[judgej]

Re: Bosch SGV57T03GB wash times extend to 144min

Cool. It’s always good to learn from the experts 🙂

[judgej]

Re: Bosch SGV57T03GB wash times extend to 144min

Hi Lee,

Thanks for starting the thread. I would be lost without it.

Looking at the way it works, I think the water level sensor is the most important thing to clean. Pipes will work, even when constricted, but a sticky or incorrectly-sensing sensor will not.

Since cleaning the sensor in the side, I have run the machine through about five cycles, all of which completed. The timings are still a bit variable, but I think that is the machine settling down and getting itself adjusted to the temperature etc. When I was given the machine, I was told that it stopped working completely – it didn’t finish a cycle at all.

There are just two screws holding the side panel on, both accessible from the front, through two holes in the rubber seal on the front. The side panel then lifts up and unclips, and the level sensor is right at the front. You may get away with just pulling the machine out eight inches or so, and that will probably be enough (so long as you can get enough grip on the side panel to lift it off).

The sensor assembly lifts off in one go, with just one clip at the bottom holding it on (a small polyethylene tab next to the outlet pipe connector). There are also two micro-switches to unplug (one has two tabs and the other three tabs, so it is difficult to get them the wrong way around). It goes without saying that the mains electricity should be completely isolated before touching the switches.

As has been mentioned earlier in the thread, don’t lose the o-rings. The o-rings may stay in the bottom, or they may come out with the sensor – either way, just make sure they don’t drop off without you noticing.

Also remember where the red flood sensor rod sits. You can see it through the front aftet removing the front panel. It sits on a polystyrene float, which is easy to dislodge. When the sump pan floods, the float floats, and pushes the rod which operates one of the micro switches.

Last thing, when dismantling the sensor, the order in which everything goes back together it fairly obvious, but do remember which way up the red float goes (it is cup-shaped, with a slit at one edge to prevent it holding water when drained). It goes in with the open end *down* (the micro switches are at the top). If you put it the wrong way up, then it will fill with water and stop working.

Good luck.

— Jason

[judgej]

Re: Bosch SGV57T03GB wash times extend to 144min

Just had a thought: could I scrub out that chamber by dragging a ball-bearing into it with a magnet? Better still, a ball-bearing covered in bristles? It just occurred to me that a brush of sorts could be led anywhere into the matrix with a strong magnet (a rare-earth magnet from an old hard drive, for example).

I’ve never tried this, but it ought to work. In theory.

— Jason

[judgej]

I get the impression the timer on this model is just for us humans – it tells us how long it is going to take. You can’t actually set the timer. You just request a programme (hot, medium, cool, auto, rinse-only) and it tells me how long it will take.

My Bosch clothes dryer has a humidity sensor in, and no timer either. It’s the only way to go really 🙂

— Jason

[judgej]

I guess there must be some kind of running-total that it keeps in memory then. When I first turn the machine on, it has not yet taken any water so does not know how what temperature it will be, but it should remember what temperature it was the last few times. The time it *does* give though, is spot-on (though I haven’t actually put any dishes in the machine yet, so that may all change).

I guess also it would learn over time just how good my particular brand of dishwasher tablets is, and adjust its programme accordingly.

My other free-standing Bosch Maxx doesn’t have a timer display, so this was never a question for me. Perhaps it did take different times to run, but it’s not something I ever noticed.

Of course, I am just guessing on half of that!

— Jason

[judgej]

Cool – great tips – thanks.

Since this seems to be the only page on the entire Internet that deals with this problem on this model, I expect this information will be useful to many more people.

Oh, last question (for now): how do the timings on the various programmes work? Does the machine remember how long the cycles ran in the past and give an estimate based on that? I’m just wondering, because they seem to be different each time I run a cycle. Perhaps 1:20 one run, 1:30 the next time. This is the time that it shows at the start, not how long it actually takes.

— Jason

[judgej]

Re: Bosch SGV57T03GB wash times extend to 144min

Yeah, I tried the shaking, but since the chamber with the crud in is just a few cm across, there is not a lot of momentum in the water to shake anything out. Something like a two-foot long pipe cleaner may do the job though. But as you say, being careful with the fragile film on the back, as you don’t want to be poking any holes in it.

The whole matrix just lifts off, once the clips for the hoses are removed. A lot of water comes out, so if I did it again, I think I would tip the machine over at 45 degrees so the water at least did not fall into the plastic sump (that water was not easy to mop out, as there is very little room to poke anything into the sump). Perhaps there was a drain-plug that I did not notice.

Having run the machine now with the side off, it is fascinating to see how it works. The plastic film on the back of the matrix acts as a temporary tank that fills up with softened water. It then gets ‘flushed’ into the main wash chamber when needed the same way that a toilet cistern flushes. It is great knowing what all those noises are when the machine goes through its cycle.

— Jason

[judgej]

Re: Bosch SGV57T03GB wash times extend to 144min

Penguin45,

Firstly, many thanks for posting the photos, they are a great help.

I have recently obtained a SGV57T03GB/02 from FreeCycle (a bargain purchase, if ever there was one) and am sorting out two symptoms which I suspect are one and the same problem. The first is a smell of rotten eggs, and the second is the extended cycle times, often sticking on the last minute.

I have cleaned out the bottom hose and the water level sensor – both were full of crud as in your photos. There is however one last place that seems to harbour dirt and most likely bacteria. It is located at the top-left corner of the plastic tank, is connected to the final outlet, and it looks like it contains a small float of some kind (a black thimble-sized object). It looks like it is a little pressure-release chamber of some kind.

Mine is full of brown and white dirt, and the float thing moves slighly when the machine is emptying itself, but otherwise may be stuck in the crud.

So, any ideas how to clean this chamber out, in case it is a source of one of the smells or is preventing the machine from emptying properly? The other pipes and level sensor are the easy ones to remove and clean, but this chamber is behind a maze of tubes inside the plastic tank.

Here is the whole side off:

Here is a close-up of the chamber:

(Bigger images are available on the Flickr account hosting these images.)

Sorry if this turns out to be not quite related to the original post. The intention was not to hijack the post, but my problem does seem to be the same thing so far as I can see.

— Jason

Edit: as well as manual cleaning, I have run a cycle with half a bottle of bleach added, and I think the smell is just about gone now. That last bacteria trap has me concerned though – I have tried pouring bleach directly into it, but without being able to physically get into it with a brush, there is no saying whether it will just repopulate the machine with smelly bacteria again.

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