Bosch dishwasher filling problem

My mother's old Bosch is playing up. On a normal wash it just doesn't seem to take on board enough water. If you chuck extra water in it seems to work fine but otherwise you can hear the pump running and if you yank the door open, you can just witness some feeble jets of water coming from the washing arms, too feebly to make them rotate.

On a rinse cycle it seems to work okay.

I've checked the inlet tap, hose and hose filter. The inlet solenoid seems to be working fine as does the pump which pumps with gusto when more water is manually added. I'm guessing some sort of level sensor is playing up. Is this plausible?

I left it running with some dishwasher cleaner in the hope that this might clear any small internal blockage. What should I try next?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+
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Well, if it were my mother, she would give it a good talking to and show it a catalogue of brand spanking new dishwasher as a strong hint.

Reply to
GB

So are you half German?

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Assuming general Bosch (and most others!) layout:

Remove the left hand panel and the lower front skirt.

The water matrix, fill-level detector (a diaphragm/microswitch affair) and overfull float should all be visible and will have a variety of black mouldy gunk in them. The matrix can be cleaned by inverting, half filling with very hot water from the kettle and vigorously shaking. Various other bits will come apart for manual cleaning.

The pipe from the level sensor area then runs round the front to the circulator pump. If this blocks it gives too much back pressure and the fill sensor can cut off early (so low level and poor washing pressure.) Remove and clean out (I did one the other day that had what looked like half a DW tablet lodged in it.)

Some machines apparently have a flow measuring device (aka "jug") to meter out the incomming water, and these are noted to fail - tho I think they get into a permanent fill and drain cycle as the overfull sensor's triggered.

Reply to
Scott M

Well the last one of these I encountered was suffering from a split in the plastic of the spray arms, lowering the pressure, but it was still filling,just not cleaning as the thingies did not go around. Just another reason not to buy a dishwasher in my case. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Where do you store your dirty dishes or do you wash-up after every meal / drink?

Reply to
zaax

In message , at 11:44:55 on Thu, 27 Nov 2014, Rod Speed remarked:

I've had the same problem, and it's intermittent. It also seems to happen more on the lower temperature washes. I think it may be the "flood sensor" which is at the very bottom lefthand corner and seems to stop the machine filling if there's too much build-up of leaking water in the 'chassis'. The electronics must assume that if it gets as far as the rinse cycle that the sensor can be ignored for the rest of the wash.

Reply to
Roland Perry

Cheers, I'll check this out too.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Cheers Scott, I'll have another look next time I'm up.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

What has what I do have to do with anything?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Its simples, you take the clean stuff out and use it, then you put it back in the other dishwasher. Wash it when full and repeat.

Reply to
dennis

In message , at 05:27:40 on Fri, 28 Nov 2014, Rod Speed remarked:

Because it's detecting long term minor leaks, not catastrophic ones that happen during a wash cycle.

Reply to
Roland Perry

All dirty dishes here go into a large sink of hot water. There they remain soaking until there are enough for the dishwasher. This works well.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Since there's only the missus and me here (_almost_ empty nest syndrome), it usually takes 3 or 4 days to accumulate enough dirty dishes to justify runing the dishwasher.

Since the standard practice of just shoving the unrinsed dishes into the dishwasher as per a daily wash cycle no longer applies, the dishes get a rinse under the tap before being loaded to prevent the diswasher from becoming a strong source of foul smells from the slowly accumulating load of food soiled dishes over the 3 or 4 day period between wash cycles.

Pre-rinsing also reduces the thickness of the coating of dried out food left on the dishes which facilitates more effective cleaning.

The missus will sometimes handwash the dishes after we've had our evening meal if we haven't yet gotten round to unloading the cleaned dishes out of the dishwasher. We don't dump the dishes into the sink to soak before loading them into the dishwasher. They simply get a quick rinse under the cold tap immediately before being added to the dishwasher.

Reply to
Johny B Good

In message , at 07:50:44 on Fri, 28 Nov 2014, Rod Speed remarked:

Whether you buy it or not, it's how they are designed.

Reply to
Roland Perry

In message , at 20:47:33 on Fri, 28 Nov 2014, Rod Speed remarked:

Suit yourself, but there's something to be learnt here. I took the machine to bits and that's what it does.

I suppose the argument might be that a catastrophic leak already has water all over the floor, so failing to enter a rinse cycle won't stop you getting your feet wet.

Reply to
Roland Perry

One couple we know seem quite unconcerned that while they load the washer their dog is also sticking its head in and actually does quite a good job of licking the items clean. Now after a wash cycle it should not make any difference but somehow I'm glad we don't get invited to eat there.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

I thought everyone used dogs for the "pre-wash"?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

I expect a lot do, but it is the thought of them having just licked thier arse or another dogs or even eating dog shit that is a bit off putting.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

In message , at 10:49:43 on Sat, 29 Nov 2014, Rod Speed remarked:

I do know because I ran the machine through numerous wash cycles, while fiddling with all the sensors (having stripped the side off the washer), to see what they did.

The catastrophic leak will have dumped all the water currently in the machine, on the floor, mid-wash-cycle. The leak detector won't be able to predict a hose coming off, or the sump splitting.

The point is to force the user to investigate a small leak.

You don't have to do that - it's a big disc of expanded polystyrene 'floating' (in either air or water) in the bottom of the chassis. You can push it up and down to simulate the effect of water.

The minimal-water observed when there's a "failed to fill" wash cycle is the dregs in the sump, which are there because the pump doesn't completely empty it plus the flow-back from the 'uphill' bit of the drain pipe, which doesn't have a non-return valve upstream of the pump.

The correct sequence of operation is for the pump to operate briefly to make sure the sump is as empty as possible, followed by the inlet system trickling water in via the water softener. If you listen carefully you can hear the gurgling of the inlet water through the various pipes, before the main circulation pump starts thrashing the water around.

Reply to
Roland Perry

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