Dishwashers

[Ron Kerr]

Hi.

I am looking for elementary information about dishwashers. I have never seen the guts of one until now.

I have just acquired a Zanussi XDT 5052 from my daughter who lives in rented accommodation. It does not work and her landlord decided to replace it to avoid hassle in diagnosing and fixing the problem. (There's a wee bit of history here which is irrelevant to my question.) The machine is actually not very old but outside the guarantee and my daughter suspects that it may be possible to repair it without great expense.

I have had a look at it and saw nothing obvious - electrical connections apparently OK and no dangly bits. However something that caught my eye is a plastic object below the washing compartment. This seems to consist of two interconnected vessels. One is kind of circular cylindrical, seems to be attached to the bottom of the washing compartment and has a couple of tubes attached. It is empty apart from some residual water. The other part is smaller and of a sort of flattened oval cylindrical shape with one tube attached. This seems to be almost filled with some sort of mottled brown substance. The substance is not liquid but I cannot tell whether it is solid or gelatinous. What could this substance be? The appearance is rather reminiscent of solidified slightly fatty gravy! Could I be on to something here or am I way off-beam?

Any information would be appreciated.

Cheers....Ron

[Richard Geyman]

This sounds very much like an experience I had with a dishwasher....

I had the embarrassing misfortune to sell a dishwasher through the free-ads, after it had spent a winter in the shed, only for the buyer to call me saying it wasn't working. I took it back and got a local appliance repair company to have a look at it - a vacuum tube in the bottom of the machine was filled with gunk and grease, stopping the machine from filling with water. The guy took out the tube, cleaned it up, and put it back in. Took

5 minutes and fixed the dishwasher! Apparently it's quite a common fault.

Hope this helps, sorry if it doesn't!

Richard

[Michael McNeil]

Is there any reason why you can't snip a post about a blocked filter?

Did your mother put you on the bottle because she couldn't afford nappies or what?

[Richard Geyman]

[Andrew Gabriel]

Sounds like the water softener, in which case it will be full of ion exchange resin, which is always granular whenever I've seen it, and possibly either water or brine from the salt container to recharge it between washes, but I haven't investigated the ones in dishwashers.

[Dave Stanton]

If you think thats bad, look at some of the other threads on this group !!. It appears quite a few on here are incapable/unaware of the need to snip/trim.

Dave

[James Holdsworth]

Looking at some of your posts on Google I think you need to get your own house in order first before starting on other people.

Also your nostrils must be extremely cold considering how your nose is orientated.

James

[N. Thornton]

How could we help you fix it if you dont even tell us whats wrong with it?

Regards, NT

[richard]

snipped story bit

In my experience, the main thing to go wrong with dishwashers is a fractured/burnt out cable at the bottom of the door, where the loom flexes every time you open it. Also check the door switch, it carries the full load of the machine and can fail if it has been opened frequently while running.

I'm assuming it is right to bottom post? How do I make OE do that automatically?

Richard.

[Ron Kerr]

I don't know the symptoms other than that it doesn't work. My daughter is not that descriptive about technical things. I am trying to establish whether the m/c is worth repairing but since we don't have one already we have no water supply as yet and so I am not yet in a position to connect it up and try it out. Consequently I am at the preliminary stage of pursuing things that catch my eye - i.e. this brown stuff which someone has suggested is residue from water softening.

Cheers....Ron

[Ron Kerr]

Yes - I am a thick, ignorant, senile old fart.

Spot on!

At one time, people like me were politely directed to more appropriate sources of assistance.

[N. Thornton]

Then theres no way for us to have the least idea whats wrong with it

depends what needs repairing.

that is not the most useful preliminary stage. Suggest beginning to narrow down the problem by divide and conquer, and keep going till its down to one bit.

With no info at all from your daughter I dont think anyone could help.

Regards, NT

[Rod Hewitt]

Ron Kerr wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I think that you will find the word used was RESIN not residue. The water softener uses a special resin that looks like coarse sand but slightly transparent like poor quality amber. (I am sure that there is likely to be considerable variation in the precise look of it depending on brand, age, etc.) This is usually in a container that is accessible from the inside of the machine via a small hatch or screwcap and sits underneath the floor of the main compartment.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Nothing wrong at all with your posting. Trimmed to context and in chronological order. If you want some background, have a look here:

[Ron Kerr]

Thanks for this informative reply to the question I asked in my original message.

Ron