SUN CITY WEST, Ariz. — Laundromats are packed with many machines, each of which has many parts that will eventually fail. All told, there are probably thousands of parts in a typical self-service laundry.
Let’s take a look at the most common failures, the reasons behind them, and what can be done to not only diagnose and fix them, but to slow down their frequency.
MORE COMMON WASHER FAILURES
Coin Mechanism Jams, and Card Reader Malfunctions — Every now and then, a customer inserting coins or cards will have soap or softener on their fingers. The substance is transferred onto the coins and some is rubbed onto the mechanism’s raceway, which will attract dust and dirt. The amount is very small, of course, but after a couple years, you get a buildup inside the mechanism that either causes a jam or a miscount.
The solution is to simply clean it. Alcohol and Q-tips® are useful for this. Don’t forget to clean the optic switch and check its alignment. You don’t want coins to strike its optic eyes.
For card readers, I liked running a credit card cleaning card—simply a fibrous card soaked in alcohol or similar cleaner—through the machine. Do this periodically even if your readers are working OK. For bill acceptors, I recommend—you guessed it—bill acceptor cleaning cards to keep them operating.
Drum Isn’t Turning — First, check the belt to see if it has broken or slipped off its pulley; if the basket turns too easily, then check belts. (By the way, this fix also applies to dryers.)
Also, check the washer’s fuse, which is usually located at the back of the machine. If a fuse blows, there is a reason, but not always; the machine may just have the wrong fuse in it.
While I’m not familiar with variable frequency drives, I do know that when a VFD fails, it’s often due to lint clogging its fan, which in turns causes it to overheat.
With three-phase washers, it’s common for relays to go bad. Also known as contactors, relays can have burnt points, or a wire may have broken off due to metal fatigue from years of vibration.
Door locks and switches can also cause the basket not to turn. They either go out of alignment, or just break. Sometimes, a washer door lock will be so gunked up with lint, dirt and grime, the solenoids don’t work properly and can’t actuate the locks and switches. Therefore, the machine won’t come on and the drum won’t turn.
TRACK PROBLEMS USING REPAIR LOG
I want to take a minute to say that I strongly recommend keeping a repair log, a record of all your repairs for every piece of equipment in your mat. This includes your boiler, HVAC, vending machines, ATM, etc. (I got the idea from a customer who was an aircraft mechanic at JFK Airport.)
I bought a spiral notebook and labeled each blank page for each piece of equipment with its number. Whenever I completed a repair, I jotted the date, the part that I changed, how much it cost, and why I changed it. Simple. With things today, you could keep a repair log on your smartphone or tablet.
Armed with this information, I could spot trends and pricing history, etc.
For example, if you think that water inlet valve diaphragms are failing often, refer to your repair log to confirm it.
You see that you have had 25 diaphragms go bad in the past year. If you have 40 washers with five diaphragms each, that’s 200 in total. You should take action because more will surely fail.
First, use the best diaphragms you can buy. You really don’t want to spend much of your life changing them, and your labor is much more valuable than a diaphragm.
There are two choices: you can budget a day or so to change all the diaphragms, which will reduce this problem to near zero for the next couple of years, or when one diaphragm goes bad in one washer, you change it and the other four while you’re already there behind your washer with your tools. Eventually, you’ll slow the occurrences dramatically. I chose the latter.
In Thursday’s conclusion: common dryer failures
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].
