Washing Machine Problem

[Grumps]

It's a Bosch WFK 2801 and it won't squirt water into the conditioner compartment. I've looked at the three water valves (one hot, and one each for pre and main wash). These all seem to operate correctly. The main wash one opens at the beginning of the main wash, and similarly for the pre-wash. There is no separate valve for the conditioner squirt holes, so how are these supposed to work? When the programme is set to rinse & spin, the main wash valve opens, which is fair enough, but still no water in the conditioner compartment. I'm very confused.

[RedOnRed]

Is the dispenser department full of black, gunky, grimey stuff? Which is actually a type of bacteria?

If so, then pull on some rubber gloves, use some anti-bacterial cleaner, clean the compartement and remove the black stuff from the water dispenser outlets using cocktail sticks.

Beware of the black bacteria stuff. It can be harmful.

[powerstation]

for conditioner it switches both valves on together, so that the jets of water converge in the centre of the dispenser and spray into the centre conditioner compartment

[Grumps]

No, it's crystal clear.

You're right! I could see that both valves did come on together, but the water still kept coming only from the left. I've prodded a bit of plastic sleeving into the relevant holes, and this seems to have freed it up somewhat. The water now comes from the left and the centre :) The crap thing about this particular machine is that you can dismantle everything except the plastic water/detergent dispensing thing. Thanks for your help.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Grumps wrote: [snip]

To get the dispenser out on most WM's pull the dispenser out fully and lift it upwards slightly then a sharp yank towards you will get it out.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[powerstation]

That's the dispenser drawer, the dispenser is the top of the box the drawer slides into.

[John Laird]

Sorry for the lateness of this reply - I'm cut off from Usenet temporarily.

My Bosch m/c also stopped running water into the conditioner hole. I took the lid off the machine and worked out how to remove the plastic contraption where the jets run to either wash compartment, or (both at the same time) to the conditioner one. It was fairly gunky inside. I'll not say the removal of this part was easy, but it wasn't impossible either. Everything had to be disconnected - inlet and outlet hoses. And even then it was a squeeze.

Stick to it.

[Grumps]

Well, getting a stick to it did seem to cure my problem :)

The lid on the plastic dispenser seems to be glued on. I did think about removing it, but all those pipes !