Lobster wrote:
Calvin wrote:
On Oct 8, 11:30 pm, Lobster wrote:
Same model as the one with the soap dispenser, as it happens...
Odd, this. SWMBO reported that the machine was making horrible grindy
noises while it was pumping out, but not while it was washing. But of
course, rather than switch off and wait for me to come home and take a
look, she lets it keep running until the end of the cycle and
emanation
of what she described as an 'electrical' smell - I'm not entirely sure
which came first. Bless.
Anyway - sounded to me like a Foreign Body in the impeller, so I took
out the filters etc, unscrewed the cover in the sump, and sure enough,
found a hard lump of crud in the pump chamber where i'm sure it was
doing no good at all to the impeller.
Put it all back together, and the pump was clearly spinning fine now.
However, the machine now keeps running when you open the door;
which you
have to do as all the controls are hidden on the top edge. I really
don't know what's going on - looks like a failure of some detector
switch or other, but what I really can't fathom is how this can be
related to the original problem of the part-jammed pump. Can't believe
it's coincidence??


I don't know this model but it's also possible that it has an overflow/
leak detector which has tripped. On my AEG dishwasher there is a
float activated switch in the base. If water builds up there it trips
and runs the pump continously - even when the machine is switched off
- so that you have to actually unplug it from the wall the stop it.
The detector is manual reset so that just mopping out the water isn't
enough, you have to reset the switch too.
If I were in your situation I'd take the panels off and have a look in
the base, If you can see a large-ish lump of expanded polysytrene
look for a switch activated by it. If it's wet there or if you may
have knocked it during previous maintenence then you'll need to reset
it.

Now that *is* interesting... I spent ages earlier this evening pulling
off panels and trying in vain to find a PCB, and also to remove a
plastic cover from where I think the triac *might* be hiding, and
eventually gave up in disgust.

However, I did notice that the base of the machine had a quarter-inch of
stagnant water in there... I spotted the float switch, and thought it
looked like it must be perilously close to tripping, and made a mental
note to tell the engineer when he comes. Never occurred to me that it
might actually have tripped, and that this could set the pump off.

Hoo-rah! That was exactly the problem. I dried out the base, and it's
now working fine. Thanks very much indeed as you've definitely saved me
an unnecessary engineer call-out (and I'm very relieved I hadn't started
de-soldering PCBs!! ;-) )

It's odd that this happened just at the same time as the pump got the
crud in... the only thing I can think of is that the float switch was
teetering on the threshold of tripping, and maybe I put my weight on the
inside of the machine enough to send it over the edge. God knows where
the leak is coming from, but judging by the yuck factor of the leaked
fluid it looks like a very slow one. (Watch out for the next
installment on uk.d-i-y in a couple of months: "How do you track down a
slow leak in a dishwasher?")

Thanks again
David