Dishwasher service problem.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Situation., 18 month old Hotpoint BF72 dishwasher. Won't do anything except cme up with Error code E8.

Hotpioint tell me that 'since I didn't take out extended warranty, that's 89 quid for a bloke to call, plus parts, cos E8 isn't a user fixable fault, and I can't tell you what it means'

I am assuming that there is a bit of software that says 'IF NOT extended warranty and IF > warranty period display E8 and stop working' :-)

And the bloke comes down and moves a DIP SWITCH or presses a combination of buttons, and it all starts working again in 3 minutes :-)

What are my options here?

Does anyone know what it means?

Its been pretty crap ever since I had it frankly, and I am totally underimpressed with its ability to actually wash dishes, but it does a fair job on coffee cups.

[ABC]

The machine should last more that 18 months without breaking down. See if you can get them to fix it foc under the "Item should be of durable quality" part of the SOGA.

Had a fridge door hinge broke on 20 month old Teba fridge. Having argued that their goods didn't live upto the durability standard, they duly suppied a new door hinge.

S

[Nick Brooks]

Yes well worth trying. I got a new 28" TV tube off Sony when my 18 month old one died

NB

[sPoNiX]

These peeps may help:

>Does anyone know what it means?

[Terry D]

Have a look in Yellow Pages and find an independent repairer who doesn't charge for call-outs. I've had a few repairs to washing machines and have only ever paid for parts & labour. I don't have a high opinion of Hotpoint either - next time buy a Bosch.

Terry D.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Sadly not. Its not mentoined anywhere on the net.

I guess I need someone with the service manual.

It starts to pump water out, and take water on successfully, then just stops.

About 2 minutes intto the cycle,

[BillV]

A friend of mine had a free fix after his Hotpoint washer motor failed after

2 years. He had to have a "conversation" with the UK service manager first :-)

[Andy Hall]

Go back to the store and squeeze them. It wasn't Curry's in Newmarket like the DVD player though was it? In which case visit Halfords first and obtain 12" chrome wrench.

Seriously though, it looks like this is around £450-500. I wouldn't accept a failure costing perhaps £150 to fix after 18 months. The extended warranty is a con. If it was, say, £100, in effect it means that the price is actually £550.

I would go back to the retailer and the credit card company and be firm. They own the problem.......

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[The Natural Philosopher]

Direct electrical online.

But first I need to identify what the problem IS.

[Andy Hall]

Well, but do you?

The fault code is not in the manual, and the manufacturer's service department has said that it is not customer fixable. Moreover, they are not willing to help you diagnose it yourself.

From an engineer's standpoint, I'd be curious too, just in case it's something silly like a sticky relay or a pea stuck in the level switch.

It may well be that you could fix it if you could find the fault, but the manufacturer doesn't want to play ball. Moreover, they want to stick you for a fee to fix.

If the manufacturer were making things easier and offering help over the phone it would be a different situation, but they are not.

ISTM, that the choice becomes one of accepting to pay for the fix or falling back on statutory consumer protection. As far as the retailer is concerned, the appliance is faulty in a way that the customer is not expected to be able to fix after 18 months use of a £450 dishwasher. I don't think that you need to help them with their liability any more than that.

Of course they will try all the lines about responsibility with the manufacturer, extended warranties and all that BS, If it had been a £200 DW then maybe it would be reasonable to expect to have to pay for fixes after a couple of years but not on a machine at this price point.

.andy

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[Richard]

Take on board the fact that dishwashers are just about the most environmentally un-friendly devices ever to be installed in kitchens. Scrap it and explain to the,wife, mother, girlfriend,partner or whatever that the Green thing to do is to wash up by hand and if pressed you would be willing to supervise or on a good day even be prepared to dry or put away. As you will have observed putting away is something that dishwashers are very bad at, but blockages and flooding they take in their stride.

Richard.

[Doctor D.]

I agree totally with Andy. See

or for more advice.

18 months service then a bill for £85 is not acceptable.

[BillV]

My 3 year old Neff does a very good job..

Is that really true? if so what is the evidence? I used to think so but after washing by hand for a while I realised I was using far more water that our newish DW does and of course it can stand a much higher temp than my hands...

Drying dishes with a cloth has been shown to be very unhygienic

If your kitchen is laid out ergonomically like mine you can empty the DW in

5 mins.

Never happened to either of mine. Only pump motor burned out in old one after >10 years

[Andy Hall]

What complete nonsense.

If you take a look at the spec. of a good modern dishwasher like a Miele, you will find it using about 12 litres of water and about 1kWh of electricity.

It would be pretty difficult to wash up by hand to the same high standard for these amounts.

You have the choice of putting away or using things directly from the dishwasher.

Personally, I've never had flooding or blocking.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Lee]

We try to be green, but we're not giving up ours :p Besides which, it uses less water and detergent than I (at least) would use doing the same amount of washing up and there's no penalty for the drying cycle because it uses the residual heat from the water to dry the items.

Can't argue with that :)

Haven't had any of that errant behavior form our 3yr old Bosch....yet:)

Lee

[Lurch]

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 14:47:27 +0100, The Natural Philosopher strung together this:

You'd be lucky, even we struggle getting those!

I would check the wiring between the door and body, my first check would have been make sure the drain pump is working. After that, it's random testing time!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Drain pump is working.

Wiring gone in under 18 months?

[Lurch]

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 08:26:06 +0100, The Natural Philosopher strung together this:

Yep, see it happen all the time, every time you open the door you're flexing the wiring bewtween the door and body. If you work out how many times you ve opened and closed it in 18 months you wouldn't be surprised that a conductor has frayed\snapped\broke\gone open circuit. Quite a common fault really.