Some help to repair a dishwasher please, not draining

[alanmzifa]

I’ve got a non draining dishwasher. Looking around the forum I’ve already discovered it’s a piece of Chinese tat and I’d be better throwing £500 into a good one. However, I’m struggling just to stay afloat at the minute and buying a replacement isn’t an option. Any help would be appreciated.
Model is Caple Di604. It would be between 1 and 2 years old.

Symptoms, usually doesn’t complete a wash cycle. Stops part way through and beeps with all 5 program lights flashing. If I manually drain the water out it will happily start a program and run for several minutes. Just tried to restart it without manually draining and it won’t start a wash cycle (just quietly hums) so water left in it seems to make a difference.

Presume there’s a problem with the drain pump which I guess must be below the filter.
Filters are clear as far as I can see unless something has got lodged down in the pump and is jamming it. The humming noise suggests to me that power is getting to pump although it’s not turning. Correct?

I intend to pull it out of the carcass over the weekend to investigate further.
Where should I look? Like I said replacement isn’t an option for me at the moment but 12 months time might be different so if I can eliminate or narrow down what the problem is or isn’t and make a stop gap repair that would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance for your help and guidance.

[Penguin45]

Re: Some help to repair a dishwasher please, not draining

Power off. If you are lucky, the base panel can be removed by undoing 4 screws to reveal the drain pump. If you are not, you’ll need to remove the lid, side panels, door outer and kick panel for access to the screws to release the base.

Drain pump is a twist fit, but you need to release a locking screw first. Undoing three screws will allow you to separate the pump motor from the housing, thus revealing any foreign objects.

Penguin45.

[alanmzifa]

Re: Some help to repair a dishwasher please, not draining

Penguin45. Thanks.
I pulled it out this morning. Long story short….I got it going. Sliver of chipped porcelain fell out of the pump housing when I took the 3 screws out and the impeller housing was roughed up a bit. It had obviously been there for a while and had eventually got wedged.

In case anyone else has to do as I have just one very minor clarification. There are 6 screws in the base plate, 2 on the front lip, 4 in the bottom. Two of the screws, about 2 inches apart, are there to attach a bracket to (on the inside on the machine) that contains a switch and a polystyrene float. I worked this out to be some sort of rudimentary float/switch which must be there to cut power in event a water build up in the base plate tray. So, job could be done without removing these but access is better if you do. They should be attached again through base plate first before putting base plate back on again.
The pump was easily removed exactly as you described.

Once again Penguin 45, thanks for the detailed help and instructions. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have worked out what to do without them and the Chinese tat lives to fight another day (hopefully at least a year’s worth).

Thanks.

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