Hygena Select dish washer blows main house circuit breaker

[FrankieB]

Our dishwasher is used VERY infrequently , in fact I can’t remember the last time it was used .

However , after a Christmas Day meal with house guests it seemed easier to wash all the plates etc in the machine .

Loaded it up ( but not overloaded ) and set it to hot wash , in other words the complete cycle.

To my surprise , the machine worked fine…….until right at the end of its cycle with the rotary switch just mms away from the 12 o’clock position , there was a fairly loud bang, and all house electricity was cut . The circuit breaker would not reset , ( one try and another loudish bang from the machine …..at that stage had not realised it was that which had tripped the breaker.)
Switched machine off , opened the door and apart from quite a lot of hot steam billowing out, all was washed and the cycle had almost completed its wash as far as I could ascertain.

No obvious scorch marks or other damage, so now the big question ?

Being such an old model albeit with minimal use since I’ve owned it , perhaps less than dozen times in the last 20 years, what’s the best course of action ?
I hate getting rid of stuff if it’s re-pairable , more so as the washer will still get very little use in the coming years but just good to have if we ever have a few extra guests come to dinner,

I suspect parts may be hard to come by, if not impossible to get for such an old machine, but really its just “old” in time, as opposed to use.

Thanks for any possible help/advice.

[tubafan]

If its tripped the main earth leakage breaker then the most likely candidate is the heater element. Is it the type with an exposed element in the base of the machine as, given that it went with a bang, there might be visible damage to it.

[FrankieB]

Many thanks for the reply and yes the element is visible in the base of the machine and easily accessible. However, it looks in perfect condition, no scorch marks etc, but probably the easiest thing to change for the start , assuming it is still available. Thanks again for your thoughts.

[electrofix]

for a start i would find the heater terminals and disconnect them
then try it and see if it trips

if no its probably the heater
if yes its somewhere else

Dave

[FrankieB]

Thanks Dave, great advice but where would I start to look for the heater terminals….or is that just the element in the bottom of the unit ? Sorry to sound so thick but whilst I have sorted problems on my electric cooker and Dyson hoover in the past, this is my first issue with a dish washer. Cheers, Frank.

[electrofix]

if you can see the element inside the wash area then the terminals are just below where it goes through the floor

not a very good pic but if its this one you can see the terminals as it bends at the end nearest

https://shop.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/31×3434-dishwasher-heating-element

Dave

[FrankieB]

Thanks Dave, will go and check it out now…..agree its not the best piccy, but I get the gist just fine. Many thanks. If you hear the whole of Cornwall has had a massive power cut , you’ll know who to blame. :-))))

[FrankieB]

Further to my last , here are a couple of pictures, one of the element and its a double element and I even managed to find the instruction booklet for it …..but unfortunately no help in sorting my problem. I cannot see how that element can be removed ? Presumably from the outside of the case maybe ? Which then means the whole unit has to be removed form its location under the work top ? Also there is still an inch or so of water in the bottom of the unit which I hadn’t initially noticed , presumably because its cycle was interrupted in the final stage. No pictures, they seem to be too big…..but the element is certainly a double length of metal and where it goes through the “floor/base” of the washer it looks to be held in place by a rivet , or more likely a stud with a nut on the outer side.
Its an APL 8224 by the way.

[FrankieB]

I’m hoping this will be the final post about the dishwasher as this morningI spoke to a knowledgeable friend who asked if the D/W had finished on its final cycle when it blew the house main CB to which I replied, “in fact only minutes from finishing”.
He then asked if there was water still in the machine to which I replied that there was which was why I was wondering if the pump had failed. He commented that if all the water was not dispelled from the machine before the final drying part of the cycle that could have caused the problem .

Yesterday I had used a small pump to pump out about 4.5 litres of water from the interior of the machine and then had removed the plastic filter baskets.
Having cleaned out the filters yesterday ( with quite a few brussel sprout leaves in the small white basket filter ) and also poked around in the exit hole beneath that, I was reasonably happy the system was clear.

On his suggestion , I ran an empty cycle through this morning and the whole thing worked just fine .

As we rarely use the machine I’ll close this down other than to thank the two chaps who replied to my cry for advice. Much appreciated , Cheers !!!

[Author]

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