this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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Struggling to get the service manual for a Beko washing machine (thebrainbin.org)
submitted 22 hours ago by synesthesia@thebrainbin.org to c/fixing
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I cannot repair my washing machine without documentation. I have no idea how to use my multimeter to check the components. There are parts dealers for Beko in my area, but none of them have the service manual.

The parts shops all say go to the website for the manual as a flippant off-the-cuff answer. There are no service manuals on the Beko website -- at least not for my model. The navigation of the Beko website does not even have a path to docs. And worse, my model is treated as non-existent by the website.

What would I do if I were a professional repair service? What is the official channel?

I am open to “piracy¹” but it would be a long shot to scour all the dark web for a manual for a specific washing machine. It’s not the type of content people have a strong interest in spreading/trading.

¹As RMS says, it’s not a just term for it but sharing is awkward too.

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[–] IggyTheSmidge@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 13 hours ago

From what I understand, they don't normally bother producing service manuals for individual models. It's a case of 'they all work on the same basic principals, so the repair person should be able to figure it out'.

My guess (based on my repair of a couple of aging treadmills that would suddenly jump to full speed!) is that there's a sensor on the motor that's malfunctioning and feeding the controller wrong (or no) information. It sounds like it sends power to the motor, doesn't receive the expected speed info back, stops and tries again a couple of times, then gives up.

This thread may be related (in terms of general info): https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/beko-washing-machine-motor-problem.616682/

If it is the sensor, they seem to be pretty cheap (assuming compatibility), though I don't know how easy it is to get the old one off and replace it:

https://www.bekospares.co.uk/washing-machine/motor-tacho-coil/product.pl?pid=1345582&path=110919&refine=motor

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Most appliances just have the main parts available for replacement, rather than the individual components. You would just change the main board rather than replace a resistor, for example.

If you don't know how to find the broken component on a board, that's not something that the service manual would help you with either. There's too much of a risk of someone hurting themselves for the washing machine companies to go to that level of detail.

At that point you would need to figure out which part is broken and either replace the whole thing, or take it to a repair shop, but that would probably cost more than buying the whole part as a replacement.

[–] synesthesia@thebrainbin.org 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I’m far from trying to track down the atomic component. I need to get an idea of what is failing. There should be readings I can take with the multimeter to see whether the motor is bad, or the controller for the motor, or something else. I’m not bothered at this point whether I can fix whatever part is broken. I might be fine with replacing a whole part. But I need to get there. I need to know which part is failing.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Ah, I misunderstood. When you were talking about a multimeter, I thought you meant that you wanted to replace individual components.

It might be worth posting on one of the DIY communities and describing the symptoms and any error codes. Even though you're unlikely to find someone with the same model, washing machines are all fairly similar, so you might be able to narrow it down to the likely part 🙂

[–] synesthesia@thebrainbin.org 1 points 16 hours ago

I wish I had an error code but when it faults out it just gives a non-stop steady blinking LED. No variation that would indicated an error code.

Multimeters can be used to simply find out if a part is working. I recently used it when I lost hot water. By reading the voltage of the flow sensor, it was clear that the flow sensor bad (water running should give voltage X and still water should give voltage Y). I’m not sure how many such opportunities there are with washing machines though.

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

What is the model?

[–] synesthesia@thebrainbin.org 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

WMD 26125 T

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, hard to find one. Finding the user manual seems easy, but the service manual seems non-existent. Probably because the manufacturer wants you to buy a new one.

I did find this, if it helps (based on your link I assume you can read Dutch). But something tells me you are already beyond these steps:

edit: their contact pages are giving 404's, if I didn't know any better I'd say they are scammers.

I sent them an email from a throwaway to directly ask for the service manual, maybe that will work!

[–] synesthesia@thebrainbin.org 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks. I had to translate it. It’s a troubleshooting guide for some common issues, but not my issue. I have the user manual for my model which has a troubleshooting table but it is not useful here.

[–] celeste@kbin.earth 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

https://elektrotanya.com/showresult?what=beko+wmd&kategoria=&kat2=all

Nothing here for your specific model, but you might have luck asking there?

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/are-online-download-sites-for-manuals-reliable.732804/ Conversation here makes me think it's a legit source of manuals.

[–] synesthesia@thebrainbin.org 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for the references. Looks dicey though. I thought maybe this archive might give docs that are close enough to my model, but I could not get past the CAPTCHA. It also looks like a lot of docs on that site are in a cryllic language. But I appreciate your effort nonetheless. If I seem to have no other option I might try to get around the CAPTCHA somehow.

Youtube is also rough going. There seems to be an ocean of useless Beko review videos and not much on repairing. Youtube’s protectionism makes them quite hard to use lately but if I can get past the obsticles I might look for repair videos on machines other than Beko and see if any of them help well enough.

There’s a point where it will be easier to toss the machine and get another but so far I’m trying to resist that.

[–] celeste@kbin.earth 2 points 17 hours ago

Good luck! I don't blame you for not downloading from sketchy looking places.

The youtube search problem is a shame. Five years ago i had trouble with my washing machine and found a video of a guy with the exact model and exact issue with agitation. Youtube used to be good for that.

[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

After reading other comments it seems what you're really needing is a diagnostic guide instead of a repair manual. There aren't many things that have diagnostic guides, as those doing repairs are expected to know how to diagnose.

The simple breakdown of diagnosis is: what is it not doing that it should? How would that logically happen? Go to that point and test. For example, the drum never spins when it should. The drum is spun by a belt, is the belt broken? Fix it. Not broken belt? What moves the belt? A motor, test the motor. Is it getting power as it should? Yes, bad motor. No, what feeds the power to the motor....... and on and on until you find the problem.

[–] synesthesia@thebrainbin.org 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

In the case at hand, every function seems to work. When I start a program it starts by pumping water out from the last program. Tub fills with water fine. But at the start of the wash cycle it attempts a high-speed spin with a full tub of water, which seems quite bizarre. Attempting a high-speed spin with water in the tub causes it to jump because of all the weight. It /should/ just slowly rotate in one direction, then the other direction. But instead it does a 2 second spin then pauses for a minute. Then it repeats that 2 second high-speed spin then pauses. After 4 or so repeats of that it quits and leaves a blinking start button.

My first thought was that it detected overloading or an imbalanced load and maybe tried to balance the load. But it does the same thing empty. The belt is fine and the motor is obviously strong enough to make it spin as far as I can tell. But maybe something that controls the motor is broken. I am stuck because I don’t know how to probe the various parts with my multimeter as far as what readings I should look for.

The machine has a spin-only program that should do nothing but spin. When I run that program, it obviously does not add water. It just starts the spin (as expected) but pauses 2 sec after starting to spin.. waits a min, then tries again. It looks like it spins fine but it’s giving up anyway.

[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

So a control system issue.... Dumb question, but have you tried removing power completely from it? Try to get it to reset. (Is where I'd start at least)

If that doesn't work, then it's essentially just replace the control board, as the program memory is likely corrupt.

[–] synesthesia@thebrainbin.org 1 points 20 hours ago

yeah i tried unplugging from the wall. I don’t know if there is a separate motor controller board or if the motor controller is integrated into the same board with all the controls. I’m not sure how risky it is to replace the main controller board as a guess. I would like some certainty on where the fault is.

And maybe it is the motor. It looks like it spins fine to me, but if it’s at the edge of its life maybe it’s giving feedback to the controller that signals an issue with the motor.