failing dish washer

[p cooper]

weve benn having problems with the above. First problem was that stuff was coming out feeling 'grainy' , which dissolved away quite easily.

Weve used it till the salt/rinseaid was empty and refilled them but no improvement. Now there is till detritus left on cutlery.

Bowls seem to be affected worse. All parts of dishwasher affected ive had the rotating arms off and flushed them throughand they are clear, and Ive had the filters out and cleaned them out.

Where do I ( or someone else) look next?

last time a little man came to fix it (on guarantee) lots of perfectly good bits seemed to have been replaced (I wasnt in at the time ) , so i'd like to hav some ide of where the problem might lie if it a bit beyond me to diagnose and /or fix it

[F]

Check all pipes/connections to the 'twirly bit' (technical term!) inside the washing cavity. We had a similar problem and the connector was cracked and leaking water directly into the machine rather than making it pass through said 'twirly bit'.

[Mr Fixit]

if you brought one of the MFI jobs its about Par for the course

[.]

Divorce and marry a new one for dishwashing ;-)

[Sparks]

First, I would turn the machine on, then when it is running at full throttle, open the door* to make sure the rotating arms, are doing as expected.

Then take it from there...

*A little bit, but be prepared for a slight soaking, these things seem to be quite high pressure!

Sparks...

[Matt]

Use a washing up bowl and a squirt of detergent. Amazingly it does the same job with no 240v electrical bits to go wrong and in about a tenth of the time whilst using miniscule amounts of water. By changing you also get to chuck away/sell about half your crockery and gain another

600mm floor unit for storage.

[Gav]

i bought a d/w 2 years ago and have never had a problem, it was only about £180 if it broke down tommorrow i wouldnt be upset as it has served me very well this far!

my advice, nip off and buy a brand new one for mothers day!

two birds, one stone eh?

[p cooper]

Bosch DW - John Lewis.

Arms are rotating & lots of hot water around when its in mid-cycle.

Anyone any ideas ?

[p cooper]

in addition

doesnt make any significnat inroads into fatty things. coffee dregs dont get moved at all

WTF is wrong with it ?

[Pete C]

Is the built in softener set correctly for the local water? Also are you using decent dishwasher powder/tablets?

Also have you tried dishwasher cleaner on a hi temp cycle? Maybe the pump is gunged up.

Also try asking at:

cheers, Pete.

[p cooper]

still not working properly.

Arms are rotating water is hot Its not truncating the cycle.

Weve found the DW tablet lying in the bottom of the machine ( largely undissolved except for the little red ball) a couple of times

[Sparks]

Maybe you have a partially blocked pump then

If you open the door mid cycle, is the water pressure really high? On mine, it shoots across the room if I open the door too much!

Sparks...

[p cooper]

certainly doesnt shoot across the room ......... its hot and the arms rotate

[Sparks]

Them my guess would be it's either a problem with the water circulation (Pump problem, or maybe a blockage somewhere) or a problem with the heating - is it getting really hot in there? try running it, then as soon as the cycle is finished, open the door and feel the plates - are they really hot (mine are bloody hot if I take something out just after it has finished)

Sparks...

[p cooper]

plates are hot - so it looks like a partial blockage in the water circuit somewhere - that would fit with the more heavily soiled stuff not getting clean and the nooks and crannies ( bowls) not getting clean.

Ive rung up a couple of the 'little men' who fix stuff and the ones i have confidence in dont do dishwashers (both said they can get the parts). There are a couple of others that do DWs but on past experience Im not keen

How do i have a look and see if the pump is blocked (Bosch SGS5342)

[Jason]

We had a similar problem earlier in the year - our Bosch dishwasher gradually seemed to work less effectively, until we had to wash stuff twice to get the plates clean, even with the latest "fancy" dishwasher tablets. The tablets were often found just soggy in the bottom of the washer after the cycle.

Anyway, we got our usual repairman out and he said that they have some sort of tube/pressure switch which detects the water level. Over time (it took 4 years for ours) this can get blocked with crud/fat from your dishes, so the washer thinks it's got enough water in when it hasn't. Ours was letting water in for just a short while before stopping. When I had opened it mid-cycle it was hot and there was water and steam, and the arms were spinning, so it looked to me like it was working.

It took him about five minutes to find the tube and clean it. In ours it's apparently a hole in the side of the drain pan under the grille in the bottom of the machine. You get the grille off by unscrewing the cylidrical grey filter, as you would when you clean it. You could probably use some long pipe cleaners to do it, although he used a home-made thing to do the job. It's worked perfectly ever since.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Jason

[John Weston]

Some dishwashers cut the feed to the pump if the door microswitch detects the door opening. This is to reduce the possibility of "injury" if someone opens the door when the water is "hot"... I've often opened mine after it's started to pop something else in and the spray has stopped before I've opened the door even a fraction.

[Nick]

All the dishwashers that I've ever seen stop as soon as the door is opened. What brand and model of dishwasher keeps going?

[John Weston]

That's why I put "some" - I've only used 3 types, which isn't a sample large enough to put "all"...

[Bob Eager]

It's not just the hot water. A friend of mine works in a burns unit, and even warm water is bad if it's combined with some brands of dishwasher detergent, which can cause burn-like problems.