Dishwasher hatred

[D.M. Procida]

The %^&#@! dishwasher that has sucked up hours of my time is at it again.

This time, the main symptom is that the pump that forces the water through the rotors no longer does so continuously, but intermittently.

It goes: dsshhhhhhh - dssshhhh - dsshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - dshsss - dshhhhh.

It rarely pumps continuously for more than a couple of seconds. It's as though the power to the pump were being disconnected momentarily at random intervals.

I guess it could be a bad connection, but I wonder if it's more likely a fault in the controller board.

Could it be a bad pump?

I'm loath to give up on this damn thing, partly because I have little confidence in finding a new one that's compatible with a six-year-old IKEA dishwasher front panel, and partly because I have spent so much time and effort on it already.

Thanks,

Daniele

[Bob Eager]

Or something (bit of food) stuck in the pump. On our Bosch ones (we've had two [1]) there is a panel you can remove to get to the impeller blades.

[1] The first one *did* last 14 years.

[philipuk]

Could it be as simple as a kinked inlet hose preventing it filling up correctly such that it runs out of water?

Are the filters blocked and need clearing?

Philip

[F]

Try

Not let me down yet.

[tabbypurr]

water level too low causes that.

NT

[D.M. Procida]

Fixed it! The clues in this thread helped point me in the right direction.

There's a rubber hose that goes through 90 degrees to the inlet of the main pump. It wasn't kinked or blocked, but while checking it I noticed that constricting it somewhat would make the motor run continuously.

In other words, the motor was stalling when it had less resistance to deal with.

So I had a good look inside the machine, and realised that one of the connectors in the water system to the lower rotor had come loose from its socket, lowering the pressure the pump had to work against. Reseating that immediately solved the problem.

Thanks for the suggestions. As so often the case, even ones that don't solve the problem directly provide useful clues.

Daniele