economy 7 and sticking dishwasher timer

Oct 03, 2006 13 Replies

For the last twenty odd years we've had economy seven, the idea being that washing machine and dishwasher would be set to run during the off peak period. Now the dishwasher timer sticks and has to be manually nudged on to complete the stages of the cycle. As this uses about 10 % of our electricity and without it I would have to do a share of the washing up I'm loathe to do without it so I cannot decide the best course of action.



Without the dishwasher off peak the economy seven tariff, which has higher peak units, becomes marginal but EDF will not change tariff without changing the meter, this does not seem logical to me as they could just lump the units into one tariff at no extra expense to them. Is anyone aware of a supplier that might do this?



The dishwasher is working otherwise well but my experience of messing with these old clockwork timers is not good, weighting the handle with a string wound round it to help it along causes it to jump steps. A replacement is over 100 quid! As the dishwasher is 20 years this repair doesn't seem worthwhile.



AJH


Could you set the dishwasher to "manual on" and connect it to a plug-through appliance timer (probably £5 to 15)?

Set it to run then unplug it or switch off the socket; wait a while and plug it back in --- if it starts up normally, this could be a cheap solution to the problem. Make sure you get an appliance timer rated for 13A --- I think some sold as lamp timers are only rated for

3 or 5A.

But are they doing to charge you for the meter change? If not, why worry about it?

Owain

Because when we go all nuclear electric the off peak will be proportionately far cheaper and I worry about waste :-).

Mainly because I don't want to have the unnecessary hassle.

AJH

Essentially that's what we used to do but the clockwork programmer on the dishwasher "sticks" part cycle and needs a gentle twist to get it to the next part of the cycle.

AJH

Oops, I misunderstood the question!

I thought your dishwasher had a built-in delay timer that was sticking, but you're talking about the control module.

Hi,

What about spraying or brushing a little grease on the cams of the timer?

Does it click repeatedly when it gets stuck?

cheers, Pete.

10% of your electricity just so you can have soft hands? Bleeding poofter.

The message from Matt contains these words:

A pound a week seems like a bargain to me.

Yeah, one couldn't run a wife on a pound a week.

Owain

The message from Owain contains these words:

My wife runs me on about that much.

Wasn't there a spoof Fairy Liquid advert once, done by I think Jasper Carrott? It went something like.

"Mummy, why are you hands so soft?"

"Because Daddy does all the washing up"

"Mummy I keep going round in circles"

"Shut up or I'll nail the other foot to the floor"

"Mummy, can I lick the bowl?"

"No, you can pull the chain like everyone else"

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