Hi,
My LG WM3431H All-In-One Washer and Dryer, which I have had for a little over a year, has stopped drying the clothes. It goes through the whole drying cycle and the clothes sort of dry, but only a little. I went through all the troubleshooting suggestions in the manual--like emptying out the water thing and making sure the tubes were unobstructed---but still---we clothing! PLEASE HELP!
Alright
- bumping an old thread but I think I have some helpful information to
add. Firstly, here is a link to the service manual:
http://www.espagle.org/doc/45928217/wm3431xx-service-manual-lg/ .
Second, I must warn you that I am doing this from memory (even through it was this morning).
General note: Take note of what screw goes where. There are 5-6 variations.
Steps:
1.
Unplug the machine, unscrew the hot water, the colder water, and pull
out the drain line from the wall (mine was just hanging into a waste
water line, I assume some people have threaded connections).
2. Place the machine in a location that gives plenty of room to access the top as well as the back.
3.
Remove the two screws which attach the top panel to the back. Slide the
top panel towards the back of the machine, remove and place aside.
4.
Remove the screws holding on the top cover/heat shield (this part
should have a black tar like cover on top to protect from excessive
heat). Lift the top cover and place aside.
5. Remove the screws
holding on the back cover. Slide the back cover up slightly and pull the
bottom of the cover out. This should free the bottom. Slide the panel
downward to free the top. Place aside.
Take a look at the top of
the machine, there is a large black duct that says something along the
lines of "caution hot." Follow that heating duct towards the back of the
machine to the circular cover (this is the fan). Now follow that
downward to see the condenser duct (previously described as creamish
white). This is part we are trying to detach from the rest of the
machine and clean out.
In order to remove this duct from the
machine we need to disconnect the heating duct/fan assembly, the small
black sensor on the front of the condenser duct, the black tube
connected to the condenser duct, and all of the screws holding on the
duct itself.
6. Remove the screws holding the heating duct to
the drum and the condenser duct. If I remember correctly, there are two
at the front of the machine, three along the heating duct, and four by
the condenser duct. Make sure you are removing the screws holding the
entire duct to the drum/condenser and not the screws that split the duct
itself.
7. Once the screws are all out, lift the heating
duct/fan assembly slightly and tilt it away from the condenser duct.
Place the heating duct/fan assembly on the machine with all of the
remaining connections untouched.
8. On the top, front of the
condenser tube there is a metal sensor attached to a rubber gromet. This
needs to be removed from the condenser tube. It takes a bit of work,
but it didn't seem like you could easily damage the gromet if you use a
screw driver to pry it out.
9. Unattach the black tube at the
top of the condenser tube by squeezing the metal clamp and pulling it
away from the condenser tube. My washer had a bit of sealant/glue at the
connection. I removed this with a set of pliers in order to disconnect
the black tube.
10. Remove the screws holding the condenser tube
to the drum. There is one on top and numerous on the back. There is one
screw that is not accessible by a screw driver and requires a 5/16
socket and ratchet to remove (or some sort of angled screw driver...)
11.
This should free the condenser tube. Remove it and clean out all of the
lint. I used a coat hanger as well as the garden hose to get out all
the lint. Also take this time to clean out any dirt you can access in
the fan and the heating duct.
12. Follow these steps backwards to reattach everything, I hope you remember which screw goes where.
Its very likely I will not check back here, so good luck. I hope there arent too many mistakes in my write up!
Great solution. Worked like a charm. One tweak I would add is that in step 9, you do not need to remove the black hose from the condenser tube. Instead, you can disconnect the opposite end of the same hose from a white connector that attaches it to other hoses. There is no glue on that connection, so it disconnects pretty easily after you squeeze and release the metal clamp.
Excellent job describing the procedure! Every screw and connection was exactly as you said it would be and the job, while still quite a production, wasn't terribly difficult at all.
11 years later this instruction just solved my problem with another model of LG Washer/Dryer (FC1408R4W). My machine would cut the sensor drying programs short to 10 minutes without really drying and even 2-hour long timed program resulted in damp clothes + burning smell and overheating. The solution worked like a charm! Point 4 didn't apply as there is no heat shield in my model, but the whole dryer system was almost exactly like described. As it turned out the condenser duct was clogged with lint and that must have prevented the air from circulating and drying properly. Thanks to whoever put it up here! I assume this will work for most models, so do give it a shot if you chanced upon this pages like I did. The original link to service manual no longer works so I referred to this one:https://pdfslide.net/documents/lg-washin... Cheers!
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Thanks to CoolTech for pointing me in the right direction, I just finished a full clean out and diagnostics test and my dryer works once again.
This repair isn't rocket science nor is it a good idea for the mechanically timid. I managed to get the critical parts out for cleaning and back in properly with just a phillips head screwdriver and a pair of pliers for the spring type hose clamps so it's not a matter of custom tools.
You have dig pretty deep and remove an awful lot of cabinet parts, fans, heater assemblies and something like 30 or 40 various screws to get to the condensor duct and bellows to clean them. Sure enough my condensor duct was jam packed with lint. Once removed I was able to clean it with a creatively bent coat hanger, but a semi flexible bottle brush/pipe cleaner about 18 inches long and an inch or so brush diameter would be a better tool.
If you want to tackle this job, and again it sounds daunting but isn't to someone with reasonable mechanical skills you should do yourself a favor and buy a copy of the factory service manual. I got mine on line from these guys: http://www.manualuniverse.com/ but there are probably other sources including LG if you search by the model number.
In addition to some less than obvious disassembly instructions the manual tells you how to trigger the self test mode and how to interpret the results, gives you good information on cold state resistance tests you can do on relays, heater elements, sensors, etc. and provides a good troubleshooting guide for a variety of problems.
All in all the job took me about an hour and a half and was pretty straightforward except for the last mounting screw for the condensor duct which is hard to get to and requires some effort to remove and replace but again I did the whole job with a standard medium sized screwdriver so it's not impossible.
Good luck and if you're having this problem and like me you don't have any local repair folks who'll touch it (not many of these all in ones in Wyoming) then I'd get your hands on the manual and dig into it. It's not fun, but not too hard either.
-Dave
You may have a problem with a clogged condensing tube and condensing bellows filled with lint. That will require disassembly of the unit to get to them and cleaned them out.
Hi and thanks. after the drain pump was replaced, the areas mentioned but it is still not drying fully -better but not correctly. looks the manual will be my next step and try the diag. on the relays, elements and sensors etc.
again thank you.
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the only difference for me is: on all but "timed" drying the esitmated time will be displayed but it will only spin for 12-15mins. even on timed drying, the clothes will end up damp. the drain pump has been replaced already, but to no avail. its as if the moisture sensor is not working.
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