dishwasher repair - where do I stand?

melb

In June our Bosch integrated dishwasher developed a problem. It seemed to be stuck on the drain cycle and making a gurgling sound. It would not start a new cycle. Ran repair company who said there was a leak which was activating the aquaseal which is to stop it from flooding your kitchen if it developed a fault as it stops water coming into the machine. He said you could not buy a seal on its own but had to buy a new pump as part of the kit so we had no reason to doubt him. We paid him £149. It worked once and then the same thing happened. He came out again and it worked ok but there was a high pitched sound. We rang and they said it's just the new part bedding in. It worked until yesterday when we are back to square one. I have rung bosch who say you can buy the seal separately and anyway why did they fit a new pump when the old one was doing its job. I rang the initial company first thing this morning and they are speaking to the engineer and ringing me back but seemed unhelpful to say the least. Apparently the engineer's paperwork said we may need a new heating element and we would advise them is this was the case. News to us and if I could diagnose the problem I wouldn't call them out in the first place. To my mind they misdiagnosed the problem in the first place. There is presumably a small leak which has taken 4 months to activate the auqa stop system. Can anyone help either with diagnosing the problem or as to where I stand with the repair company. It is draining fine. I can put clean water in and the pump will pump it out ok. thanks

deano72_2

when the base fills with water it does activate the safty float switch like u said...this can be due to sevral things..the best way to try & suss out what it is is to pull the machine out,take of the front & both side panels (the front might be tricky for you but for the enginere should be easy)siringe all the water out from the base as its hard to get a sponge in there & try to dry base best as poss.run the machine,,the first thing it will do is pump out,,then it will fill,,,when it fills watch the sidechamber (i think its rhs as looking at front of machine)this fills with water 2 or 3 x,,then dumps into the machine,but if u see water coming out of a hole approx size 5p in the chamber this will dump into the base,if this happens (but dont happen all the time can be intermittant)this mean your pipes will be blocked with food crud & needs a good clear out..
now if all appears ok with that it could be the pump or the inlet valve if its the type fixed to the machine,,the leak might not be totaly obvoius might only be a tiny one so it might be a case of watching it for sometime,i doubt its the element but slight tiny chance it can be.another thing to check is the wastepipe of the machine,if this is full of crud it can backfill into the m/c & when m/c fills with water it can over fill into base eventually...
as for the pump the engineere fitted,well if it was the pump then most companys 9x10 will just fit a new pump rather than mess about with seals.

now old is the m/c,also do u use like waste disspossal ie dont really scrape the food off plates ect,,its hard for me to say from sitting in my comfy armchair but if the m/c is fairly old & takes fair bit of abuse & the fault only occurs now n then i rekon it will probly be blocked with crud,the mian pipe that needs to be clear is a blackone looks bit like something like a raditor hose,also the side chamber should be pretty clear aswell.....
might be best to get the company back,if its the pump it shoud be done under garuntee.....good luck anyway....ps soz about my spellining but hopefully u get the gist