Samsung auto dosing washing machine not dispensing softner

[djstar]

I have a Samsung WW10T534DAN/S1 purchased new, 2 1/2 years ago. It has stopped dispensing softner, but dispenses detergent fine.

The washing machine  was in storage for a year and spent the winter in a garage. When I got it out of storage and installed it in the house a few months ago the softner and detergent was all congealed. I cleaned the dispenser drawer and both the detergent and softner is released from the valves when they are pressed.

I had a known insurance Company send out an engineer and the literally took a photo of the model number and said they need to order a part saying something had failed. This is without even looking at any thing.

I've got a text from the insurance company saying they can't get hold of the part and I need to purchase a new washing machine. I find this surprising seeing the machine is only a few years old and still sold by Samsung.

Any advice? I have tried cleaning the mating  ports at the back of the washing machine with a cotton bud ( incase any thing was clogged) but this done nothing.

I've attached two pictures. One showing the valve which is dispensing softner when pressed and the matting bit which I have tried to clean.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Liam

.

 

[MelS]

If it is not a blockage, it could be failure of the auto dose pump gasket.

I was reading about auto dose a few weeks back, and there's a thread on Samsung's community website showing a deformed pump gasket.  Possibly they've made a poor choice of material for the seal, fabric conditioner could cause some types of rubber to swells up. 

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

It's always possible something has gunged up solid and blocked it, but not taking in softener shouldn't be a difficult thing to fix. I'm confused as to why you called out an insurance company to repair a washing machine? Anyway, I think it's highly unlikely that the part is unavailable, and more likely that they decided it was too much trouble to deal with. It's a common tactic for many engineers when faced with a difficult problem or something they don't want to deal with, just tell the customer to buy a new machine.

However, having said that, I wouldn't be that surprised if a washing machine manufacturer decided to not make a part available after just a few years these days, especially if they thought it was very unlikely for it to break down. I would contact Samsung.

[andyr12345]

used housing with pumps on ebay, but I suppose buying secondhand is you dont really know if its not got the same issue.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195740208377

 

[djstar]

All, thanks for the replies and advice

After having a look, it was a deformed pump gasket. I've managed to find a new pump on ebay as it seems impossible to get a replacement gasket 

Regards,

 

Liam

 

 

[andyr12345]

I wonder when the gaskets have deformed like this on the autodose pumps that you can get some of this instant gasket in a tube (from motor factors or someone like Halfords) and make a new gasket and it work?, i cannot see why not 

[MelS]

12 hours ago, andyr12345 said:

I wonder when the gaskets have deformed like this on the autodose pumps that you can get some of this instant gasket in a tube (from motor factors or someone like Halfords) and make a new gasket and it work?, i cannot see why not 

Possibly, but if the pump is made from a "waxy" low surface energy type of plastic, then you might need to pre-treat the surface with a LSE plastic primer if you need the sealant to stick properly and give it the best chance of staying in place,   The plastic casting may be marked with letters to indicate the type, if not water will bead up on LSE plastics.

Cutting a gasket from a chemical resistant rubber might be worth a try, but that's only easy if you can get away with a bit of overhang each side of the join without fouling anything.

Another option might be an O-ring.

 

 

 

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Good suggestions thanks. Hopefully you can buy a proper part from Samsung. It would be unacceptable for them to not have it available. I’m sure they have to keep parts for at least 5 years after production. 
 

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Also, how do you think the bad seal prevented the detergent being administered?

[MelS]

2 hours ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

Good suggestions thanks. Hopefully you can buy a proper part from Samsung. It would be unacceptable for them to not have it available. I’m sure they have to keep parts for at least 5 years after production. 
 

Totally agree, the OP could check theirs for a label with the part no on to see if it is the same pump as in samsung's other machines, part no is DC97-19821A, which seems to be readily available,

https://www.samsungspares.co.uk/laundry/washing-machine/dispenser-pump/product.pl?pid=5345648&path=627424,627463&refine=dispenser

Seem to be quite a lot of negative reviews about the seal failing too, so you'd think they'd make replacement gaskets available, instead of replacing a £100+ part. 

I believe those pumps draw the detergent and conditioner out of reservoirs in the draw and squirt it back into draw compartment, and with a leaking seal the pump wont suck. I thought at first the seal had swollen a bit, but from a closer look I think it might have gone so soft it has totally misshapen, arguably a design fault, so there ought to be a free fix. 

Edited October 5 by MelS

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Thanks Mels. Personally I hate autodosing systems. They only use liquid detergent, which I believe is inferior to powdered detergent and leads to clogging with gunge and slime, and it makes washing machines more expensive, more complex and less reliable. 
 

[MelS]

  

1 hour ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

Thanks Mels. Personally I hate autodosing systems. They only use liquid detergent, which I believe is inferior to powdered detergent and leads to clogging with gunge and slime, and it makes washing machines more expensive, more complex and less reliable. 
 

Completely agree with you, I wouldn't want one, also having read about the issues they can cause, I wonder if the added convenience of not having to put detergent in quite so often actually outweighs the need to regularly clean and maintain the auto dosing system.

I'm not a fan of liquid detergent, the only  time we've had a foul smelling machine, which also deposited brown gunge on the washing was caused by one. The problem went away after cleaning the detergent residue, mould and the other gunk out of the machine (bleach and multiple boil washes!) and switching back to powder. Admittedly, that was in the early 90's and liquid detergents have now changed a lot. 

Miele's system at least has a chamber for their hydrogen peroxide based stain remover, which should keep the machine sanitary. 

One problem with liquids is you can't mix certain chemicals, like enzymes and oxygen bleach that can happily co-exist in powder form. The oxygen bleach stain removal ingredients in washing powder make peracetic acid in the wash, a highly effective biocide which helps to keep the machine clean as well as the washing.   

 

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

1 hour ago, MelS said:

I think it might have gone so soft it has totally misshapen, arguably a design fault

I wouldn’t be surprised if the liquid detergent itself is the cause of these seals becoming soft and warping. That would be a design fault. 

[andyr12345]

just commenting on our autodose Samsung machine , love it. One of the best washing machines we've owned (so far) reasonable price, not dear like a miele or other expensive brand. Great on saving liquid . 500euro we paid for ours you could pay that easily for a non auto dose washing machine but not only that it has so many other features along with it, Internet connectivity - hell it will even tell you through the app if your washing machine is working properly (if heater fails or door lock or some other hardware fault it shows up in the samsung smart phone app!)  - even has a counter for amount of washes its done and then reminds you after a certain amount of washes that it needs a drum clean! - and remembers your most used wash programmes and shows up in the app how much memory they have used. 

Have not had to use stain additives with the liquid , like we had to with the powder because the washing machine has many stain removing features , Bubble Soak for a start and intensive, wash and a recipe feature in the app that asks you what kind of a garment you are washing and how soiled it is then adjusts the machine / wash cycle to suit best to clean the clothes and stains. 
Even has a seperate compartment to add Powder in the soap drawer if we want to and turn off the autodose feature if we want to carry on using powder instead. Best of both worlds. 

its pretty good machine , cannot really fault it and especially for the price paid for it. - 

[andyr12345]

4 minutes ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if the liquid detergent itself is the cause of these seals becoming soft and warping. That would be a design fault. 

I wouldnt trust these really really thick viscosity concentrated fabric softener in these autodose machines. I can just see loads of end users putting them in the autodose compartment and not watering/diluting them at all. 

we are not that rich LOL so have always used the cheapy cheapy fabric softener (and detergent liquid) and they are really runny (like they are diluted already) since we have had our autodose machine. 

 

[andyr12345]

3 hours ago, MelS said:

Possibly, but if the pump is made from a "waxy" low surface energy type of plastic, then you might need to pre-treat the surface with a LSE plastic primer if you need the sealant to stick properly and give it the best chance of staying in place,   The plastic casting may be marked with letters to indicate the type, if not water will bead up on LSE plastics.

 

if that were me and it was made from that kind of plastic material I would just get some sandpaper out and carefully sand the area where the liquid gasket was going to be applied to give it a 'key' first - that might work. 

have had our Samsung autodose machine apart before and many plastic items stamped with 'ABS' (not too sure about the soap dispensing pumps though) 

[MelS]

1 minute ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if the liquid detergent itself is the cause of these seals becoming soft and warping. That would be a design fault. 

I wouldn't be surprised if at least some brands of detergents contain chemicals that are incompatible with whatever type of rubber they chosen, hard to check everything on the market. Some of the chemicals in fabric conditioner will definitely attack some types of rubber, and that seems to be the chief culprit.

Blockages from the detergent clogging seems to be another issue with some machines, especially if the auto dose hasn't been used for a while. There are youtube videos of one or two Miele's where the detergent, or stain remover has leaked and written off the machine. The stain remover which contains an oxidiser could be particularly damaging to the machine, 

[MelS]

9 minutes ago, andyr12345 said:

if that were me and it was made from that kind of plastic material I would just get some sandpaper out and carefully sand the area where the liquid gasket was going to be applied to give it a 'key' first - that might work. 

have had our Samsung autodose machine apart before and many plastic items stamped with 'ABS' (not too sure about the soap dispensing pumps though) 

Ah! ABS, that shouldn't be much of a problem then.

It's Polyolefin plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene that regular glues and sealants won't stick to https://www.jbc-tech.com/media/gd2llmgr/die-cut-solutions-to-bond-low-surface-energy-materials.pdf