, were taking a distressingly long time to bit the dust.

 

 

Nick

Edited 15 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

If it filled fine with the 6litre hit flow, the error that threw re the temp sensor most likely was due to it expecting cold tap water at aboit 4-15degrees and instead it got water at whatever your hot cylinder was at..60odd??

Dont disagree with the solenoid being to blame but its possible thees another cause of problems still there...

No doubting your previous acquired expertise.

 

We'll see who has the correct take.

 

All done for £43, including a modified connector for the cold fill orifice.

 

Come-on, be reasonable,  Private Equity capital, has spent a lot a time and money setting-up these on-line spares providers - they need a decent return on capital. It was either spares business in Europe or the much, much risker proposition of  solar cell farms in the North African Magreb, and that would have involved supping with the temporal representatives of the enlightened one !

 

The valves on these are integral in a moulded plastic unit which contains the 3 x coil + wiring connectors and  also incorporates the filler orifice + FILTER. Wouldn't have thought it would stand disassembly. 

 

This fault has been knocking around for the last two years, at least, and its only now that I have felt well enough and had the time to fix it.  I stand to be corrected, but I wouldn't have thought a burnt out coil would have allowed the machine to have been re-started, as this machine has been doing for the last two years. I frrely admit that the noise I thought was the drain pump grinding away was in fact, when I took the lid off, gi-normous hum coming from the coils. So they may well have been on the way out, but, like their operator, were taking a distressingly long time to bit the dust.

 

 

Nick

 

 

OK, so they use a non-standard inlet valve housing, I wonder how many other makers do this now?? Go back 15 years to when I stopped, my little sideline, about 70% of the different makes all used a pair of the same inlet valves - one for cold and one for hot; and the coils simply unscrewed and lifted off.

 

Why did I stop?? They had started welding the drums shut instead of bolting them, so bearing and drum repairs were almost impossible. Those Calgon adverts you see? Not possible on most modern machines without cutting it apart.

 

After inlet valves, the next biggest failure was bearings; you didnt even need to change them, just pack them out with GTX gearbox grease and they were good for another 5+ years.

Edited 16 January, 201610 yr by GentleGiant

The plastic mains inlet valves as above either work or they don't. A coil can read fine even if blown. A continuity test rather than measuring ohms would confirm this.

I'd they become blocked typically the coil also blows.

E10 is a common indication of main board failure on most machines too.

The real "bonus" I've found with AEG products is that they like you to spend money on them frequently, changed the "programmer" - switch bit and years later, had to do something about the motor (washer only, not washer/drier) - quickly discovered that you can't buy a bearing kit for that one, just a new motor - that hurt my wallet a lot, but washer goes on working, a lot quieter than it did before changing the motor. I'm talking about a 1997 vintage machine here, so even the new parts have paid for themselves. Seems like wife still picks AEG though, nice very very quiet dishwasher is also AEG, previous one a NEFF of 1989 vintage just got me beat, problems included wiring blowing a hole in the door inner skin! Other bad habit was keeping the heater on so that it curled up and melted any plastic bits close by!!

Our AEG washer drier shows the E20 message, it is the filter, bottom right on our model, simply unscrew and remove debris, so far ours has caught, numerous hair clips, money, a chewed up nationwide cashpoint card and the odd pebble.

 

 Indeed issues I would guess a sticking solenoid or a faulty water feed hose, does yours have the special valve that can detect a leak?  It is like a plastic piece clamped to the pipe at the end where it screws onto the washer, if it has, swap your hose for a standard straight through pipe and try it.

 

 Final option would be to take out a policy with one of these insurance companies and call them out.

 

 Good luck

This is the first fault in 13 years, or rather 11 years as the problem started 2 years ago.

 

If only the motors were that reliable. By  the 11 year mark with the Fabia (On less than average mileage) , I was through, 2 x anti-roll bars and bushes, I  x all -round water integrity repair on the windows, 2 x air-conditioning sensors and 2 x re-gas, 1 x set of console bushes for the front suspension, 1 x EGR valve clean, 1 x set of new cam belts, 2 x new  electric window mechanisms, 1 x set of tyres, 1 x set of wheel trims, let alone all the minor bits replaced on the normal service.

 

My previous Electrolux did 16 years (without any replacement bits) before the main winding on the motor went  in 2003 and I was told, by the service engineer, that spare motors were no longer made for that model (This was pre- the mushrooming of these on-line spares sellers).

 

The existing cold fill pipe, is clean as a whistle, as is  the in-line filter embedded in the tap end of the pipe - the termination on the cold-fill pipe fits straight onto the inlet valve projection on the back of the machine, there's no interposed mechanism. As previously said, there's another mesh water filter inside the inlet valve moulding. I would imagine it would be an extremely rare occurrence if anything that could jam the inlet valves got through to do that. What I suspect has happened is that the plastic valve mechanism has worn, ' cause the solenoids are very strong and operate quite sharply, causing it to jam in its track. Possibly the rinse valve fails first as there are 3 rinse fills on the wash programme I use most (Synthetics) to every wash cycle.

 

Spares are due to be delivered tomorrow - Having ordered stuff from them in the past,  I have to say that AEG's spares service is prompt. 

 

Fingers crossed, its not another component. When I had the lid-off last week, I did run the on-board diagnostics on at least 10 separate occasions and the  errors that came-up were E10 and E11 - these relate to the water fill function. There also seems to be, usefully but perhaps inadvertently, a cleaning facility built-in to the on board diagnostics. From memory its option 5 on the diagnostic program sequence. The way this works is that Option 4 is a cold-fill and drum rotation test, which doesn't automatically drain before going into option 5. Option five is the top speed spin test (1600 RPM). All I can say is that, spinning at that speed, even for the programmed 45 seconds, with the drum 1/3 full of water don't half remove the accumulated deposits from the reverse (Unseen) side of the drum ! And it does it without going out-of-balance !

 

Spares coverage for this machine seems pretty good at the moment - the main AEG site seems to have stock for the all major parts for my machine, bearing, main motor, drain pump, recirculation pump, bits for the drier, programmer, main board, inlet valves, door interlock, dispenser tray and the third party on-line suppliers have, between them, got the full selection too.

 

Nick

Edited 18 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

Ré unreliable motors,

 

I probably shouldnt say this on a Skoda forum; but next time consider a Mitsubishi.

 

Mine is nine years old now, and not so much as a bulb has gone wrong.

Saw a nice white Dacia Duster, in pristine condition, on the outskirts of Pinner yesterday.

 

From a user requirement, design and price point that would suit me down to the ground. Only thing that puts me off is the small number of dealerships and early reports about build-quality, although I understand that production for UK (RHD)  has now been shipped to  the Romanian factory. Financially that's a couple of years off at the moment.

 

Back to the Laundry. Not entirely straightforward on the progress front.

 

New solenoid + back panel connector arrived yesterday and was fitted. Also, removed the front panel and cleaned it up -  the button holes seemed to act as a magnet for spent cooking oil (Oven is  next to the washer and part of the seal isn't too good). Re-assembled  and ran diagnostics, without problems - Less hum from the solenoids and a much sharper operation when opened.

 

Then came the crunch test -  the rinse cycle. Stuck it on that  and the kittening thing stopped with an E11 error message - basically timed-out on the rinse fill, about 10 minutes in.

 

Backtracking the cold supply, I retested the washing machine cold fill tap and that was OK. Then had a look at the proprietry AEG anti-flood cold-fill hose to see what was going on. Disassembled the anti-flood control mechanism (Mechanism ! Huh ! a sliding piece of plastic, a spring, a high power magnet and a piece of sponge !). Couldn't see anything obvious. Re-assembled and re-fitted it to the machine. Re-tested rinse and now there's absolutely no water flowing through the cold-fill pipe. Shaaaaggg !

 

I understand that, usually, if the anti-flood mechanism is triggered in the pipe, that the supply is automatically shut-off and that only removing the pipe at both ends resets it to flow. Well, I've removed the pipe and it still isn't allowing flow !

 

At the moment, in desperation, I've got the pipe soaking in a bowl of Mr Muscle plug-hole and drain unblocker solution, just in case there is an actual  physical blockage in the inner pipe.

 

 

If that doesn't work then its either £43 for another anti-flood pipe or a fiver for a conventional AEG brand pipe.

 

Has anybody got a link to a line diagram or stripdown video for this type of component or has definite knowledge on how they work ?

 

I may discard the anti-flood pipe in favour of a conventional one - internet posts seem to indicate that anti-flood pipes do restrict the flow-rate compared with normal pipes. Some reports say by up to a factor of six.

 

Also this morning, I received the  water pressure tester ordered from the South American company and surprisingly, when fitted to the cold-fill tap for the washing machine, it showed 2.6 bar

 

The hot supply tap,  fed from the hot -water tank in the attic, showed 0.5 Bar - the hot supply pressure would be as expected i.e. a head of water of 10 metres produces 1 bar of pressure. and my hot water tank is about 20 foot from the ground floor level.

 

In summary, then, it would appear that water flow is the key statistic as regards normal operation of modern washing machines and not so much pressure,

 

viz:-  my AEG machine successfully ran the rinse program on the hot water supply @ 0.5 bar, 6 litres a minute, but timed-out when using the cold supply @ 2.6 bar, 3 litres a minute.  Yet the AEG manual for this machine only refers to water pressure. AEG NOTE !

 

Also, so I've read, older machines used to switch the timer off when filling (Resuming when the pressure device sensed the tub was full), so that low-flow rate was not a problem with them. However, newer machines keep the timer running during fill so that flow rate is critical - NOW YOU WOULD THINK THAT WATER COMPANIES' WOULD BE AWARE OF THAT ! AFFINITY, PLEASE NOTE.

 

 

Possible quick fixes ?

 

Re-programming the machine to accept a fill time longer than 10 minutes - apparently, can be done on Miele machines from the control console.

 

Getting a "Y" connector and feeding the hot and cold supply into the washer. This would raise the flow-rate , but reduce the pressure slightly.  Downside, rinses wouldn't be done in cold water - not a problem for my mainly poly-cotton wash.

 

Failing that its a long-slog problem resolution involving possible renewal of my under-sink stop valves (On the assumption that they are not fully opening - possible), checking the external stop-**** on the property boundary and finally, if that proves unproductive, taking the low-flow rate up with the water company Affinity.

 

 

Nick

Edited 20 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick

Stop taps do fail; I was advised to fully open and close them at least once a year, to stop them jamming.

Exactly, in the words of the prophet,  stop-cocks are not a device fitted for the 21st century - but,  then again,  that's like most of the predominant building technology used at the residential level.

 

I think my first stop will be getting a suitable mains key for the external stop-**** and checking that is sufficiently open. From what I understand, closing down any- stop -**** impacts the rate of flow rather than water-pressure (Old plumbers' trick). That, + a new conventional fill pipe,  may cure the problem in short order.

 

Not withstanding that,  the under sink main stop **** turns freely, so, the suspicion then falls on  the two subsidiary stop-cocks for the washing machine. The SC for the hot supply is turning freely, but I had to "Unjam" the cold-supply one, although once it was unjammed, in turned freely.

 

They probably all need renewing. So a mains key + a freezer pack + parts will do that.

 

The other possibility is that there is a leak in the cold supply, between the external stop-**** and the house. Doubtful, as its probably a plastic pipe (1980s house).

 

 

Nick

Anti flood devices normally need resetting if they have triggered.

Obvious question first, you did refit it round the right way?

I refer to my first post here re flow rate being your problem...

stick a regular connection pipe on the feed and test the flow rate - itmakes sense that water flowing through the A-F mech will reduce flow, its an obsructed pipe - if the flow rate improves stick with the generic pipe. I almost gaurantee it will end the flow rate issues

I say anti-flood, its anti-leak for the filler hose. Presumably designed to cope with leaks when the machine is on or off, with the household  cold water supply taps open and the machine unattended.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AEG-Washing-Machine-Water-Inlet/dp/B00NB0ZQNM/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453329322&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=AEG+washer+water+supply+hose

 

The one I've got looks exactly like the picture in the amazon advert, but unfortunately, the model number of my machine is not included in the list below.  Apparently they also have a similar pattern for Electrolux and Zanussi:-

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electrolux-Washing-Machine-Water-Inlet/dp/B00NB13XX6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453329639&sr=8-1&keywords=Electrolux+washer+water++hose

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zanussi-Washing-Machine-Water-Inlet/dp/B00NB1BM4S/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1453329578&sr=8-5&keywords=zanussi+washer+water++hose

 

The same hose is used for some John Lewis branded machines.

 

 

So its consists of a large diameter (approx. 22mm dia ) corrugated pvc-type plastic outer pipe, with a normal diameter striated filler pipe (Approx 15mm dia.) inside. There's what appears to be a normal angled connector for fitting to the back of the machine at one end of the pipe and an enlarged housing at the other end, (Containing the leak control gear ?) with the supply tap fitting on the top.

 

I have had the pipe, from new, with the angled connector connected to the back of the machine and the bit with the enlarged housing connected to the  washing machine cold water tap. This worked before and appears to be the connection method depicted in the "Hydraulics" exploded diagram  (PDF) on the official AEG Spares site:-

 

http://shop.aeg.co.uk/search?ssv=91460180100&prpp=150&customFields=edmx%3DA&customFields=eds%3DP09143013477&customFields=edProdDate%3D20020723&customFields=edProdNo%3D914601801&customFields=edelc%3D00&customFields=edDesc%3DHydraulic%20System%20272

 

Having disassembled the  housing by  removing two screws (One each side of the housing) which then allows the housing cover to slide down the tube (Revealing the workings),  I can say that the only removable (And moving) parts it contains  are a half-cylinder, L-shaped red plastic moulding which, in its centre has a pocket for a cylindrical magnet  (Approx. 1 cm in length) and separate  bright steel capping tablet (Approx 3 mm in depth ), a separate lightweight  conical coil spring and a piece of sponge material (In pretty poor condition in mine ) which fits in a vertical slot around the circumference of the half cylinder. Sorry, haven't found any pics for this ! There also appears to be another magnet (Fixed) built into the head of the housing immediately underneath the tap connector at the top of the housing.

 

I'm guessing that the way that it works is that in normal conditions of operation the cylindrical magnet located in the  red plastic moving part is positioned so as to repel the magnetic device embedded in the head of the housing (By the principle of opposing poles) and in so doing, lifts a horizontally positioned circular valve in the vertical plane,  against the incoming water pressure. (This is achieved with the top edge of the  sponge  just touching the head of the housing. The head of the  conical spring is located on a snib underneath the moving  red plastic part, whilst the base of the conical spring is anchored to the base of the plastic housing. )

 

If the inner hose springs a leak, the water is contained by the co-junction and sealing of the inner and outer pipes at the washing machine angled connector, and then rises up the hose towards the housing at the household tap end. The inner and outer hoses are not joined and sealed together here, and this allows water in the cavity in between the inner and outer hoses to rise into the "Control housing" and actuate the control which closes the valve and stops further water being admitted to the inner pipe. I guess the way it does this is by the water saturating the sponge, which then expands and in so doing pushes the red plastic moulding holding the magnet downwards and away from the top of the housing. This, in turn,  reduces the magnetic repulsive effect of the two magnetic sources and allows the circular valve above to fall to the  closed position (Under pressure of incoming water) shutting off the incoming water.

 

I suspect It wouldn't take much to clag up the operation of this valve, especially in a hard water area, such as I am in.

 

Looking at the tap connector housing, there is a embedded drain at the bottom of the screw thread, with very narrow mesh covered slots round the circumference. Again, these are easily clagged and application a bit of concentrated hypochlorus acid (Mr Muscle ) greatly improved the appearance of this but  still didn't allow the valve to open.

 

I'm wondering if the washing machines electrical supply is involved in this process, as I understand, some anti-flood system do.

 

I don't think there's much to do apart from get another hose - ideally the ordinary type.

 

I presume that people living in exceptionally high water pressure areas might, for obvious reasons, have problems with this type of hose.

 

 

Nick

Edited 20 January, 201610 yr by Clunkclick