Replace or repair our Maytag

9 years ago

Our piggy back/stacked Maytag washer and dryer is now over 20 years old. It is just my wife and I so i would characterize usage as light - two-three loads a week. It is like a low milage older car.

We had it repaired once 10 years ago - door felt on dryer..

It is now getting noisier on both wash and dry modes, but not alarmingly so.

Everything I read about potential replacements indicates that they are all unreliable junk. One dealer friend said buy any model - less sophisticated the better but only from Lowes, HD or Sears and only with the 5 year replacement guarantee (1500$) all in) .....they are prone to electronic and wobble issues.

I checked Maytag and they have all the parts that typically wear out for our current unit. and they are not expensive.

So .....anyone ever ' refurbished' a machine this old?

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Comments (4)

fordtech
9 years ago
Always a tough question. I am personally fixing to do a complete ground up rebuild of my Maytag Neptune 7500 touchscreen washer in the next 6 months, but its only 10 years old and Ive been salting away parts all these years I picked up cheap on Ebay, all new parts.

When I look back to when I purchased my first Neptune I had a set of Maytag 712 washer and dryer, top loader washer and I surely regretted not keeping them and just refurbishing them as needed. They were great machines.

I suppose the answer lies in whether you can do the work yourself. If the answer is yes I would at least keep them till something breaks and then you can evaluate whether the repair is something you can do or if its going to be a repairman come out and do a high cost repair.

No matter what you buy new today, it may or may not outlast the machines you have now. Keep in mind though that many of the posts you read on the internet are just the ones that were unlucky, abused their machines, improperly operated them or couldnt be happy no matter what you do for them.

Seldom do you hear from the majority who get average usage from their machines. For example you can go back a decade and read horror stories about the original Maytag Neptune. Others of us who learned to use them properly learned to love them and got reasonable service from them.
My Neptune has not had one failure to date. Im just rebuilding it to last another 10 years at least which will get me and the wife to into our 70s, and by then Im not sure if we will be around to care about the latest machines.

Good luck with your decision.
practigal
9 years ago
They are always talking about these vintage machines and where to get parts on automaticwasher.org. I recommend that website for your review.
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sparky823
9 years ago
Fordtech: So you are just doing the Neptune to be doing so instead of waiting for a problem? I have the 4000 and it is still going strong--14 yrs. old. Only problem I ever had was right after it was a yr. old the board went out. It was caused by the door lock so Maytag fixed it under warranty and then extended my warranty by 6 months. Not another problem(knock on wood). No problems with the dryer at all.

Are you still using the Sears detergent? I believe it was you(maybe not) who posted pics of a Neptune tub that had a lot of white build up on it. If that was yours, do you believe it will be that way this time? Maybe that was your 4000 since you have had no problems with this 7500. I cant remember now. Keep us posted how it goes and if you have any build-up. Hope it all goes smoothly for you!
fordtech
9 years ago
This 7500 had the hard water buildup, but I just did a few hot washes on extra long cycles with pure citric acid followed with another regular wash with no clothes in the tub. That seemed to cut through the hard water deposits. It never stopped working though and never gave us a problem. The old 4000 was fine after cleaning out the soap scum buildup from never using hot water for 4 years. I sold it off to a neighbor for 50 bucks years ago. They still use it.

Im just doing it to do it BEFORE something happens to me that I wont be able to do it. I am having more and more physical ailments and just fear that something may happen that will render me unable to do it if I wait a few more years.
I also am at the age that you just never know what may happen next, and if I should suddenly be gone, the wife and daughter will not have a machine that is near end of life, but rather fully ready to go another 10-15 years.

When I say I am restoring it , I mean I have what would cost over 3000 dollars in parts sitting in my garage to do this restoration. Of course I only spent about 1000.00 on my parts by grabbing deals on Ebay (all brand new parts). I also have several control boards for each machine and control panels and even multiple motor and motor control boards. Yeah, kinda got obsessed with picking up the good deals but with all the crying going on about board failures I did pick up more than enough. The original boards are still going strong. Ill keep the original boards for backups or people in need.

I still use Sears detergent and its doing a good enough job for us. Definitely buy in bulk when it goes on sale, and I do a citric acid load every other month for the hard water issue.

Replace or repair our Maytag

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fordtech

practigal

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