[woodey]

Re: Black Mould in Soap Dispenser Drawer

Trilobite

Our WFK2200 is both hot and cold fill. We always do a 90°C wash at least once a month but it did not prevent the black mould, probably because the conditioner dispensing is done with cold water.

Since we stopped using Comfort there has been no sign of black mould.

You are right about the nooks and crannies. It was extremely difficult to clean the mould off our drawer, hence my tip about using bleach spray.

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Black Mould in Soap Dispenser Drawer

MacLee

You may be right about Ecover conditioner but I don’t intend to try it.

I asked our home help who does the ironing whether she had noticed any difference since we stopped using Comfort. She said no.

My wife and I have not noticed any difference in the feel of our washed clothes either.

So why spend money on conditioner that we don’t really need?

Have we all been conned by the TV adverts for conditioner? Will the manufacturers compensate us for all the time spent cleaning black mould out of the drawer and compartment? I suspect not.

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Dishwasher SKT 5102 table top model horrendous noi

Trilobite

Yes, the curved spray arm does have holes on the top surface.

I can’t remember whether the old spray arm had slots. I’m sorry now that I took it to the tip soon after we got the new model. I could have tried the old spray arm in the new model (if it is the same fitting).

With the half tablet there was still some foam (but no liquid) in the bottom of the dishwasher on the final (drying) part of the cycle. And with the tablet there was noticeably more foam during the first (Eco) part of the cycle than with the Fairy powder.

I shall write to Bosch suggesting that they put a warning notice in the instructions to say that certain kinds of tablets, even half a tablet, and possibly some powders, can give rise to overfoaming which creates a lloud noise.

I shall also write to Which? They gave they table top model a good report but said it was noisy. They may have used the wrong powder or too much powder. If they test it again with Finish or Fairy they may find that it is not noisy.

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Dishwasher SKT 5102 table top model horrendous noi

Since I bought the Fairy 3-in-1 powder I have tried some tests.

10g of Fairy does not foam anything like as much as the half-tablet (Coop). Better still, about 5g of powder (difficult to weight) gives even less foam but still gives good results. We always rinse off loose food before puttiing plates and dishes in the dishwasher.

I also tried 10g of some old Sainsbury powder (bought before they changed to lemon powder); same result as Fairy powder.

Finally, I tried 1/4 of a Coop tablet, about 5g (a whole tablet weighs 20g). It made a lot more foam than 10g of Fairy powder and was noticeably noiser in part of the cycle, but not the horrendous noise with half a tablet.

I’m still not sure why the old dishwasher SKT 2052 was all right with the Coop tablets. I don’t know whether the motor/pump is different in the new model. As one of the service engineers said, there are only two moving parts; the motor/pump and the spray arm.

The new model has a different shaped spray arm. In the old model, the spray arm was smaller and straight. The new model has a longer, curved spray arm.

This may mean that the new spray arm creates more foam which in turn causes the motor/pump to race, giving rise to the ‘screaming groan’.

That’s my theory. Anybody got a better idea?

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Black Mould in Soap Dispenser Drawer

Hi Kwatt

I had already seen the article. Our drawer compartment never got as bad as the one shown in the article.

My tip about using Mildew or bleach spray may be useful for other people who have black mould in the drawer and compartment.

Here’s another tip. After spraying the inside of the compartment with bleach(not neat Domestos, please), start the machine to allow hot water to wash it out. However, be prepared in case some of the water comes out of the front of the compartment,

Better still, once you have removed the mould, see what happens if you stop using Comfort (or other makes of) softener. You may find that you don’t get the black mould at all.

Prevention is better than cure. In my experience, 90°C washes don’t prevent it; but not using softener does.

Do all the people who get black mould use softener? Do those who don’t use softener never get black mould? Answers, please.

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Washing Machine WFK 2200. Lost its bleep.

Hi Greg

Thanks for your response.

I closed the door, switched on the machine and held down the pre-wash button. After a few seconds, it bleeped continuously, then, after a few seconds it stopped bleeping. I pressed it again and released it soon after it started bleeping. Did a wash. No bleep at the end. Tried setting it again. Did another wash. Still no bleep at the end.

Not to worry. We’ve managed without the bleep for a few years so we’ll still manage in future.

Solved another problem. See my topic headed ‘Black mould in soap dispenser drawer’.

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Washing Machine WFK 2200. Lost its bleep.

Hi Greg

Today, in a kitchen drawer, I found an A4 glossy sheet with a summary of the programmes for our WFK 2200.

On the back of this sheet there were two labels, (probably stuck there by me when we got the machine). One of the labels showed the following numbers:

B369022GB4 01334943

M6110B0GB WFK2200GB

The bar codes above and below these numbers showed the following number:

496284021222505457

Do these numbers tell you what you wanted to know?If not, I will get our handyman to pull out the washer tomorrow to look at the label on the back.

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Washing Machine WFK 2200. Lost its bleep.

Hi Greg

Sorry, I can’t pull the machine out today. Our handyman/gardener who comes on Sundays is off ill. At my age (80 but quite fit) I can’t pull it out unaided. I hope to do it next weekend and will let you know.

I looked on the Bosch website and found a diagram showing that the Rating Plate is, as you said, on the inside of the door at the top. But on ours, the numbers have worn off.

However, on the last page of the manual for our machine, it says that ‘the information is on the type plate on the frame of the door (open) and on the identification plate on the rear of the unit with a thick line round it’. So I should be able to find the number on the back next weekend.

When we bought the machine in 1996 I should have made a note of the product number (E-Nr) and production number (FD) in the space provided on the last page the manual. Serves me right for not doing so.

Woodey

PS All the times shown on previous messages in this topic are GMT plus 10 hours. I have reset the time to GMT under my Profile so this message should have the correct time (about 9.38 am)

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Dishwasher SKT 5102 table top model horrendous noi

Hi Iadom again

My message sent at about 8.20 was still showing the time 10 hours ahead of GMT. Clicked again on the word Profile and found that it was still set to GMT+10 hours so I reset it to GMT. Then found that there were two buttons out of sight at the bottom of the page, Submit and Reset. Clicked on Submit and got a message that my Profile had been updated.

Should be OK now. The time is now about 8.26 am

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Dishwasher SKT 5102 table top model horrendous noi

Hi Iadom

Clicked on the word Profile at the top of the page (what I did wrong before was to click on the Profile button at the bottom of the page) and found that, under Preferences, my time was set to GMT+10 hours. I reset it to GMT.

This message is going out at about 8.20 am

Many thanks for your help

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Washing Machine WFK 2200. Lost its bleep.

Hi Greg

I looked on the door inner. There’s small white label at the top of the door which may have had a number on it, but if so, it has worn off apart from a capital N at the left hand end of the label. There is no label or number on the surround of the hole into which the door fits.

It’s quite a task to pull the machine out from under the worktop. I will try to do it tomorrow and let you know if there is a model number at the back.

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Washing Machine WFK 2200. Lost its bleep.

Hi Greg

The model number is WFK 2200. It has eight buttons on the front.

Woodey

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Washing Machine WFK 2200. Lost its bleep.

Thanks Gegsy for your response about the bleep.

I held down the Prewash button. After about 2 seconds it responded with a single bleep (proving that the bleeper still works) but then went silent and did not bleep again nor change from loud to medium to soft.

I tried again with the same result. Used the machine this morning but it did not bleep after finishing.

Any further suggestions would be welcome

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Dishwasher SKT 5102 table top model horrendous noi

Hotpoint Dishwasher

Many thanks Trilobite for info about Hotpoint 7892P. This model is not listed in the Hotpoint dishwasher brochure but I viewed the manual and found that it was like my new Bosch 5102, not the old 2052.

I bought a 3kg pack of Fairy powder from a local shop, weighed out 10g, put it in the dispenser and switched on the Eco programme. Result, no horrendous noise, almost no foam (I opened the door three times during the cycle) and a good clean wash. I should get 300 washes for my £4.99.

I noticed a faint smell of bleach when I opened the door. The label on the Fairy pack says that it contains ‘oxygen based bleaching agents’ and ‘enzymes, phosphates and nonionic surfactants’. It says it is a ‘3 times Active System – soak, scrub, shine’.

I will look out for some Finish powder in shops further afield but for now, the Fairy powder seems to have solved my problem.

Clock setting

Thanks too to Iadom about the clock setting. I clicked on my Profile button but could not find any way to set the time to GMT. What am I missing here? This message is being sent at 10.45 am.

My web browser is Safari on a G4 iMac and my computer clock is automatically set to the right time by the internet.

[woodey]

Re: Bosch Dishwasher SKT 5102 table top model horrendous noi

Many thanks Martin and Trilobite for your responses.

It seems that my noise problem may be due to overfoaming. Last night I ran the machine with no detergent. The noise was acceptable and the dishes came our sparkling clean. Incidentally, Trilobite, which model was the Hotpoint with the screaming groan? Was it the same as our SKT 5102 or our old SKT 2052?

I tried to buy some Finish powder yesterday but our local Coop Shopping Giant stocks only Finish Powerball tablets (3 in 1 and 5 in 1), Fairy Active Burst or Coop brand brand tablets or Coop powder in lemon flavour only. I hate the lemon scent; that’s why I switched from powder to tablets in 2003.

Previously, I had used either Coop, Tesco or Sainsbury own brand powder but they all stopped selling unscented powder; they just offered lemon only. We had also used powder in our previous Colston table top dishwashers. (We don’t have enough room for a full size dishwasher in our kitchen.)

The SKT 5102 instruction book says ‘you can use liquid or powder proprietary dishwasher detergents’ but I never had any trouble with the Coop tablets in our old Bosch SKT 2052 so I assumed that it would be OK in the new machine. A separate ‘Summary of Instructions’ leaflet does say ‘The detergent dispenser is not designed for cleaning tablets as the dosage is not suitable for this appliance.’ But I only ever used half a tablet; the dispenser is too small to take a full tablet. Nowhere does it say that the reason for not using tablets is that they can cause overfoaming.

The new model SKT 5102 must have a different mechanism from the old SKT 2052. It seems it cannot tolerate too much foam whereas the old model was OK. I shall write to Bosch and suggest that they amend the instructions to make it clear that tablets are taboo because they can cause overfoaming.

I shall try further afield to by some Finish Powder or, failing that, Sun or Bryta. A local small shop sells Fairy Powder as well as Finish Powerball tablets. Does anyone know whether Fairy Powder would be OK instead of Finish powder?

If the machine runs OK with powder, my only concern then is whether the overfoaming might have damaged the pump housing or other parts of the mechanism. If so, should I ask Bosch to replace them before the guarantee runs out?

Finally, there seems to be a problem with the times dispayed on this forum. I posted my first message at about 11:45 am, not 9:48 pm. I find it hard to believe that Trilobite posted a response at 3:52 am. I’m drafting this message at 11:40 am. Will wait to see that time is posted on the site.

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