Bosch dishwasher fault

boogieman

fields5069 said:

ToneControl said:

our 5.5 year old dishwasher has failed
there is a leak detector in the base, which raises a polystyrene disc against a microswitch
In our one, it seems to leak about 2 desert spoons full of water over several washes, then stops working and shows "Error code E:15)

if you tip it up, a tiny bit of water runs out, then it works again for 2-3 days

The repair man sais it's probably the main pump, and not economical to repair. Mind you, I think his criteria was "is it a leaky pipe I can see or not".

Should I just scrap it, or try another approach?

We had exactly this fault, but then I compounded it by taking the door cover off and the electronics went fubar.

If I hadn't have done that, I may have taken a couple of days trawling YT to try to fix it. Apparently there is a more in-depth maintenance procedure you can do - strip it, do something to the polystyrene disc, it's on YT.

Then again we had ours for 11 years so I didn't feel too bad replacing it.

Saddo that I am, I looked at some of the YT stuff as well. There’s one titled “permanent fix” that details how to strip the machine down and get to where the float switch is, but doesn’t tell you how to fix the leak that’s causing it to trip in the first place. Hmmmmm. 

Dominic

boogieman said:

CHRISB50 said:

We had the same code. 

With ours we were told it was an issue with the seal around the base. The base in ours was made from plastic so it eventually degraded and warped. 

The repair man fixed it in 15 mins using silica gel resealing the base. 

I think moisture had got elsewhere though as we as we used it twice and the control board fried. 

I’d scrap it. 

There’s your problem. Silicon might’ve worked better. 

Totally sound advice
After  a cheap Indesit that lasted 11 years we bought an expensive Bosch
It was never without problems ......very disappointing....we had this same problem amongst others
Got rid........worst appliance we ever had

boogieman

Dominic said:

After  a cheap Indesit that lasted 11 years we bought an expensive Bosch

It was never without problems ......very disappointing....we had this same problem amongst others
Got rid........worst appliance we ever had

 *arggh, editing screw up!*

Whereas our fairly cheap Bosch is at least 10 years old and has only thrown a wobbly once, when a piece of a broken glass got stuck in the sump and stopped the pump rotor turning. Easily sorted.

Luck of the draw I guess. The thing will catch fire tomorrow now I’ve said that of course. 

ToneControl

ToneControl said:

FarleyUK said:

ToneControl said:

our 5.5 year old dishwasher has failed
there is a leak detector in the base, which raises a polystyrene disc against a microswitch
In our one, it seems to leak about 2 desert spoons full of water over several washes, then stops working and shows "Error code E:15)

if you tip it up, a tiny bit of water runs out, then it works again for 2-3 days

The repair man sais it's probably the main pump, and not economical to repair. Mind you, I think his criteria was "is it a leaky pipe I can see or not".

Should I just scrap it, or try another approach?

We had this issue with ours as well. I found that if you turned off the mains and left it for a while, it would work again; however, in the end we called BOSCH and they sent an engineer.

It took 3 visits to fix, and they replaced about 4 parts, but only cost us £100 in the end - they gave several parts and installation fees for free, which was decent of them. Dishwasher is around 6 years old.

Did you speak to BOSCH directly?

good idea, will try

OK, Bosch want £100 call out fee, plus parts
I'm thinking that could end up as £230 quite easily
Probably better to buy a new one??

how come they only charged you around £100?
what parts were needed?

ESBlonde

axisus said:

I fixed our dishwasher that had a similar problem (different brand). I looked up online and it was suggested that there was a blockage in the system that caused the problem. I took the whole thing outside and pulled off the side panel. I basically got to this thing (see pic - ours was a bit more complex), disconnected it and pulled it out. I then spent quite a while trying to get the blocked gunk out, not easy as you can't actually get to it with anything. Mostly I think it was putting boiling water in and shaking vigorously. Anyway, eventually cleaned it, reassembled and it's been working no prob for the past 10 months.

You need to be fairly handy, I had to disassemble the plastic bits that held the float, and then remember how to reassemble it again. An intelligent person would probably film disassembly but I didn't think of that at the time! Once you get to the bit in the pic it actually comes off very easily, ours was just pushed into the seals with no other attachments, so it just lifted off.

strtdv said:

You could glue down or remove the polystyrene disc. Obviously you won't have leak detection then

so ..... stop the bit working that saves you from being electrocuted to death?

I've had 3 bosch dishwashers over the decades. The first one I harvested the key bits before scrapping and when the second one died I gave that and the bag of bits to a fix it man who made one good machine of the two. Only got about 14 months more life though.

Now on the third one. It is important to keep them clean and the pipes free of debris. I think the current example has a removable plate inside (lower left as you open the door) where you can get inside the bottom of that huge plastic float device in the piccygraph above and remove the lumps of gunk/debris.

I've reached the age where getting down to fix these things on the floor hurts and lifting them onto a bench means I need to take it outside and grunt there. Not for me anymore.

Danny1969

My wife had a dishwasher when I met her. I scrapped it ... what a complete waste of time. It's far quicker and cheaper just to wash the stuff up by hand. It also means the stuff you need will be clean in the cupboard and not sat festering in the dishwasher waiting for more stuff to be added before someone turns the thing on

Pubs and restaurants need dishwashers, people in houses don't. Not unless you have 12 kids and even then probably not 

Kittyfrisk

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

Danny1969

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

ToneControl

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

I'm sure i read it used less power than hand washing???

Danny1969

ToneControl said:

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

I'm sure i read it used less power than hand washing???

A dishwasher manufacturer might tell you that but no. Hand washing uses a small amount of gas to heat water. That's it. A dishwasher can't even expel the dirty water without switching on a pump and using electricity  ... hand washing uses gravity. 
 

Kittyfrisk

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

Can't see it being possible to wash a minimum of an average day's sets of plates, cutlery, tea/coffee cups, dishes, pans & any utensils used in cooking, plus wine glasses, in 1.5 litres of boiling water from a kettle once a day. 
I'd love it to be so, but it would stretch frugality beyond acceptable hygiene standards & I'm a bloke .

Edit: My dishwasher is A+ rated & I use eco mode. So 1700 watts is way too high, machine maximum rate is 1200W.

Danny1969

Kittyfrisk said:

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

Can't see it being possible to wash a minimum of an average day's sets of plates, cutlery, tea/coffee cups, dishes, pans & any utensils used in cooking, plus wine glasses, in 1.5 litres of boiling water from a kettle once a day. 
I'd love it to be so, but it would stretch frugality beyond acceptable hygeine standards & I'm a bloke .

The trick with washing up is rinse the plates straight after dinner  before you put them in the washing up bowl. That way it doesn't need any energy to do it. Then a quick dip in the fairy liquid hot water and it's done.  I take great pride in my washing up technique ... you could eat your dinner off one of my plates  

With a dishwasher people chuck the dirty stuff on the rack and the food dries on it and then it's actually quite difficult to get it off. Internally inside a dishwater your plates and cups are being rinsed in a soup made of water and bits of week old food. They really are minging things internally. I fix Holbart PCB's for their dishwashers and glass washers ... if you saw what's going on inside one you probably wouldn't use one. They are safe if very well maintained in terms of temperature and cleaning cycles though. Unfortunately a lot of places can\t be bothered, it's kind of horrifying to see what's inside the dishwashers of some very well known food franchises. 

Anyhow I applaud your take on heating and conserving energy, it's something we all need to start doing really 

ToneControl

Danny1969 said:

ToneControl said:

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

I'm sure i read it used less power than hand washing???

A dishwasher manufacturer might tell you that but no. Hand washing uses a small amount of gas to heat water. That's it. A dishwasher can't even expel the dirty water without switching on a pump and using electricity  ... hand washing uses gravity. 
 

I use way more hot water when washing by hand

fields5069

I mostly have a dishwasher because I want one, not because I need one. I washed up by hand for a week while we were waiting for our new dishwasher and it was no hassle, although our drying rack couldn't really keep up.

Our latest Bosch has some magic rocks which heat up on contact with water. The results is that everything is pretty much completely dry by the time I come to take it out of the machine. 

ToneControl

https://www.sciencealert.com/is-it-better-to-wash-dishes-by-hand-or-dishwasher-environment-science

ToneControl

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

Can't see it being possible to wash a minimum of an average day's sets of plates, cutlery, tea/coffee cups, dishes, pans & any utensils used in cooking, plus wine glasses, in 1.5 litres of boiling water from a kettle once a day. 
I'd love it to be so, but it would stretch frugality beyond acceptable hygeine standards & I'm a bloke .

The trick with washing up is rinse the plates straight after dinner  before you put them in the washing up bowl. That way it doesn't need any energy to do it. Then a quick dip in the fairy liquid hot water and it's done.  I take great pride in my washing up technique ... you could eat your dinner off one of my plates  

With a dishwasher people chuck the dirty stuff on the rack and the food dries on it and then it's actually quite difficult to get it off. Internally inside a dishwater your plates and cups are being rinsed in a soup made of water and bits of week old food. They really are minging things internally. I fix Holbart PCB's for their dishwashers and glass washers ... if you saw what's going on inside one you probably wouldn't use one. They are safe if very well maintained in terms of temperature and cleaning cycles though. Unfortunately a lot of places can\t be bothered, it's kind of horrifying to see what's inside the dishwashers of some very well known food franchises. 

Anyhow I applaud your take on heating and conserving energy, it's something we all need to start doing really 

I soak and rinse off plates and pans before they go in to the wishdosher

Kittyfrisk

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Danny1969 said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Not always.
As I don't have a combi, I have multiple input source, balanced system, I would need to have the system running just to maintain a tank of hot water.
My heating isn't on for half the year (my choice, I naturally prefer lower temperatures), so this would be crazy just for a bit of washing up.
I can get almost a weeks washing up into one load of the dishwasher.
Low energy, low water use, low hassle, job done.

An average dishwasher uses around 1700 watts for a period of one hour to do a cycle
It would be cheaper for you to boil a kettle 7 times a week and wash up by hand.

Can't see it being possible to wash a minimum of an average day's sets of plates, cutlery, tea/coffee cups, dishes, pans & any utensils used in cooking, plus wine glasses, in 1.5 litres of boiling water from a kettle once a day. 
I'd love it to be so, but it would stretch frugality beyond acceptable hygeine standards & I'm a bloke .

The trick with washing up is rinse the plates straight after dinner  before you put them in the washing up bowl. That way it doesn't need any energy to do it. Then a quick dip in the fairy liquid hot water and it's done.  I take great pride in my washing up technique ... you could eat your dinner off one of my plates  

With a dishwasher people chuck the dirty stuff on the rack and the food dries on it and then it's actually quite difficult to get it off. Internally inside a dishwater your plates and cups are being rinsed in a soup made of water and bits of week old food. They really are minging things internally. I fix Holbart PCB's for their dishwashers and glass washers ... if you saw what's going on inside one you probably wouldn't use one. They are safe if very well maintained in terms of temperature and cleaning cycles though. Unfortunately a lot of places can\t be bothered, it's kind of horrifying to see what's inside the dishwashers of some very well known food franchises. 

Anyhow I applaud your take on heating and conserving energy, it's something we all need to start doing really 

This could run & run (sorry @ToneControl for the diversion).
 "The trick with washing up is rinse the plates straight after dinner"   This is one meal's worth, I'm talking about an entire day's worth of accumulated crockery etc.
Anyway, I always rinse all dishes etc. before adding them to the dishwasher. No dried on gunk for me thanks, I can't see the point of not doing it, as it is just more efficient.
I regularly keep the dishwasher clean too, just as I do for the washing machine filters, so not much recirculated soup for me either   
I guess it's horses for courses, not a 'who is right' thing  

Nitefly

When anyone asks Our Maud if she has a dishwasher, she just points at me ...

Emp_Fab

OK, I get it if you're not the practical type.  If you don't want to tackle it yourself or don't have a mate who isn't going to charge you just for turning up at your house, then it can be uneconomical to risk calling out the pros.  Luckily for me, I'm very practical and there isn't a device in the house I wouldn't attempt to repair.  My last dishwasher was like Trigger's broom in the end.  It was about 20 years old but had two new pumps, a spray bar, five sets of seals, a detergent dispenser, a control board and a new handle.  It finally became uneconomical when the motor kept tripping the house ELCB.  Probably water or an insulation breakdown.  Either way, it was time to retire it.  Funnily enough, I bought a Bosch to replace it.

ToneControl

I'd try to fix it but the nature of the beast is that I'd have to be on the floor cricking my neck, which is alreadyd injured, so I am reluctant to try it myself for this one

We have called out the Bosch guy, but were considering just cancelling and buying a new one
Our was £580 I think, but I thought perhaps a £350 one with 5 year warranty for £100

However, I have now checked, and found that our one is a super-silent 38dB one, most are 44dB to 48dB
So I'm currently thinking I will let the Bosch guy have a go