Dishwasher Help Forum

Hi All
Forgive me if this has been posted in the past, I have looked through the lists but couldn't find a solution.

My Siemens dishwasher has been great four the last three years until the last couple of months.

Firstly the programme would run and seem to hang at 1min for ages, sometimes hours.

The dishes and glassware started getting milky film on them. I have changed the soap, salt and rinse aid and this seems to have cured the problem most of the time.

Now it seems that the inlet has stopped working - the pump drains, until the sump is left, but no new water enters. The drain pump then carries on running but doesn't have anything left to move.

I have cleaned the drainage filters but dont seem to be able to find an intake filter.

I am thinking these are all linked, but I may be wrong.

Any help gratefully recieved.

Thanks
Dave

Flood protection system is activated, it over-rides all other control functions. The white plastic tray under the machine has water in it, which needs to be drained off. Then find the leak......

Based on your description, I would suspect sludging of the transfer pipe causing the water to back up through the water level control chamber is the culprit. Remove lid and left hand side panel to see what is happening.

Power off before touching anything.

Penguin45.

Sorry, remove the lid and side panel of what? the dishwasher is a stainles steel monocoque - the top seems loose, but I can see no fixing points, the side panels have no fixing points.

Sorry, I can do washing machines and tumble driers, but have never tried to get into a dishwasher before!!!

Remove from housing. Lift latches under rear edge of lid and push back. Force may be required. Side panels retained by two screws in front edge of panel.

Penguin45.

Thanks, I have the side and top off, and can see the internal components - not sure what I am actually looking at!

Bottom right is the float chamber part - with the red stick that can trip a microswitch.

The plastic container that contains the float looks opaque - I cant tell whether it is dirty or contains solid material.

There is also a 'blockage' in the top left of the left container.

Do I need to refer to a technician? I am happy to follow instructions, but I do not have a service manual - I have requested one from Siemens, but I am not sure how quickly they respond.

I have taken a photo of the left side view, if anyone would be able to diagnose from that. Not sure if images can be posted in the forum.

Thanks

Dave

This is the bit that matters:
[img]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Penguin45/Boschdw003.jpg[/img]

If the base has water in it, the red rod will be pushing up to work the microswitch and run the drain pump. The usual cause is the hose coming out of the bottom right hand corner gumming up - it can back up into the water level chamber as well. When the side tank empties, water will overflow out and into the base, thus operating the float switch. Strip down and clean out will sort it.

With the power off and some towels down, lay the machine right over on one side to drain the base, then observe what happens if you restart a programme.

Penguin45.

Thats the part that is opaque in mine - probably due to the dirt level!

I will attempt a strip down and clean - are there any parts that I need before I start? Where can I get parts from?

Is there any particular sequence to stripping it down?

Thanks

Dave

Side tank off first. The fill chamber will release with a pull and a wiggle and can simply be stripped for cleaning, then pull the hose clear.

You shouldn't need parts, but spares@ukwhitegoods.co.uk can supply if you decide that you need to replace anything.

Penguin45.

I would like to thank Penguin45.

I am not very practical normally but today I have repaired my Siemens 24201 Dishwasher following the guidance in this thread. It's not the same model as the photo but is practically identical.

I was on the verge of buying a new one as it is 11 years old and I thought it had done OK.

Jon

Hi all!

I have had virtually the same problem (on my Siemens, which is almost identical to the one on the pictures Penguin45 posted). Since we moved in to this house, a month ago, I have noticed that the machine fills water in short intermittent intervalls, but it wasn't until today it wouldn't start it's cycle. The evacuation pump just kept going.

And yes, there was water in the bottom tray. Draining it fixed the problem, but when I ran the machine with the left side cover off it was clear that water kept overflowing in the water level control chamber. The chamber was fairly clean, but I removed some sludge from the plastic tube (called transfer pipe earlier?) This helped, but it hasn't fixed the problem entirely. It still fills the water in intervalls, although longer between the cutoffs. And the water level still gets dangerously high in the control chamber, so much that a few drops escape from time to time.

So now I wonder, is all the incoming water supposed to pass the control chamber? Because the incoming water is divided into two pipes by the intricately shaped plastic tube thingy on the left, and it seems 95% of the water goes into the left of the two downgoing pipes, and then, as far as i can understand, it comes up again into the level control chamber. Should more water take the right route (which perhaps goes straight into the machine?), thus easing the flow through the control chamber? Any other suggestions?

Jon
(Different guy than the one just above, this one is from Sweden )

..And now I found the answer to my problem. I have been searching for hours, and the moment I post a question, I found what I am looking for. The problem was the restrictor in the inlet valve, it was jammed in the wrong position. I corrected it and the machine worked perfectly for two minutes, before the restrictor was dislodged and ended up in the wrong position again. The plastic was very aged, and it obviously won't fit snugly enough. I'll get a new one as soon as the stores open again.

The thread that gave me the answer was this one:

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.p ... ic&t=47483

Thanks for a great forum!
Jon