Dishwasher - repair or replace?

downshifted

Our 6 year old Bosch dishwasher needs a new heating element. Our local reputable repairman can fit a new one for £159 but says if it was him he would replace it. What would you do? Loads of dishwasher last more than 6 years!

Farway

How much is a new one and is it affordable? What is the guarantee on a new one? Newer ones may have extra functions to help with economy, for instance

Personally, if affordable, I agree with your repair man, loads of d/w may well last more than six years, but loads don't and your element could well be the first of many items that will start failing

PS are you in hard water area and do you use "decent" tablets etc? Heating elements can fail with limescale build up causing hot spots

DE_612183

I just replaced my 4 year old smeg DW - is was a discontinued one when we bought it 4 years ago so the new one is quieter and more energy efficient - which the way it's going will pay for itself in a few months!

joedenise

We've just decided to only use the dishwasher if we have loads of washing up to do.  Generally we're now hand washing as it's quicker and easier!  Also saves on power as only boil a minimum amount of water or use what's already in the kettle if we've just made tea.

maryb

A Bosch should last a lot longer than six years but the quality is not what it was, sadly

Rodders53

Depends on the 'level' (i.e. original cost) of the existing dishwasher and how the baskets/trays are standing up.  An expensive machine may warrant repairing while an entry level one not.

My integrated approx 16-year old Neff-branded one is still going fine but the plastic-coated wire baskets are rusting away.  I'll probably have to replace it sometime soon due to those baskets, not a mechanical or electrical fault with the machine.

Entry level a new Bosch one starts around £350 ??  A tad over double the repair cost.  But you can get cheaper brands for around the £250 mark.  More energy efficient dishwashers seem to command a premium price.

It also depends on how often you run the machine and whether you've set the softener (salt use) level correctly as heaters can fail due to scale and/or corrosion in hard water areas especially.

downshifted

We have a water softener so it shouldn’t be scale. I just don’t like chucking stuff into landfill unnecessarily. But I guess I’ll go for the new one. Thanks for the replies

Katiehound

My dishwasher (Beko)is broken & has been since February- just over 2 years old. there's only me and dogs! but I like clean things and a dw uses less water than hand washing. It's not like a family of 4 using it x times per day!
Not impressed.
Something is wrong with the salt dispenser- it uses a load with one wash and everything coveedr in salt/limescale. It might be a little switch thingie but unless someone comes to look can't solve the problem-call out charges alone are £75 or £90. I am limited to choices as it has to be a slimline, no other space.

One engineer I chatted to said that most of his call outs are to dishwashers under 3yo.

I will get one later in the year & chat to the local shop for discount/delivery charge reduction etc.

TheAble

downshifted said:

Our 6 year old Bosch dishwasher needs a new heating element. Our local reputable repairman can fit a new one for £159 but says if it was him he would replace it. What would you do? Loads of dishwasher last more than 6 years!

Same happened to my Bosch after 6 years as well. I went for the repair option, same sort of quote. Still going strong 2 years later but time will tell.

JGB1955

Our (7 year old) Zanussi had a similar problem.  I had actually remembered to register it when I bought it and for a set cost of £145  they arranged an appointment for a repair.  If a repair wasn't feasible I would be given a £70 credit towards a new machine.  The engineer was able to fix it and I later discovered that the parts alone were close to £200 (he replaced another 'tired' part at the same time).  I thought it was really good value for a repair to an integrated appliance - we couldn't even work out how to get the machine out! 

Slinky

We had a Bosch slimline that stood in this house unused for about the first 2.5 years of its life. It was installed for the previous owner (old lady) who passed away about a year after the kitchen was installed. 18 months later we bought the house only to find the dishwasher had never been used (she was probably persuaded to have one by her son, but carried on washing up by hand). It packed up after about 18 months of actually being used. We contacted a repairman who asked the serial number, and concluded it was part of a dodgy batch made in Spain that weren't worth repairing in his experience. We bought a secondhand one on Facebook marketplace for £60 which has lasted another couple of years with the baskets beginning to rust. We will replace it when we get the kitchen redone as it's full sized which seems to take much more than the slimline.