Dishwasher help - water not heating

pullman

Hi

I have a problem with my dishwasher and was hoping for some advice !

It is an Electrolux ESL6115 and the water is not getting hot when it is used - this happens on both long and short cycles.

Internet research suggested a common problem being the PCB and the Relay joints , I checked this out and everything looks fine. I then tested the water heater while the dishwasher was running and could see 240V at the heater - it is an 'in-line' one that the water flows through. I figured this confirmed that the Relay was working OK (as power was getting to the heater) and that the heater was duff and therefore bought a new one - only to find I have the same issue with the new one fitted , 240V at the heater , but the water not getting hot.

Has anybody any experience of anything like this , and have any suggestions for what else I can check / test ?

Thanks in advance - any help gratefully received

keystone

Not many whitegoods techies on here. Try posting on the UKwhitegoods forum. Lots of them there.

Cheers

pullman

Thanks for the reply - I've posted on the whitegoods forum so will see what happens.

Myser

pullman wrote: »

I then tested the water heater while the dishwasher was running and could see 240V at the heater - it is an 'in-line' one that the water flows through. I figured this confirmed that the Relay was working OK (as power was getting to the heater) and that the heater was duff and therefore bought a new one - only to find I have the same issue with the new one fitted , 240V at the heater , but the water not getting hot.

Has anybody any experience of anything like this , and have any suggestions for what else I can check / test ?

Try mesuring the current in series with the heating element. You will need to connect in between the live terminal on the relay and the the live terminal on the element.

Use the 20A current measuring terminals on your multimeter. The connections need to be secured tightly.

What kW rating is your heating element?

pullman

Hi Myser - I will have a try at the weekend to measure the current , it will need some extra cabling rigging up as the heater just has a single connector for the wiring.

The heater is rated at 2kW (so I'm guessing there should be about 8/9 A flowing ?).

Am I also correct in thinking that for the current to flow there should be some connection back to Neutral ?

The heater just has an Earth connection , and then the 240V from the relay which then after going round the heating element goes off to what I have worked out is a pressure switch - I am going to see if I can work out the wiring from the pressure switch to see if there is something amiss with that making the connection back to Neutral.

Thanks for responding , will update after the weekend.

Myser

Yes, you should see 8 or 9 A being drawn. There should be three connections to the element. Live (phase), Neutral and Earth. The earth connection may just be a bolt to the chassis.

Are you sure there is a pressure switch directly inline with the element?

To be on the safe-side, make sure any wire that you use for the test rig can handle 13A.

pullman

There is definitely no direct neutral connection , the earth is connected back to the earth of the power lead input and the only other wires are 2 of them on a single connection to the heater.

One of these is from the relay on the PCB and the other goes to the pressure switch , presumably 'after' the current has been through the heater , and it's only as I've been thinking about that I've thought about needing to get to a neutral connection.

I've got some 13A wiring that I'll use for testing.

Thanks for your help so far with this.

pullman

It looks like the issue is with the PCB.

I tested for current with my meter and it showed 0A , and I have also now worked out that the 'flow' of electicity is the opposite way to what I have previously described.

The pressure switch activates to place 240V to the heater element , and then this goes to the PCB , where the relay should presumably activate to make the connection to Neutral and complete the circuit. This is obviously not happening so looks like a faulty PCB , for the price of them and the fact the dishwasher is around 6/7 years old I will look for a replacement dishwasher.

Thanks again Myser for taking the time to respond , and for the suggestions.

Myser

Look up how to test a faulty relay - they are very cheap to replace and do go faulty.

Myser

Check this video out on how to replace them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb8gAnMb2zQ

pullman

Thanks Myser - I didn't realise you could get just the relay - ordered one direct from Electrolux (up to 28 days delivery !) so fingers crossed that will sort it.

Also proved this weekend that old heater element DOES get warm , so that will be going on Ebay to offset the cost of the new one I bought