The **cough** Maytag Neptune (built by Samsung). 

I supposed I should be really ashamed of this acquisition and depending on your comments, I may be.   I understand these are problem laden P.O.S. but this one seems to work so far and for the price I paid - $60 - I'll play with it for a while and pass it on to some other unsuspecting individual (insert evil laugh here) or use perhaps just use it until it dies (can't be that long, LOL).

I was looking for a W & D for a friend of mine and saw this ad.  "Maytag Neptune washer" the text inside only stated "Used", with 3 so-so photos of it.    Great ad, huh?     I e-mailed the seller asking "OK what's wrong with it?"  The answer: "Nothing.  The dryer died and we decided to replace the set because the wife had to have a matching set."

RedCarpetDrew says it's either a MAH8700 or MAH9700 (I forgot to look).   I'm guessing it's the 9700, based on the "Sanitary" cycle and temp options, assuming it has a heater.

Observations so far:   Normal cycle with extra rinse - 117 minutes (or is that is "1" hour "17" mins??)   Unlike my 10-11 year old LG, this does NOT dumb down the hot water when you select hot (excellent!).   But (worse than the LG) OMG this thing takes a loooooong time dicking around for each drain / spin! . . . . Drain w/o tumble while cycling the pump a few times, tumble, stop, cycle the pump, tumble, cycle the pump, stop, cycle the pump, tumble, cycle the pump, stop, pump, tumble, pump, etc, etc.

There's a slight leak when draining I need to investigate (pic 4).    I need to do more cleaning and run another HOT (or perhaps sanitary) cycle with LCB.

So how big of a mistake did I make by buying this piece-o-crap? 

..... aside from the price, is because of the window!    Also, as California is still dealing with a severe drought, all of the machine I do my weekly laundry in are HE.  So yes, this is another one to play with.

I moved a real Maytag Neptune off of a my "wet wall" to move this "wannabe" Neptune in.   The plan is for it to be one of the 4 HE washers I use for my weekly laundry.  

I will update and report more as I learn more.

Phil: Thanks for the words of encouragement!!   Had the price been much higher, I would have passed.  FORTUNATELY the seller entered his phone number wrong (area code off by 1 digit).    Had the number been right, it probably would have been sold by time I saw the ad.  

Louis: Thanks for the tip on the citric acid!   I see if I can find some on my way home.

Henrik: I doubt I'll use the "Enviro Plus" cycle, it scares me!  LOL

Kevin

You'll have fun playing with the new arrival, for now.  The Samsung rush of joy typically wears off pretty quickly.  

Just ask the WP service techs.  WP inherited warranty and service obligations from Maytag which of course, included the Samsung imports branded Maytag.  

I've seen a few of these on CL here as well, still running and have a friend with a MaySung dryer still going that was left in a house they bought.  Now that it's drying for a family of four, it likely won't be long before they're calling to ask what dryer they should buy :-)

Yes it's the 9700 and look, it's 10 years old (I'm surprised it's still working)!  Haha

Thank you Louis for the suggestion of the Citric Acid powder!   After going to a grocery store and Target, I had to go to Walmart (ugh!) to buy some as it seems to be the only place in my area that carries it.

Per Henrik's suggestion I ran empty it on the sanitary cycle, sanitary temp, with light soil & extra rinse: 1 hr 58 mins at the start.  I also added around 2.5 tablespoons (didn't really measure it) of citric acid powder.  

The heater definitely works as it got nice and steamy!  

Tumble action: It tumbles 11.5 seconds, then pauses 8 seconds before tumbling the other direction.  

Even with "light soil" selected, it the main wash went for an hour & 10 minutes.   After a while I realized it was still tumbling, but the count down timer stopped at 49 minutes (I assume it was waiting for the water temp to reach the "sanitary temp".

After 10 minutes of "49 minutes remaining" I decided it had gone long enough (because I was getting bored) so I canceled the cycle and put it into "drain & spin".   I jerryrigged a longer drain hose so it would reach a bucket I put in the utility sink.   After all I wanted to see what type of schmutz came out of this thing.   As you can see, the water was dirty and a lot of sediment in the bottom of the bucket.  YUK! 

After the drain, I powered off the washer again, and started a rinse & spin with an extra rinse, then came on the house to update this thread and post pics.

Kevin

By the way.... the one thing I really do like about this washer so far is.... it has a decent water level!   But then again, it is 10 years old and "they" hadn't started cutting was back on water levels yet.   So far I've seen this same water level on the Normal, Sanitary and the Quick Wash cycles.   One thing I will note about the "quick wash" cycle, is after the wash, it drained and refilled w/o spinning.

P.S... no water leak throughout this entire 1:10 wash, drain, 2 rinses or final drain. 

While I did look at the sediment, I didn't run my hand through it (should have).  There was other stuff in there too, what looked like (dried slime) softener or detergent residue, but spider-yibbles?  That could very well be and it makes sense too.

OK so this thing has a limited life expectancy, who knows just how long it will last.  I'll just use it until it grenades, strip off the pump and kick it to the curb.   Hopefully I'll get a bunch of cycles out of it before it commits suicide.

Darryl, I'll run another cycle empty w/o the citric acid and see what else comes out.

While citric acid is a good cleaning agent (according to Louis) what effect do you all think it (2-3 tablespoons per cycle) could have on a deteriorating spider?

Thanks!

Kevin

for 2 days, and back to Lowes it went!  It was possessed from day one by some anti-spin demon from Korea!  It would never balance no matter the load size.  Surprised to see some still around and actually working.

John - Yes I agree, the plastic window is completely unnecessary.  I see a lot of machines with this extra plastic window, especially the upper end models (style over function).  My 2009 KM He5t had a dark tinted one, which made it difficult to see anything inside.   Some models have interior lights, but still.   Admittedly we are in the minority, as the majority will start the machine and walk away.   They don't care what's happening in there as long as their clothes get clean .... unlike us.

Kevin-ism:  A window in a front load washer is not functional if you cover it with a dark tinted plastic "window".

Arl - yes my laundry "wet wall" is in my garage space, so water leaks do not invoke panic.

Dano - when I took the top of the machine off I noticed it does have an adjustable water level switch AND it's very easy to access!   I may try playing with it as I do larger loads in it.   Which direction do you turn the screw to increase the water level?

Also, I did a couple more water changes (fill, brief tumble, drain) yesterday before doing the laundry in it.  I again had it drain into the bucket so I could see what was coming out of it.   Much cleaner this time.  There was still a little sediment, but far less and it felt a little sandy.  

=    =    =    =    =

Likes so far: Water level, cycles & options, heater.

Dis-likes: Longer cycle times (than other washers I have) and OMG it takes fo-evah to drain/balance/spin, Every!  Single!  Time! 

Kevin

Is the corroded aluminum oxide from the corroded spider, the citric acid did not cause the corrosion but instead just loosened the the crap that was hanging on the surface, { there is no such thing as detergent residue, only mineral deposits etc left from using too little or cheap detergent ]

I've been doing almost one load a week in this washer since bringing it home a little over a year ago and it's been working w/o any problems or issues.  Tho I did move it off my "wet wall" about 3 weeks ago after I bringing the little 6 kg Miele home and I've decided the Miele is going to stay where it is.

May-sung Neptune LIKES:

#1. Capacity.   It's not the largest capacity washer, but I have stuffed it really full, doing some pretty large loads more than a few times and it's handled it well.  Then again, I think I've really stuffed it so full because I don't really care that much about it.

#2. The higher initial water level AND the easily adjustable water level switch.  I adjusted it for slightly more water and I may tweak it again if I reconnect it again.

#3. Selecting "hot" for the wash means hot, it's not dumbed down nor does it add cold water like the LG.

DISLIKES:

#1. It does NOT fill with hot & cold at the same time when a "warm" temp is selected.  First it's cold for a while, then hot until the water level switch is satisfied.  It does not cycle between hot & cold ala Whirlpool.  Quite often it does not tumble (or tumbles very little) during fill and as it fills through the tub/door boot, garments at the door get doused in a lot of hot water. 

#2. As mentioned at the beginning of this thread, this thing waists a lot of time to drain-tumble-spin each time it does.  

#3. Spins between wash and all rinses are only at a medium speed, not "high" that I selected.  Full, max speed only occurs during the final spin.  (also, I haven't been able to tell any difference between "high" rpm and "max extract plus" as the rpm seems to be the same for both).

#4. During the last part of the final rinse, it adds more water, then increases speed to a "spin distribution"(?) speed for a full 30-45 seconds, sloshing water up and around the outer tub (to rinse any schmutz buildup and prevent "tub stink").  But every time it does this, there's an inch or more of foam / suds build up in the door glass that doesn't dissipate as the tub drains.

#5. It's really noisy, more so than any other FL washer I have.  But not from the motor or bearings, from the garments slapping against the tub and splashing in the water inside.  There are two large tub vents on the back of the machine and a lot of interior tub noise comes out from them.  I ended up stuffing a wash cloth in each to act as a "muffler". 

Re: the gritty / sandy discharge during the first cleaning.  I neglected to mention the seller told me they went to the dessert / sand dunes a lot and washed everything after those trips in this machine.  This explains all the sand coming out of the drain hose.

Kevin