HomeMods, Tech Talk & TipsProjects & ModsSplendide Washer/Dryer Door Latch/Lock Bypass

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Splendide Washer/Dryer Door Latch/Lock Bypass — 52 Comments

  1. how can i know that which two wires to joint to make bypass successful. there are three wires red black and yellow in lg washer.

    • Hi, LG washer is a different brand and may not have the same type of switch, etc. You could experiment. One of the wires should have mains voltage (black?), one is probably neutral (yellow? – with power off ohm out to see if it is common with frame ground) and the third wire should be the switched lead (red?). My guess would be to short BLK/RED but do so at your own risk. If I am wrong you will probably pop the circuit breaker.

  2. We have ours apart (same brand as yours) but our colors are brown,red,blue. We are taking a shot with red and brown

    • Good luck! Guess you have a few combinations to try. If you get it wrong worst case you will pop the circuit breaker at your rv panel.

  3. Thanks so much for your informative post. Ours is also a 2005 Splendide, but it is a WD2100XC model. We had experienced another common problem with the Splendide washer/dryers. That is, “broken door handle.” While searching for information on that, I found your post. So, while repairing that problem, I decided to help eliminate the problem again in the future, and implement your lock bypass solution.

    My lock did indeed have the Black/White/Brown color scheme, as the technician described to you, so my solution was quite straight-forward. I wasn’t too concerned about returning the latch to proper function in the future, so I just cut the wires, stripped them back 1/4″, used a twist on wire connector to join them, & then wrapped with electrical tape for water-proofing. I also wrapped the latch end wires in tape to keep them together. If I decide to return the lock function in the future, I’ll just remove the twist connector and install butt splices.

    While our latch was still working as designed, the delay was a pain, and I’m sure led to some pre-emptory attempts to open the locked door, thereby adding stress to the poorly designed handle. Our handle lasted about 9 years, so I don’t feel too bad about having to replace it. I bought the OEM part from Westland Sales (800-356-0766) for $40 + shipping. Seems high, but is a lot better than the $117 for the same part from PPL. Thanks again for your helpful post. My wife is happy.

    • That sounds great I have same problem I don’t understand when you cut the two wires and short them. ( black and brown wires) that leaves the white wire only going to switch. How’s that one one wire In gage switch when switch itself is not grounded. ?

  4. Thanks A LOT for this post.
    We were having problems with the latch not unlocking and then we broke the handle off trying to open the door. Did what Chris did, ordered the handle from Westland and completely bypassed the switch. Great help, thanks again!

  5. Thanks to this posting I got the door open, pulled the boot edging off and pulled the switch. I had the black-white-brown wires. pulled black and brown connectors out of the plug and taped them together. Put the switch back in, boot re-installed and perfection!
    Ordering a new handle today.
    Thanks a Bunch
    Murray

    • Yeah, seems like there is no standard for the wire colors! So of the three wires one is hot with 120 volts, one is ground and the remaining is the switched conductor. The techie approach is to use a voltmeter/ohmmeter to determine which is the hot wire and which is the ground, the remaining wire will be the switched conductor. Something like this:

      1) Set your meter to the scale for measuring 120 volts AC, put one probe on a good ground (like the washer cabinet where bare metal is exposed) and then probe each wire (after you have disconnected them from the switch), one of them will have 120 volts on it. Make a note of what color.
      2) Set your meter to the lowest ohms scale. Again put one of the probes on the ground and probe the other two wires (but NOT the identified “hot” wire), one of them will show continuity and that will be the ground.
      3) The remaining wire is the switched conductor.
      4) Here’s where I don’t remember if the machine wants to be grounded or have 120 volts to bypass the latch. I’m guessing ground, so short the ground wire to the switched wire. If that doesn’t work short the hot wire to the switched wire. One of those should do the trick.

      The non techie approach is to guess. One of the three combinations of shorting two of the wires together will fix the problem, another will not fix the problem, but the third will blow your circuit breaker because you are shorting 120 volts to ground. That actually happened to me because I guessed wrong on my machine! It shouldn’t hurt anything assuming your 120v circuit breaker is working properly, but it is not the most elegant method. Be careful and good luck! Post back here what you found out as that may help others that have wire colors like yours!

  6. Update..I ordered and install new door switch now the washer won’t start. Dryer works fine. Any idea ?

    • Bobby, well I’m not an expert on these machines and I don’t own one anymore, but long ago and far, far away I was an electronics repair tech. When troubleshooting, if I replaced a suspected bad part and it didn’t fix the problem, it was either because the replacement part was also bad, the replacement part was incorrectly installed, or the problem was elsewhere. Odds are it would be the latter. Have you talked to Splendide?

    • Possibly, or you could just bypass it as described in the post and see if that does the trick. It’s been years since we’ve had this particular washer so my memories of it are a bit faded…

  7. I have a newer splendide i hate the thing never takes the lint or hair off of clothing during the wash or dry doesn’t matter what kind of detergent or fabric softner or how often you clean the exhaust will leave clothes wet or cooked during dry cycle so i have to hang clothing to dry or stay like velcro and take them out before timer ends the cycle and they are always wrinkled wet or dry it has been balanced and still shakes the house if i had to do family washing i would invest in paper clothing. so if you haven’t bought one DON’T made well and heavy BUT USELESS my clothes would be cleaner if i went to the nearest river and pounded them on a rock Capisce?

    • Bummer it doesn’t work for you. As I remember, for us the washer worked well enough (besides the door lock issue) but it took some time getting used to the dryer’s limitations. The drum is sized right for washing, but too small to do proper drying unless the load size is reduced. Also, if you have the ventless version I think those are probably even more picky. Thanks for your comment!

  8. Your bypass idea gave me the initiative to take mine apart and see just how the switch is made.

    A simple set of contacts between 2C and 3L that are closed by a bi-metal piece that is heated up between N and 2C and also pulls down a plastic strip interfering with the lock bar to create the lock.

    The bottom two connectors are for the dryer interlock and are just a make/break from a cam riding on the lock bar.

    I drilled dimples in the 10 or so places where plastic pins had been melted to seal the cover and snapped the cover off, being careful not to disturb any of the internal parts.

    Found the bi-metal strip LAYING between 2C and N (no positive connection) that would heat up and push an over-center spring closing the circuit between 2C and 3L. Bent the bi-metal slightly up toward the over-center to encourage good contact at the points. Used liberal WD40 to lube any sliding surfaces, including the small vertical locking bar. Cleaned up all electrical contacting points with De-Ox and reassembled.

    Understand the cooling slots near the bi-metal but expect that allowed dust/lint to gum up the switch, could have used a sealed heat sink for another few dollars and probably eliminated the problem I experienced.

    This fix probably only works if the circuit board and timers are working properly. But did save $100 – for now.

    • Frank, really appreciate the info. It inspired me to fully repair my switch. Mine was a Model WD802 Splendide 2000. The latch was getting very hard to operate and had started getting stuck closed.
      It had a 5 wire switch. 2C, N, & 3L for PTC (red, blue, & brown) and an extra contact with two white wires. With no schematic, I assume that contact is for some control circuit.
      The five wire made me bail on trying to jumper unit. I decided to try the rebuild route. Drilled out posts as you recommended. The PTC looked ok. However, the additional switch was impeding the free return of latch shaft. I was able to check for smooth surfaces and lubricate with silicon spray. Reassembled, tested operation before installing, then put all back together.
      So far, we have run two loads of wash. Working Great.
      More important, I have a very happy wife who does not have to struggle to open the door latch.

  9. I have a WD802M that is about 20 years old. Mine stopped working during the drying cycle. Your photos about going through the seal was great. Splendide did send me a flow chart and a wiring diagram but the photos were a great help. I had melted wires and the dryer side of the switch had melted at the contacts.

    My seal did not have the spring and after all these years was difficult to remove. I opened the little bends at the end and got the seal back in place then routed the wire back in the groove and then was able to rehook the ends.

    I also did a search for the Training Manual and was able to find it and down load it, will be a great help in the future. If someone else is looking for it do a Google search, several popped up and I was able to find the one I needed.

    Not sure if it is repaired, going to run it through a cycle to try but it’s on the road to recovery.

    • Paul, glad to hear it’s on the road to recovery! Thanks for reporting your experience and info on the manuals, that is sure to prove helpful to others. Best of luck!

  10. I found training manuals online when mine started having trouble. Its great itgives you the full diagram, how to test, what the values should be, etc. Mine isnt back running correctly yet but will be soon. the door latch can cause the entire machine to shut down

  11. This post was exactly what we needed to read. The narrative was amusing, and the photos were so helpful. Thank you for saving us money and time .Our Splendid 2000 (model WD802) also enjoyed hy-jacking our clothes and holding them hostage. Very frustrating indeed! After reading your post, we chose the safer and more difficult option #1. There were other issues and we needed to take the machine out anyways. My husband was bent over, head leaning to the right, with headlamp on, one foot balancing himself on the upper sink cabinet, other foot almost in the sink, his rear almost touching the light fixture that is above the sink, has the two wires to interrupt the switch (for our model, it was blue & brown) in his mouth, electrical tape in his hand…. all this happening at the same time….while I read aloud your instructions in your post to bypass that switch! What a sight to see! Lol. We got it done. Tested it by drying some clothes, and the door open right away. Yay!

    I love my washer/dryer combo by Splendid. With a handyman husband and our 5 year old son, I’m doing wash all the time! It saves my sanity and you helped save my sanity too. Thank you.

  12. Anyone know how to repair the opposite problem? Our door stopped latching. The handle looks to be properly moving the latch in and out, so I’m not sure if the above problem caused some issues with previous owner forcing it open enough to weaken the part the latch closes into. The door goes flush to the opening, but doesn’t catch. Seals are still in proper place. Thanks for any guidance.

  13. Thanks Rob! I just found this post on a search and I had called Splendid yesterday and they told me to jump the brown and Black wires on the switch to see if that fixes the problem. I called a RV service tech and they did not want to work on washers. I followed your directions and it only took me 5-10 minutes and now my washer/dryer is working for the first time since I bought the RV over a year ago. FYI I just spliced the black and brown wires together. Works like a charm!

  14. Model ARWXF129W WARNING!

    Hi All…Just a HEADS UP that this will not work for a ARWXF129W (Washer only) model. Doing this will trash your main control board. I also had the Brown, White, and Red wires. (The White has the 120V on it, Brown is Neutral, and Red is Common for the solenoid.)

    I put the Brown and White together which DID turn on the red LOCK LED so I thought I was good. But alas, that also seems to have then damaged the main control board. I say this for no matter what I did, it would start to do something for 1/4 of a second and stop, wait 5 seconds, and try again…Rinse and Repeat (Pun Intended) And this was the same be it a wash mode or just trying to run the pump to empty. Same thing would happen.

    I called into Westland Sales to speak with their tech on what I had done to it and he said that the model I have, ARWXF129W, can not be bypassed like others could and in doing so sends 120V back to the board and “Poof”.

    So, the $80 for the door lock and now another $320 for the control board and $22 shipping. OPPS! Costly $320 mistake. So….I know this is an old post, but wanted to mention it as others have mentioned the same wire colors but never mention the model numbers…So I wanted to mentioned the model and the warning of what took place to try to help others not to do the same. 🙂

    • David, thanks so much for reporting this and so sorry this happened to you. You are right this is a very old post, but I will add a warning to it regarding not to try the fix on the newer models. Thank you and good luck.

  15. We have a 2100 WD unit that was holding our clothing hostage after the wash cycle. We tried the reset button after waiting an extended amount of time thinking the thermo strip was causing the lock not to open. The only way to proceed was to flip the circuit breaker off and then back on. The dryer worked fine as far as the lock was concerned. After seeing this post I pulled the switch out and found I had red / brown / & white wires. I read the post were the person tried wiring the red & white wires. Not wanting to repeat his mistake I went a different route. The bar that slides forward to in gauge the lock was the key to my success. I heated up a small blade and cut the lock bar off. Now the washer thinks the door is locked and is working fine. I assume at this point that the thermo portion of the lock is defective and the lock needs to be replaced. Being the washer / dryer is 11 years old I’ll be leaving the lock alone.

  16. Hi, I may be a bit dense but I just don’t understand what one is supposed to do with the 3 wires (in my case red, black and blue) to bypass a broken door lock switch and burnt out connector so the machine will start. At the time of writing I have the 3 wires with ends exposed waiting to know what to do with them…

    • Hi, this sentence (from Splendide support) in the post kinda sums it up; The switch/lock has three wires (brown/black/white) and if [you] cut and short the black and brown wires this will bypass the power interrupting switch and disable the locking function.

      “Cut and short” – cut, strip insulation, tie the bare electrical ends together in a mechanically secure manner and properly insulate. In my case I didn’t cut anything and instead made a jumper using mating connectors. If you do cut, use a crimp on connector or a wire nut to make a secure connection, then apply tape or shrink insulation and zip tie the assembly so it’s not flopping around.

      Sounds like perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to seek assistance from someone more familiar with electrical wiring.

      However, there is also the color discrepancy which is common on this machine. I had red/black/white wires and I shorted the red/black. Yours are red/black/blue and it would only be a guess as to which are the correct switch wires. By looking at the photos in the post see if you can match up the position of the wires on the connector regardless of the color. The two that align with the red and black wires in my photo are the ones you want. This post is over 10 years old but I’m going to look for a better photo of the connector that shows the wire positions and add it to the post.

      Also, see the previous comment from John, he took a different approach and mechanically disabled the switch. This would work too as long as the switch contacts are still intact.

      • Hello Rob,
        Thank-you very much for replying and so quickly! I don’t usually have a problem fixing things (in fact quite the opposite as people come to me) but being aware I could easily damage the motherboard I thought it best to ask.
        As I was not intending connecting wires to the switch I put back in the machine so the door would open manually (I’m the only one using the machine so I don’t need that safety feature) so now there are no wires connected to it.
        Looking at your picture and from memory the red wire was in the same position, black on the middle pin and blue on the 3rd, I found a picture of the switch on my machine as I can’t see how to attach the actual one of mine to this post:
        https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.42rNd1DVUeJ7PhD8qDo87QHaE7%26pid%3DApi&f=1
        I hope this helps…

        • Finally back to civilization and internet access! Thanks for the link to that photo, I have been looking for one. Also, if you have your own photo feel free to send it to me at rob@myquantumdiscovery.com. I’ll add it to the post with credit to you. In the photo you linked, the terminals are marked N/L/C. Looking at the schematic and other pages in the service manual, I’m pretty sure the terminals that need to be shorted to bypass the lock switch are L and C. Whichever color wires go to L and C should be removed from the switch and shorted together. I have not had access to this washer since 2012 so would appreciate if someone can confirm the above is correct.

          • Hello Rob,

            I was wondering why no response but better late than never!

            I’m glad to report shorting black and blue has done the trick, I can now do my laundry again myself without any further delay. As for supplying a photo of my switch, that now involves removing the rubber seal around the opening of my front-loader again, which was extremely difficult for me to put back first time round because of chronic arthritis; I will gladly send a photo if I can find someone to help me with the seal…

            Thanks again for your assistance, without which I was facing the prospect of scrapping my machine, all because of a faulty switch! I should point out mine is not a Splendide but a Linetech washer, and as so many components are similar regardless of make, I hope my experience will prove useful to others in a similar situation and avoid unnecessary waste…

            Happy New Year.

          • Great thanks for the info! No worries on the photo, thought you had already taken one. Do you happen to remember the terminal markings (N,L,C) for the black and blue?

  17. From memory black was L and blue C but that doesn’t seem right as a red wire is usually L and a black one N: I will endeavour to check the markings on mine to make absolutely sure.

  18. Splendide 2100 WD. Has black, brown, white wire on the door latch mechanism. Door latch broke of course and used the string trimmer trick to get the latch to open. No latch under the bottom front panel.

    Built a simple jumper to plug into the female black and brown wires. Taped up and tested before reassembling.

    The hardest part was figuring out how to get that wire ring with the spring out of the slot. The secret is finding the ends of the spring. Don’t try to snag the wire. Things came apart easily from there to get to the electrical lock.

    Before taking the front door apart to install a new handle, mark the glass insert and the edge of the inside of the door so you can get the thing oriented correctly again.

    Simple to remove the door. Two allen screw heads on the hinge. Then phillips screws around the door. The latch is removed by sliding the hinge pin to the side.

    One would wonder if softening the latch spring would be a good idea.
    I would not have bypassed the latch electronics except the wife really wanted me to. I didn’t even suggest it and she was wondering if there was something I could do.
    This repair saved me the price of a new washer/dryer. Getting this beast in and out is a near impossible task.

    Thank you very much for the great article.

  19. A really old post, but I must comment. Bypassing the door switch is a very bad idea. If you open the door and reach in while spinning, you may lose an arm. If the clothes catch your hand, the machine will spin your arm off. This is why the lock.

    • This fix was recommended by the manufacturer. The implied understanding is that those who do the mod don’t have young children (or very clever pets), and posess enough gray matter to realize opening the door while it was running is a very bad idea.

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