Dishwasher Help Forum

My machine (5 years old) won't finish a wash cycle - initially would do this only on low temp washes but now also on 70 degree wash. It never completes the drying cycle, runs to 1 minute remaining but on 'Rinse' - dishes not dry (heat OK though)

We have had an engineer out about 1 year ago who cleaned out the pipe from the sump which fixed the problem previously but it has had no effect this time. There is orangey gunk visible in various pipes and what may be a float switch - is this likely to be the problem? If so, is it easily fixable and how can we prevent it happening again. We use Finish All in one tablets, live in a hard water area. The engineer advised against using salt with the tablets - is this wise?

Thanks for any help.

All in one tablets are a recipe for disaster in a hard water area,check the hardness of the water and set your machine accordingly,then use salt,rinse aid etc.
Your machine will wash better and last longer.
Do your glasses gleam or do they have a cloudy effect on them,the latter I suspect.

Firstly it's always best to use salt in the softener in hard water areas.
The one minute remaining display is more likely a fault code which relates to a heating problem...this may be due to insufficient water in the machine (blockages in the level control system usually) or the heater itself may be faulty (not unknown on these). The wash pump itself gets very hot when it's been washing for too long which in turn will raise the temperature of the water despite the heater being faulty...of course the only way to check the heater is with a multi-meter with the machine fully isolated at all times of course.

spimps wrote:All in one tablets are a recipe for disaster in a hard water area,check the hardness of the water and set your machine accordingly,then use salt,rinse aid etc.
Your machine will wash better and last longer.
Do your glasses gleam or do they have a cloudy effect on them,the latter I suspect.

Actually, since we started using the Finish tablets the glasses look great - they were cruddy and cloudy before though.