It's hard to believe that this stacking set is about a month shy of its 21st birthday, but lately it seems to showing signs of its age.

With heavier loads, the washer has been stopping and shutting off at the start of rinse cycles, sometimes after filling, others when draining.  I've not yet been present when this happens, but it will do it on the first, second or third rinse.  When I find both the "ON" and "LOCK" indicator lamps unlit, I open the door and everything looks normal, so I simply press the start button and sometimes the pump activates, other times it tumbles for a while and then drains, but it will always proceed to complete the load through the final spin. 

After the re-start, I can hear a low hum from the rear of the machine while it's tumbling, but I can't say for sure that it's associated with this condition.  However, since weight seems to be the main factor, I have to wonder if the motor could be tiring out.  

 I like knobs and buttons and would hate to have to replace this unit.  Even the overpriced SQ FL washers have digital controls, which I despise, so that right there is two strikes against one of those.  I don't likely need another machine that has to last me 20 years, but even getting one that will last ten years without any trouble is a crap-shoot these days.

If anyone can advise on trouble-shooting the motor, timer, a solenoid the control board, or anything else that could be causing this, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks John,

There has been a serious fill problem for a while with incoming hot water to the Maytag 712, which shares split hot and cold spigots with the Neptune.  I had turned down the flow from the cold spigot in order to maintain a reasonably warm water flow into the 712, but I'm guessing that this has finally impacted the Neptune.  Streets in my neighborhood were torn up for about a year and a half for a complete overhaul of the 100+ year old pipes, and although the hot water flow issues in the 712 preceded that work, it's become worse since.

The only thing that puzzles me is that a couple of years ago when Dan posted a different (Kingston?) timer for the 712 on eBay that ran slower and thus gave longer wash, rinse and spin times, I nabbed it, and after installation the 712 temporarily had full-flow of water through both fill valves, even though I didn't touch them when I changed out the timer.  I don't know what kind of coincidence that could have been.  Since the 712 is entirely mechanical, it will sit there patiently while the water trickles in.  It sounds like it's time to open the cold spigot more so the Neptune won't stall out, and at the same time address the sub-optimal spray rinsing that has resulted with the 712 anyway.

I'm going to pull the hoses off the 712 and see if the screens are clogged.  With any luck this could be a simple fix.  I've been having issues with my back, but got steroids for it this past week so now's the time.

It just occurred to me that the laundry sink faucet is really slow on both hot and cold sides.  I'll have to tear into this deeper than I thought when typing the reply above.