Bosch SMS53A12GB not heating water

Did another run last night, on the intensive setting. Opened it about 20 minutes in and it was cold water. however, left it another hour or so and tons of hot water and steam.

I’ll do another run on the Eco setting this evening. I wonder if it is the turbidity sensor, perhaps this is preventing the normal hot water cycle near the start of the wash. Wish there was a flow chart or something to follow to know what and when it would be doing each task! :rolleyes:

Still problems, it seems like it sometimes gets warm. Once it got hot but that was on intensive + intensive zone, and I tried that again and it didn’t work so well this time.

I’ve found some test mode or something, by holding down the “ECO” and “QUICK” button, then switching it on it comes up with “P0”. I press the ECO button and it seems to cycle from Error Codes, E08 but they could be really old codes? Not sure how to clear them.

E08 suggest no water in the heater, this might be it?

I noticed while testing and don’t believe the top “spinner” is getting any water. I put a saucepan inside on the top rack and it got a couple of drips in it after a full cycle.

Perhaps the circulation pump is at fault? There is water coming out the middle and bottom spinner. Don’t want to sink £150 on a new motor pump/heater block without knowing for sure.

Right I think I’ve found it! E08 Codes had come back again.

I found that when opening the door quickly, none of the spinners were spinning. I took the bottom spinner off, and only got about 2-3″ of water fountain when opening the door quickly. I then thought perhaps the impeller had come away on the circulation pump after reading a post on here about “low water pressure on spinners”.
https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/forums/forum/public-support-forums/help-and-support/dishwasher-help-forum/17564-bosch-dishwasher-low-water-pressure-in-spray-arms
Managed to wiggle the heater/pump unit off without removing the base of the dish washer. Sure enough, it had come apart.

So , found the complete heat pump unit on ebay, genuine part for around £60. But…
Can just the impeller be replaced? I can’t see how you remove it as there is a nut on top, but nothing to stop the shaft rotating. Seems daft to replace the whole thing when just one small plastic part failed. Or I could try epoxy araldite glue but not sure if that would hold up to the heat cycles.

Its a SMS53A12GB / 55

I’ve glued it with epoxy so I might just see how it goes. I roughed up the surface first.

I have no idea how that impeller stays in there, perhaps it latchs in somehow? It’s impossible to hold the shaft/magnets/stator. That part of the motor is designed to be wet while the windings are on the outside of the plastic housing.

Anyway, I glued it back together then found the motor so hard to press back together. It snaps together 4 four plastic latches, and they sort of broke when taking the thing apart, brittle or just perhaps not designed to be opened. I had to use G-clamps on the body to help squash the large round seal enough to get the latchs to clip back in place, one by one. I then wedged some plastic in to stop the latchs coming un-done (the retainer was the part that snapped).

Wrestled it back in with a bit of fairly liquid to help slide the pipes on. Used a Jubilee clip (20-32mm from memory) to replace the one time use part that came off.

And it all works!

So the important bits from anyone else seeing this is realising that not all error codes are shown on the display, you have to access the Test Mode to display them. And that an E08 means something more along the lines of “insufficient flow through the heater”. I should have noticed the spinners were not spinning as well too.

Good stuff! :D:D:D