Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneration

[Hrabosh136]

Hello all,

I have two questions regarding my IDE44 Indesit dishwasher:

1/ How the dishwasher knows, that there is low salt? I was looking at the salt container to see if there are any electrodes etc. but found nothing. Although the dishwasher does have an indicator for “low salt”.

2/ How exactly proceeds the ion exchanger regeneration? My guess is that after the washing, valve in the salt container is opened (while water inlet valve is closed) and water from the water labyrinth flows to the container.

The reason for my question is that I got this dishwasher with broken timer and power supply CCAs. And because new parts are expensive (… it would be better to buy new dishwasher instead of spending money for parts on this one) I’ve decided to built my own timer with Atmel AVR microcontroller :-)My plan is that the control unit will be able to run simple commands (like ‘heat_to_Xdeg.C, water_in’…) and all the ‘washing cycles’ will be made by sending these commands by PC via RS232.

I know it sounds little crazy, on the other hand from HW standpoint it shouldn’t be complicated and a PC control will add interesting customization possibilities.

Thanks for any help,
Zbynek, Czech Republic

[Seamy]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

Best of luck to you in your indeavours.
The salt level indicators normally operate with a float switch inside the salt resevoir which has a magnet attached, this operates a reed switch attached to outside the tank. When the salt level is low the float drops, when there is a lot of salt in water it floats up.
Regeneration takes place at end of wash, by a solenoid valve opening & allowing in water in to regeneration tank, this water enters & is stored as a saline solution, but is not used until next wash starts.

[Hrabosh136]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

Thanks a lot.

I was expecting the salt indicator to work as you described but I didn’t find the attached reed switch. Will check once again…

Ok, so when the wash will be over and the water will be drained, I will just open the solenoid valve for a while – seems OK.

One additional question: On the output hose of the main pump, something called ‘high pressure switch’ is attached. What is the switch used for?

[Hrabosh136]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

I was looking for the float inside the salt reservoir and found nothing! There is something like a well inside the reservoir and outside it there is some kind of a hold, where the reed switch assembly is probably to be mounted to. But theres nothing … could it be that this model was sold without the salt level indicator to save some money?

[madangler1]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

I think this model uses a calculation to so work it the salt level

For instance. It assumes after 33 washes (I will confirm the figure shortly) that the salt is used up, then the light comes on, then when you open the re-gen tank top to refill water spills out into the sump and activated the lower pressure switch level. The module knows that its not in a wash so this mist mean its being topped up and sees this and resets the counter

A tip I always tell customers who don’t use salt is to turn it on and poor a Keller of water in until the light does off

[Hrabosh136]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

That sounds reasonable, thanks! Could you please confirm the number of washes as you promised?

[Martin]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

Hrabosch136 wrote: I’ve decided to built my own timer with Atmel AVR microcontroller :-)My plan is that the control unit will be able to run simple commands (like ‘heat_to_Xdeg.C, water_in’…) and all the ‘washing cycles’ will be made by sending these commands by PC via RS232.

Oh yes! That’s what I call a good plan, a computer controlled Indesit dishwasher will be a revolution and no mistake. I wish you well with that as it still confounds the Indesit design engineers to this day!

Do let us know how you get on. 😀

[Hrabosh136]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

IT IS DONE.

Bare control board PCB:
http://95.82.133.139/galerie/galerie.php?id=7&obr=P1010040.jpg

Control board, I/O board and temp. sensor board populated
http://95.82.133.139/galerie/galerie.php?id=7&obr=P1010059.JPG
http://95.82.133.139/galerie/galerie.php?id=7&obr=P1010060.JPG

Boards connected together and installed into front panel:
http://95.82.133.139/galerie/galerie.php?id=7&obr=P1010141.JPG

Up and running:
(stand-by mode)
http://95.82.133.139/galerie/galerie.php?id=7&obr=P1010162.JPG
(actual temperature)
http://95.82.133.139/galerie/galerie.php?id=7&obr=P1010170.jpg

Th whole gallery (need some fix as the unusual size of some pictures brakes the page layout): http://95.82.133.139/galerie/galerie.php?id=7

But there is one thing I need help with – the salt regeneration. Now the “regeneration mode” simply opens the valve on the salt container for the preset time. This mode is applied at the end of washing cycles, when the water is drained out of the dishwasher. But I can’t see anything happening when the valve is open 🙁 There seems to be no water flow etc. Do I need to open the water inlet valve at the same time?

Thanks for help!

[Martin]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

Hrabosh136 wrote:Do I need to open the water inlet valve at the same time?

But of course, how would water get in there otherwise? Besides why shut the water off during the cycle anyway? :con:

[Hrabosh136]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

I though there is some water “stored” in the labyrinth and by opening the valve in the salt container it will flow to it and push some salt water into regenerator.

OK, lets say the dishwasher has ended by draining dirty water and now the regeneration should look like:
1/ opening water inlet valve and valve in the salt water container
2/ wait until water level switch opens (indicates the water has reached some level)
3/ drain the water out

And let it as is until next dishwashing?

I don’t get your last question … what do you mean?

[Hrabosh136]

Re: Indesit IDE44 – Salt indicator and exchanger regeneratio

labyrinth = fill matrix

[Author]

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