Dishwasher repair or replace

ohreally

I'd be looking at the heating element (can you feel heat) and the circulating pump.

bobwilson

how about saving money and doing the dishes by hand?

Jackmydad

newatc wrote: »

Definitely replacement. We now have the strategy of buying cheap and replace if they break down after the warranty period for the reasons Browntoa said. Having said that most of the electrical equipment is aged (5 years +) so there's be no need to even consider the repair option for some time.

We've done this with white goods for years, and it seems to work out well.

Nilrem

Op, as has been said check the filters, washer outlets on the spinners, that the spinners are moving freely and that the pump isn't blocked.
Most dishwashers are surprisingly simple things as they're effectively a timer, a heating element, a couple of valves and a pump (the only motorised moving part is the pump, the spinners etc are turned by water pressure).

Personally I've tended to find it's cheaper to replace dishwashers (at least at the low end of the range) than try to do any major repairs, we ended up replacing ours at about 7 years old because the cost of the parts needed to get it up and running properly again was going to be over 50% of the cost of a new one (no labour included as I would have done it). Spares for household appliances tend to be very very expensive compared to the cost of the unit (I stopped looking at the cost in our case when I'd reached £75 just for the smaller bits).

bobwilson wrote: »

how about saving money and doing the dishes by hand?

From memory, with modern dishwashers you are likely to pay more per wash doing it by hand compared to a full machine load (or at least the cost difference is quite small, especially if you fully load it, use eco wash and cheapish tablet)
There's also the time element, not everyone has the time to do a lot of washing up every night (and doing multiple small sessions is far less efficient in terms of water etc)..

Your dishwasher might only use 10 litres (or less) of water for the whole cycle, you are likely to use a lot more than that just for the general wash, let alone the rinse if you are doing a similar volume of plates etc
I know I used to have to change the water about half way through a wash when we used to do it by hand, and when the kitchen was out of action during a refit we were trying to minimise washing up and still used several bowl fulls of water an evening even with a significantly decreased amount of dirty cups etc (we swapped to paper plates etc where possible so it was only some cutlery a few cups and a plate each for the evening wash).

Thomas_Holding

ohreally wrote: »

I'd be looking at the heating element (can you feel heat) and the circulating pump.

I can feel heat, the dishes etc come out hot. The funny thing is that I told my wife, lets replace it last night and it washed everything perfectly - obviously it is scared.
The alternative is that it was just a random piece of luck!

We have checked the filters.

getmore4less

The upper basket water path often has a seal that can deteriorate.

When you push the basket back it can be hit/miss if is seals and the wash is a good one or a bad one.

with the basket out have a feel to see if the seal is damaged

on mine it is a cheap easy to change part

yours seems to be a bit more expensive
part 130a
https://www.ransomspares.co.uk/diagram/zanussi/dishwashers/135159/zdf221%20(91151901000)/