A maker we work on
Maytag Appliance Repair in San Diego
Maytag is a Whirlpool brand and has been for years, which is useful rather than disappointing: the mechanical parts are shared, well documented and widely stocked. A Maytag top-load washer and a Whirlpool one of the same vintage fail in the same two or three places, and both are worth fixing.
What Maytag builds
Maytag sells on durability and mostly earns it. The top-load washers use a simple direct-drive gearcase, the dryers sit in the plain 27-inch cabinet the platform has used for years, and the Commercial Technology line puts a heavier motor and a metal transmission in a domestic machine. That simplicity is why they stay repairable well past the point where a more electronic machine stops being worth it. The dishwashers and ranges are competent rather than remarkable, and they use Whirlpool parts throughout.
What we are called about
Lid lock stops the washer spinning
On the top-load platform the lid lock both latches the lid and tells the control it is shut. When the switch inside it fails the machine fills, agitates and then sits there, often flashing the lid indicator. It is a common part and an inexpensive one.
Shift actuator stripped
The actuator that engages the drive between agitate and spin is a small motor with a plastic gear. When it strips, the tub either never spins or spins without agitating first, and the control posts a drive fault. It is replaced as a unit.
Dryer tumbling without heat
On electric models the heating element or the thermal fuse has opened, and the fuse rarely opens without a reason: a blocked vent run is the usual cause. Fitting a new fuse alone buys a second failure. On gas models it is more often the igniter or a valve coil.
Squealing or thumping dryer drum
Drum rollers, the idler pulley and the rear bearing wear at similar rates. A squeal that follows drum speed is nearly always the rollers or the pulley; a thump once per rotation is usually a flat spot on a roller or a belt about to split.
Front-loader will not finish draining
The Maxima and the other front-load models post a long-drain fault when the pump cannot empty within the allowed window. Check the coin trap, the pump impeller and the drain hose height in that order before condemning the pump itself.
Dishwasher stopping partway
Usually the heating circuit or its sensor, which the control reports by blinking rather than with a plain code. The door latch switch is the other common cause: it interrupts the cycle when the latch wears and the door flexes slightly during the wash.
Maytag repairs by appliance