My ongoing fight with all things kitchen-based continues….

The dishwasher decided to start making very loud noises last night so I assume it is on it’s way out. I have been looking at the prices of replacements and they are pretty pricy so I was thinking about just repairing it.

I *think* it is the pump as there is a loud squealing/grinding noise during fill cycles (I did a pre-rinse cycle last night and it made it then so I have assumed it can’t be the fan or anything as that wouldn’t be running during the fill cycle of a pre-wash surely?)

There are no signs of leaks.

The thing is, the new pump costs circa. £180 so I would hate to buy it, fit it then find the fault still there so is there anything else I should look for to help me correctly diagnose it?

Bloody sick of all these expensive faults at the moment.

I find turning a dishwasher upside down, shaking my head then turning it back the right way up solves most faults.

Something to do with airlocks, sumps and cut-off switches. Honest.

There will be a little pool of water spilt though.

There may be an external solenoid on the supply pipe, try tapping that with a hammer.

You have gremlins. I suggest an exorcist

Something in the pump preventing it from pumping?

Surely – if it’s on the fill cycle it’s unlikely to be the pump???

Set it to the rinse programme (typically a simple fill, slosh, pump sequence) and see when the noise occurs.

Surely – if it’s on the fill cycle it’s unlikely to be the pump???

I assumed the pump filles the machine? Or does that happen just using mains pressure?

What else would it be making noise on filling?

You have gremlins. I suggest an exorcist

That or I was evil in a previous life and my vengeful god and his sweet baby jeebus are exacting sweet revenge on me.

Or does that happen just using mains pressure?

this.

some have a ‘flow meter’ in them to stop them flooding if the main valve in the machine packs up.

our one does a little pump out just before it starts filling up – is that when the noise is? or is it alreayd circulating water around the machine by the time the noise starts?

initially I’d get the filter and plate out the floor of the machine and stick a bit of coat hanger up the various pipes – ours wouldn;t pump out and was makign beeping noises – turned out the pipe was full of rice…

The ones that we have had fill off the tap pressure. If you use the rinse cycle it is fairly easy to isolate which part of the programme is causing problems.

Fill – normally just the rush of water into the machine, shouldn’t be any mechanical / electrical noise,

wash – sloshing , some mech noise

pump out – You can normally hear the pump after the sloshing goes quiet.

Ours was stalling at the start of each pump cycle. Regularly cleaning the filters helped for a while, but in the end we went for a replacement rather than a repair. Lower energy, under warranty and not massively more expensive than getting someone out to do the repair

I have dishwasher ‘issues’ at the moment and all 3 (4th one due tomorrow – bloody Hotpoint!) engineers have stated that the first thing a dishwasher does when started is to try and empty any water that may still be in there. A pump does this, so you may be right. Mine had glass (broken) in it. However, that was just the beginning of my problems…

Try it now

If it were me, I’d be looking for blockages before running out and buying parts.

I don’t normally go in for such things, but when my washing machine died last year it was cheaper for me to buy an extended warranty for a year than pay for a man + parts to fix it. (Annoyingly, I knew what the fault was, but couldn’t open an internal housing to get at it.) It paid off last month when it packed in again with an unrelated fault.

The noise starts as soon as the machine starts to fill – I have looked on the interweb some more and there is a couple of suggestions similar to above – taking the bottom rotor off to check the fan blade is spinning, unbroken and no blockages in there.

I did clean the main filter last night but didn’t check around it for further blockages so will do that tonight too.

Yes, the pump does run briefly at the start of the programme – just to empty the sump before the fill starts.

perhaps it is this?

http://www.espares.co.uk/parts?k=water+inlet+valve+siemens

Yes, the pump does run briefly at the start of the programme – just to empty the sump before the fill starts.

It isn’t brief – it seems to continue for a while. Then again, it would only be filling for a short while too wouldn’t it.

Hmm.

Might have to have a proper watch/listen through an entire cycle tonight. Ohh joy.

Pop the pump apart – mine was fuubared till I did that! Found allsorts in there stopping it from working 😳

Also had weird noises before…

I did a water inlet valve on my Miele washing machine. It fixed the problem I was having with a reapearing fault code.
Tried the same fix on my Smeg dishwasher when it went loopy but it didn’t make a different. I was happy to see the back of it to be honest and now the Bosch one is doing sterling work.

I had a Smeg – it lasted about 3 years. This Siemens one has only lasted about 5 years so far.

Rubbish.

I had a Smeg

I spent several years as a teenager hoping that my freinds wouldn’t see the name on the hob in our kitchen as they all used to start pointing and sniggering.

My Mum was very proud of it though so would delight in telling freinds and visitors that her new kitchen had Smeg appliances in it 😳

I am not proud, having owned Smeg and Siemens appliances 🙂