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Thursday

How to troubleshoot GE Hydrowave washer?

The motor blinks on and off all the time. It blinks faster when running.
If it ain't acting right it will display flashes:

1 flash bad motor
2 flashes slipping belt
3 flashes corrupted software bad motor
4 flashes failed mode shift circuit
5 flashes bad motor
6 flashes locked motor check for objects between tub
7 flashes bad lid switch.
8 flashes motor overheated too much soap
9 flashes brake resister is toast bad motor.

Washer won't spin:
To Reset the Inverter board on the motor push the timer knob in so the washer is idle or if digital have the machine in the off position. Unplug the machine for one minute. Plug back in and raise and lower the lid six times within 12 seconds. This might take more than one time.

After resetting the inverter board, put the machine in a spin cycle and see if it runs. If not, check for a green blinking light on the inverter board. It will flash failure codes according to the info listed above. If no light you probably have a blown fuse built into the neutral side of the harness on the white/red wire. The part you need is wh49X10041

My friend Ryan had a comment recently in my forum:

I am going to give some estimated stats on what I have experienced over the past 3-4 years. Note that this is only out of warranty stats because if it is in warranty I replace the motor without hesitation.Also this may not reflect what other tech may be seeing.

I have seen about 50-60 motor related problems with these washers.

About a dozen or so fuses blown. Replacing the fuse put them back to work with no more problems. Note that the fuse is not going to be on the models being made now.

I have had to replace 3 motors because the fault wouldn't clear or it came back.

I had one fuse that blew as soon as I put it on and I believe the motor was bad but the customer opted out of the repair.

The rest I have cleared the code without any more problems.

On the early models there was a problem that when the customer opened the lid when the shifter coil was in the middle of shifting from wash to spin it would hang in shifting mode. This would cause the coil to have 135 VDC the whole time the lid was opened. During normal operation the135 VDC is only on the coils for the first 18 seconds when the washer is changing from wash to spin mode.

Naturally this would cause the shifter to fail. Then the motor will display the shifter failure code (4 flashes) and the washer will not wash properly.

The new motors will not do this. This is not something that the customer done wrong because it is supposed to be ok to open the lid at anytime.

As for the codes?

Over the years I have grown to hate self-diagnostics on appliances, which is what the codes are more or less. Too often when I go on a service call for any appliance that is giving a self-diagnostics code the board that is doing the diagnostics is what the problem is to start with.
(If this makes any sense).

I don?t think the customer is doing anything wrong.

Overall I like the design of this machine but they got some kinks they need to work out. Should have been worked out before they went on the market.

For anyone else that may read this thread?

Don?t just clear the code. See what the code stands for and check what ever the code says is bad. If it doesn?t seem to be bad clear the code. If it seems to be bad, replace it then clear the code.

For example if it is the lid switch code check the lid switch and if the lid switch is ok clear the code. If the code comes back the motor is bad.

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