Having been singing the praises of our Bosch dishwasher only a few months ago it’s now seen it’s arse.
Started off by not finishing a program – the display would go off completely then reappear about 5 mins later and continue to run for a couple of mins, then go off again, etc. It would get to, what it reckoned would be, within 30 mins of the program and and then just stop.
Yesterday it spat the dummy and threw an E:15 code and leaked a bit of water out.

It’s a semi-integrated model and getting it out of the housing is a royal PITA as I’ve got to move the range out so that I can remove then plinth before the washer can be pulled out – so I’m not keen on doing this more than necessary 🙁

I’m not sure if there are two issues here and frankly I’m wondering if I’d be better off simply buying another machine rather than messing around with a repairer for it only to go wrong again in 6 months.

If I went new it would probably be another Bosch or maybe splash the cash and get a Miele.

E15 is caused by water not draining and tripping the switch, I had that on mine around Xmas time. Tilting it about 45 degrees resets the trip switch.

water not draining and tripping the switch, I had that on mine around Xmas time. Tilting it about 45 degrees resets the trip switch.

Tilting it drains the anti-flood collection ‘tray’ at the bottom of the unit – so by draining the water by tilting, the sensor no longer detects water and so works again.

Certainly worth a try.

As an aside, we’re putting a new kitchen in which may well have a built-in dishwasher.  Presuming these have the anti flood malarky as well… how on earth do you do a quick drain with a built-in one?  Do you need to pull them out or is their a drain plug or similar on them?

Just had the same issue last few weeks. Tilting did fix it for a short time, but it would still appear, looked like the pump. Then got an E:09 code, the heating element was broken. £99 call out, £130 heating element plus whatever part to repair the E:15 code. We opted for a new one.

£99 call out?

I guess you didn’t t go independent.

Do you need to pull them out or is their a drain plug or similar on them?

Pretty sure you need to pull it out.

Ours went on the blink in similar circumstances a couple of weeks ago – not draining, programmes not completing etc. The tilting thing was suggested (didn’t work) and I suspected a failed circulation pump – it would fill and stop (so the anti-flood was working) and if I reset the machine it would drain so the extraction pump was working. I decided that the £240 for a new machine against at least £100 (if I managed to fix it myself first time with my amateur diagnostics) was a no-brainer – with a young family we get through loads of dishes and we were sick of washing up after a few days anyway. Got a next day delivery from AO and fitted it myself (fully integrated).

That’s interesting JD…. sounds just the same – it would stop will water still in the bottom, but after a reset it would drain just fine.
Think it’s new machine time.

Yeah – my opinion was that if it wasn’t the circulation pump (which is a bitch to fit on my model) then it would be the main board so if my gamble didn’t pay off and I ended up buying both the cost would be almost the same as the cost to buy new, I would have lost around 6 hours of my life and we would have had a mountain of dishes to do twice a day. And it still might not have worked.

(I could have got a technician out but the £75-ish call out + time and materials would have still added up to something around the same total too).

We “fixed” our old AEG a couple of times during its life.

First time it was a tiny bit of mussel shell blocking the outlet, causing overflow, tripping the flood detection.  tipping the machine to one side cleared it.

Similar problem the second time was caused by gunked up pipework.  Took back and sides off and hosed it all out in the back garden.  Was still running at 10 years old when we sold the house.

Had similar issues with my Bosch a while back (E15 code), though not to the same extent as those above. Had a good rummage around and noticed a build up of grease within it, which I assumed was clogging things up and preventing efficient draining. The thing defaults to an eco setting, which runs at a lower water temperature (35 degrees I think), so started using it in the non-eco mode (65 degrees), and that has fixed the issue full stop. So I think the higher water temperature fully drains away any grease preventing build up within the machine leading to clogging issues. Worked a treat since with no re-occurrence of the issue.

Had an indesit here – pump/heater burnt out and I replaced it, then it started having some weird faults reported. Some cables had almost sawn through on a handy exposed sharp edge by the hinge in the front panel. Including mains voltage cables.

Fixed that but was always worrying about what else might be about to go wrong and cause a fire etc… bought a bosch 🙂

After seeing inside, I would never buy indesit/hotpoint again.

had the same with a bosch just before xmas – turned out it was gunk not in the outlet pipe itself but where it met the drain – recommend you check that before you buy a new one…

That’s interesting JD…. sounds just the same – it would stop will water still in the bottom, but after a reset it would drain just fine.

The control unit will only allocate a given time for the machine to fully empty, if it takes longer than that it will fault. So by the second attempt it may have got rid of enough water to then dispose of the rest.

So as suggested above it’s worth looking for anything that could slow down the draining.  Blocked/gunged up waste pipe/pump or even the houses plumbing are common. It’s worth taking the sump filter out and chucking in a cupful of soda crystals and a gallon of really hot water.

That’s interesting JD…. sounds just the same – it would stop will water still in the bottom, but after a reset it would drain just fine.
Think it’s new machine time.

Exactly like mine too but the tilt trick worked I’d also try others have recommended too rather than order another.

Tilting only makes the water in the very bottom of the machine run out so that the float switch no longer has anything to float on. You will still have a leaking machine and it will still need fixing.

Yet some how that didn’t happen to mine and has been running fine now for 2 months.

I don’t know much about dishwashers but I’d assume they’re a similar principle to washing machines.  A failure to drain is surely a blockage, either in the pump or the pipe.  If you’re in any way mechanically minded, it seems a waste to be fixing it with a new one when it essentially just needs cleaning.

This happened on my washing machine the other day, I opened the door after a cycle and it spewed its contents all over the floor.  Drained it manually, two screws to get the back off, a latch clip to release the pump body from the chassis, then three screws to split the pump in half and remove the remains of a hand-knitted woollen glove that had got mixed up in the load by accident.  It took longer to pull the machine out and put it back in again than it did to fix it.

Yet some how that didn’t happen to mine and has been running fine now for 2 months.

Then it’s a very slow leak..

No, it’s not leaking all. It flooded once with error 15 as the trip filter wouldn’t allow it drain.

It’s a well known fix.

Well I’ll be pulling the kitchen apart this weekend then to see what I can see before spending any cash.
Not sure how some gunk can stop it completing is programs though, especially when it’s stopping only 15 mins into the wash.

This is the video I used.

My Bosch dishwasher is 17 years old now, and still running like new, but I’ve had to do 2 repairs myself, both of which gave similar symptoms (but no error code).

Usually Bosch dishwashers will always attempt to drain, even if a fault is detected, but won’t let more water in…or it’ll let water in but not start the cycle, and keep draining it out again. This is often because it has detected water in the bottom tray.

On the LHS, there is a large flat clear plastic water chamber, sometimes called the heat exchanger. Twice in 17 years, the rear plastic film has started becoming unstuck causing a small leak. First time this happened about 5 years ago, we paid an engineer who claimed he inspected everything, couldn’t find the leak, drained the water out the base (by tilting it), got us to leave it to dry for 3 days and then it was fine for a few months. I then had a look and found the leak in the heat exchanger within about 5 minutes ! I managed to fix it with expoxy resin glue and a bit of old credit card.

This lasted 5 years and failed again recently, but this time the leak was in a different place, so I bought a whole new heat exchanger (genuine Bosch part was about £90). But the cycle still wouldn’t start. It would start letting water in, make a few noises, and then drain and give up. I looked around and noticed the main circulation pump motor looked a bit rusty, and then realised it wouldn’t rotate. I managed to get it to spin by levering one of the cooling fins. I reckon the excess water had caused the motor to seize due to corrosion. Anyhow, as soon as I’d freed it up, after powering the dishwasher back on it ran perfectly, and has done about 30 cycles since then.

Ignoring the £60 we wasted on an engineer, it’s cost me £90 in 17 years. New equivalent model is £600 so in my view it’s worth the tinkering every few years.

Hope this helps a bit….

Our first dishwasher was a beko, £150 and lasted ten years.

it did break down once, but was fixed under warranty.

when it finally died I bought another beko, it was £130. We ponied up another £30 for an extended warranty, up to five years.

im convinced of the benefits of buying cheap tbh.

I had the same thing on my bosch recently (not integrated) – except no error code.  It would just randomly power-off during a cycle, “rest” for 10 mins or so, then carry on.  It’d do this several times during a full cycle.

I did everything – cleaned the drain etc, pulled it all to pieces, checked for loose connections, checked for leaks, checked the door latch, cleaned the hose filter etc etc.

My finding was that the 10 year machine was in an incredibly good condition inside – made the prospect of binning it even more painful.  In the end I ran it empty on a few cycles, with detergent, and once with dishwasher cleaner.  It seemed to fix it, and it’s now running fine again.

As others have said – I think it was just grease build-up somewhere in the waste pipe – maybe caused by using the low-temp cycle too frequently.  As I ran the empty cycles, the “rests” were getting later in the cycle, and shorter – which sees to support this diagnosis.