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I have the fluff filter open, I can see and touch the pump vanes and I can put my finger in the hole where the sump hose connects to the pump housing.

So here is the question I have been asking:
How do I test that there is no blockage in the sump hose (the hose from the drum to the pump)?

Can I do it by pouring water into the drum?

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Does the eco ball in the hose ONLY open when the drain pump sucks? So there is no point in filling the drum with water to test the hose for blockages?

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There is no yucky or sticky stuff in the sump hose to the pump.

But is there a test by pouring water into the drum that can test the possible blockage of the valve?

Surely I can pour some water in, perhaps a prescribed amount, and if the water doesn’t flow then, I will know? I am concerned that two cups of water isn’t enough for a valid test.

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I did a trial wash yesterday after I had rebuilt the machine, the machine gave an error about blocked hoses and the drum was left with a lot of water in it, which I drained out using a syphon and the hose at the fluff filter. So I know that water doesn’t drain out now. At that point I didn’t know if the problem was
1) A blocked drum hose
2) The pump not working

So I thought if the problem was a blocked drum hose, then with the fluff filter REMOVED, that water should pass from the drum to the fluff filter and I could see it through the OPEN fluff filter. As I described above, I poured two cups of water into the drum and NOTHING came out at the OPEN fluff filter.
So what I need to know is:
How much water should I pour into the drum to get past the valve in the drum hose and into the fluff filter to determine if the hose is blocked or not?

If there is a better way, other than dismantling the drum hose, to determine if it is blocked, please tell me, I thought pouring water into the drum with the fluff filter removed so that I can see drum water arriving at the pump would be the best way, but I now don’t know how much water to put in to do a test.

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How much water should put in the drum to determine if there is a blockage? Or is the only real way to do it, to remove the hose from the drum entirely and open up the hose?

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Dear Dave,

I have ordered a new pump, but before I fit it, I would like to be sure that it is the pump and not a blockage in either
1) The outflow hose to the external drain
2) The hose from the drum to the pump

When I opened up the front panel, I removed both the hoses from the drain pump, and there is no calcification or muck around either of the openings into the pump.
I poured water into the outflow hose and the water seemed to quickly flow to the other end of the hose by the pump, so I am presuming that is not blocked.
I poked around into the large black hose from the drum that was held with a spring clip and there seemed to be nothing in there and when I crushed the hose it didn’t seem to have anything in it.

So, supposedly, there are no blockages.

I rebuilt the washing machine and today I thought I would check the possible blockage of the drum hose to the fluff filter. I removed the fluff filter and poured two cupfuls of water into the drum, but nothing came out at the open fluff filter. Does this indicate that the drum hose is blocked, and that fitting a new pump would therefore be unnecessary, and the noises from the pump were simply it struggling against a blocked hose?

I know there is some sort of ball valve in the drum hose used to detect water levels, presumably two cups of water are not enough to open the valve. How much water should I put in the drum to make a valid test of a possible blockage in the drum hose?

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But what about the ones that are about £25, which I think I saw offered as an alternative to the Bosch parts?

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Thanks for the reply Electrofix (Dave)

After some extensive investigating, including removing the back panel unnecessarily, I found the following procedure. All of the screwing side below was done with torx screw driver
1) Follow the procedure for a washing machine with a kick panel, which is to remove two identical screws either side of the pump in the filter box, and the lowest of three screws at the bottom of the detergent box
2) Undo door seal, remove spring
1) Remove the top panel by unscrewing two torx screws at the back
2) Undo two screws by the detergent box, which hold the control panel in place
3) Put the control panel to one side after jiggling the tabs for a bit (this was tricky)
4) With the control panel moved, undo two exposed screws holding the front panel
5) Somehow raise the whole goddamn washing machine to allow access to some hidden screws at the base, which I did with a ramp and blocks to a height of about six inches so that I could use a flexible screwdriver extension to get at the screws and then undo the screws
6) Jiggle the thing and deal with the door mechanism falling off, and then remove the door lock mechanism from the front panel as per the usual procedure for Bosch washing machines.
7) But alas there was one final problem, there is a ribbed pipe feed from the detergent box to the top of the door seal which runs through a hole in the front panel, this ribbed pipe was connected to an L-shaped connector, which proved impossible to separate from the ribbed pipe, so I had to pull the front panel to one side and finally I was able to get at the drain pump.
8) There was then lots of fiddling with hoses and clips. The two hoses to the drain pump were not clogged with anything, so I assume I will have to buy a new drain pump because of the grinding noise and degraded empyting performance of the washing machine.
9) After all that, which included stabbing myself with screwdriver in an attempt to release the L-shaped connector from the ribbed hose, I needed a long lie-down.

Is it worth getting a genuine Bosch replacement pump or are alternatives as good?

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