Dishwasher doesn't wait to fill

Don't know if this is a timer problem or ??

The dishwasher doesn't wait for all the water to be piped in; it starts prematurely and washes or rinses without enough water, so the top shelf really doesn't get clean or rinsed because there's not enough water to get up there. We manually dump in a big bowl of hot water and that works; however, it's not the most interesting thing to wait around for each and every cycle listening for the H2O to come on!

Any thoughts on this?

Reply to
Cathy Boer
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My first guess would be that the water level float valve is either physically stuck or electrically defective. After some years of use "crud" (to use the scientific term) builds up between the float and the post causing it to stop moving. If it sticks in the "down" position you have a flood because the machine doesn't know the water level has risen. If it sticks in the "up" position it thinks the water is already up to the proper level and doesn't add add more.

Reply to
John McGaw

who made the machine, ia it a bosch? they clean excellent but break too much and parts cost a fortune

Reply to
hallerb

Make sure you are not using the "China " setting. On my dishwasher, the "normal wash" and "china" setting were next to each other on the dial and I sometimes would put it on "china" by accident, which uses less water.

Reply to
Mikepier

It's a Whirlpool

who made the machine, ia it a bosch? they clean excellent but break too much and parts cost a fortune

Reply to
Cathy Boer

I've seen many dish washers do this, They start running before the tub is filled. But the filling continues as it is running and gets filled and shuts off the water while washing or rinsing continues. Yours does not do this? It just fills the bottom or else it would flow out the door when you open it. Maybe your pump is clogged or weak or your fill switch float is waterlogged.

Reply to
"Blattus Slaf

"Cathy Boer" wrote in news:dS0qj.16244$C61.11595@edtnps89:

One of the troubleshooting sections on many tech sheets is WILL NOT FILL/LOW WATER and it lists possible causes. Post your full model number and I'll look and see if there's a tech sheet for it.

Reply to
Red Green

I had this happen on a KitchenAide which did it a lot but not 100% of the time. Even had a serviceman out who replaced the entire (electromechanical) timer but it would still do it.

On this machine, unlike, say, a washing machine where everything stops until the water reaches whatever the desired level is, as long as it takes, the water fill was simply based on the timer turning the valve on for a certain number of seconds. I presume there are dishwashers that do actually sense water level but this one doesn't.

The little float switch only was there to prevent the water from getting too high (it interrupts current to the fill valve). The timer doesn't halt and wait for the float to lift or anything like that. You just get so many seconds of fill valve "on" time and that was that.

I was finally able to catch it acting up and saw that power was going to the fill valve but water wasn't going in so obviously the valve itself was the culprit. I pulled the wires from the valve's solenoid coil and found it open (dead). Turned out that the valve had a thermal fault--after so many seconds of power on the solenoid would get hot and become electrically open--turning off the water flow. When it cooled down it would act normal so it was hard to find.

Fortunately I had saved the fill valve off an older KitchenAide that had been replaced after 10 years of service when the main seal failed and water had damaged the motor. The old valve was a little different so after mounting it and hooking up the hot water copper line I had to get a length of hose to connect it to the water fill / vacuum break thing on the side of the machine as the orginal tube was a bit too short to agree with the new (old) valve. That was a number of years ago and it's been fine ever since.

Reply to
Steve Kraus

Steve Kraus wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Those types suck. Especially if you don't know what you're doing to start with.

Stupid machines...:-)

Reply to
Red Green

corp.supernews.com:

solenoid valve failure is pretty common

Reply to
hallerb

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