Its a 2005 Whirlpool Duet front loader, and over the past week the Start button has been intermittently not working. Yesterday as I attempted to do my laundry, I ended up pressing that stupid button at least a hundred times per load to get it to work and lock.
Of course, with the way the economy is right now, buying a new one is kind of out of the question, so I decided to make repairs.
I found a repair manual online to assist with the disassembly of the control panel. Found that there are 3 screws in the back, 1/4" in size that you need to remove to take off the top. Then remove the fill tray for the detergent/softner be pressing the release latch so you can get to a torx bit bolt, a T20 in size I believe it was. Opening the front door revealed a phillips head screw holding it on the bottom of the panel.
At that point I was able to get some play out of it, and used a screw driver to 'pry' at the top to pull the panel over the tabs that held it on there. The washer has a module sitting to the right side of the machine, you have to unplug the wiring from there, has a small tab holding the connector in.
Once removed from the machine, there are 8 or 9 T8 torx screws holding the circuit board to the panel itself. I only removed this to more easily test to see if the switch was bad by using a multi meter.
Anyways, the actual repairs.
Went to Radioshack and picked up a push button switch. They didn't have a proper button to replace it with, so I figured that one way or another I would make this thing work.
Drilled a hole to the right side of the buttons on the panel, and installed the switch. Then from there, I used some 22 gauge wire, and soldered them into place on both the circuit board and the button. Tested it out by putting it all back together, plugging in the machine, and setting it to a 'Rinse/Spin' cycle.
This is the back side of the board with the buttons on it, the two button is the one getting bypassed.
Just a close up of my soldering job to the back of the board.
This shows the wiring going to the switch, nothing too spiffy I guess.
Panel put back on and the second one is with it running the Rinse/Spin cycle.
Whether anyone finds this useful to any degree, I am uncertain. I thought it was fun I was able to perform this repair for less than $20 and have a working washing machine. God knows what that circuit board would have cost itself to replace.
Of course, with the way the economy is right now, buying a new one is kind of out of the question, so I decided to make repairs.
I found a repair manual online to assist with the disassembly of the control panel. Found that there are 3 screws in the back, 1/4" in size that you need to remove to take off the top. Then remove the fill tray for the detergent/softner be pressing the release latch so you can get to a torx bit bolt, a T20 in size I believe it was. Opening the front door revealed a phillips head screw holding it on the bottom of the panel.
At that point I was able to get some play out of it, and used a screw driver to 'pry' at the top to pull the panel over the tabs that held it on there. The washer has a module sitting to the right side of the machine, you have to unplug the wiring from there, has a small tab holding the connector in.
Once removed from the machine, there are 8 or 9 T8 torx screws holding the circuit board to the panel itself. I only removed this to more easily test to see if the switch was bad by using a multi meter.
Anyways, the actual repairs.
Went to Radioshack and picked up a push button switch. They didn't have a proper button to replace it with, so I figured that one way or another I would make this thing work.
Drilled a hole to the right side of the buttons on the panel, and installed the switch. Then from there, I used some 22 gauge wire, and soldered them into place on both the circuit board and the button. Tested it out by putting it all back together, plugging in the machine, and setting it to a 'Rinse/Spin' cycle.
This is the back side of the board with the buttons on it, the two button is the one getting bypassed.
Just a close up of my soldering job to the back of the board.
This shows the wiring going to the switch, nothing too spiffy I guess.
Panel put back on and the second one is with it running the Rinse/Spin cycle.
Whether anyone finds this useful to any degree, I am uncertain. I thought it was fun I was able to perform this repair for less than $20 and have a working washing machine. God knows what that circuit board would have cost itself to replace.
) 
Glad you were able to get it working again without pricey replacements or repairs. 
