Beko DW686 dishwasher repair

It's been busy lately. If you follow my YouTube channel, you'll be waiting for an update on the Sony 9-306. It may be a little while, as other things have got in the way.

Anyway, came downstairs in the morning, ready for a cup of coffee and a bit of breakfast before going to work, and I step in a pool of water... Ugh.

The dishwasher (aka "the magic chipboard") has leaked everywhere, and not washed the plates either!

I got home and needed to tackle the repair. I have an irrational hatred of dishwashers.

I reset it and it pumped the remaining water out. I tried to run a cycle, but it wasn't having it...




I dragged the thing out and removed the front lower panel. It's full of water, and there's bound to be a float switch in there ..











.. (probably behind that central polystyrene float) that stops it from running when the sump is flooded.
















I tipped the machine forward slightly to empty the sump, but it still wasn't running correctly.

I thought perhaps the level switch wasn't working, so it didn't know how much water it had let in (hence the flooding) I removed the side panel and started looking for a pressure type level switch...














... there isn't one...
















...however there's this. It's a small flowmeter in the inlet pipe.

I did a spot of googling, and found some information about a test mode.














Hold these two buttons down and switch on.











After lighting up all the display segments, this is displayed... hit the play/pause (!) button to start the test running....











After going through the motions, Er2 is displayed. Er2 is the error code for "no water", despite the fact that there's definitely water going in, as I can see it gurgling through the pipes ...









OK, suspicion turns to the flowmeter. I decided to remove it and inspect.

Undo the two pipe clips...












Slide the pipes off (easiest to do the bottom one first). Expect a bit of water to leak out...


















And remove the electrical connector....














With the flowmeter removed, I blew through it. I can hear the impeller turning. I can test to see if there's an output by measuring continuity across the device. Those two oval holes provide access, rather than trying to probe the connector.

It seems to be open circuit.

A new one is about £11 eBay. I decided to see if this one could be fixed...



I removed the small green PCB, and it contains a magnetic reed switch. This is simply a small switch in a glass bead which closes when there's a magnet near it. I stick a magnet near it, and it's still open circuit ...







A quick trip to NP Harding provides a slack handful of suitable looking reeds...











One is duly fitted, and tested... it still reads open circuit with or without magnet.... hang on? What I hadn't done, was check the meter was working correctly! It wasn't. It appears one of the probes has gone open circuit! Aggggggghhhh!

Replacement probes fitted, and the flowmeter tests perfectly. I test the reed I've removed ... it tests perfectly .... damn , I've wasted a lot of time ... I'm so cross with myself!

Right, back to the kitchen and re-install the flowmeter.

Run the test again. Same results Er2. No Water. I measure the voltage on one pin of the flowmeter, and there's a solid 12 volts there.... on the other side there's a varying voltage (because of the pulse train) ... OK , that's working....

There's a fault finding flowchart in the service manual (download it here). It says the next step is to check/replace the controller board... It's mounted in the door....

Undo the screws either side of the latch, and the two holding the decor panel on (if fitted, mine's a built in thing) I chose to remove the decor panel completely, as it's front-heavy with it attached)

Another two screws down each side, and you can pop out the plastic top, and gain access to the electronics.

Note the new meter probes! The plug you see removed here has the two purple wires from the flowmeter. Sure enough one is open circuit! I bet myself a nice cup of tea that it's where the wiring goes round the hinge of the door.....

A wire is temporarily fitted to each end...




























and the test mode run again...

and it passes :)










Now to route a new wire in. I thought I may use the old wire to pull through the new one... no chance as it's completely broken... Just long enough to indicate the break is indeed in the hinge... :(













... So the door has to completely come apart. Disconnect both the springs from the door and use something to support it whilst doing this. I found it easiest to lower the spring tension as much as possible with the two plastic adjusters that are just down from the top of the door aperture behind the seal. You'll need to remove the other side panel as well if you haven't already done so.

A word of warning here ... this panel is sharp. Damn sharp. Wear some thick gardening gloves or similar.

And there's the wiring....












The new wire is threaded through (better to start at the top and work down) , soldered at both ends and given a coat of liquid insulation tape (because I've not got any heatshrink at the moment!)









The machine is reassembled, and test mode gets to P3, which has passed the water inlet issue :)











Eventually it's all back together and washing the plates again... for now. What about those other dozen-or-so wires going via the hinge? I'll worry about those another day!

Another saved from land fill (for now!)

... and I won my bet, and have a nice cup of tea ;)