Salt in a dishwasher ...

[RichardD]

Hi all, I'm new.

Woke up this morning and the electric had tripped off in the night – I checked sockets etc. and couldn't find anything wrong.

I've spoken to my wife this morning and she's found that what probably caused it was the dishwasher because the plates weren't clean. (It's a Hotpoint. No idea what make but we bought just over a year ago.) "Somebody" (OK, me) forgot to screw the cap back on the salt thing after refilling it.

The dishwasher now won't switch on. Can it be repaired (by me?) or will it need to be replaced?

Any help in getting my out of the doghouse much appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[JohnD]

unusual...

but unplug it, pull it out, have a look underneath for signs of water leaking out into the electrical parts at the bottom.

Ordinary clean water will dry off without much trouble, but salt is very corrosive so needs to be cleaned off.

It may also have a water-collecting tray, with a float switch, to cut power if it detects water leakings. You just need to empty this and clean it out.

 

[Diyisfun]

To empty the float switch, if you tip the machine back or sideways the water should come out. You should not need to remove the base, if you remove the base, just by tipping the machine back you will have emptied the tray.

 

[RichardD]

Thanks very much for the answers so far.

I've got home and had a look at it. (It's a Hotpoint Aquarius dishwasher, by the way.)

I've taken out the filter and there's still some water at the bottom of it ... should it have drained away? When I tip the machine forwards or backwards I get cloudy water coming out of it – I can't quite tell where from exactly but it's on the side edges of both sides of the machine, about a a quarter of the length of the machine back.

 

[JohnD]

look under the machine, not inside it.

 

[RichardD]

OK, I've looked underneath. Here's the left- and right-hand sides ...

Behind those black panels are what I'm guessing is the motor on the left-hand side and a load of wires on the right-hand side.

 

[JohnD]

any sign of water under there?

(I think your pics are from the front, you may see more from the back)

 

[RichardD]

No, only a bit when I tip it ...

Update: my wife's just got in and has said she spoke to her dad about it. Also we've had a bloke came to have a look at it this afternoon. He concluded that one of the wires could have come loose in the bottom of the machine but couldn't get the back of it off, so Hotpoint are going to come out.

Either way, it doesn't look like it was due to me leaving the salt thing open – so hopefully I'm off the hook and will be able to watch the Spurs game this evening.

Thanks to everyone for the replies, much appreciated.

 

[Diyisfun]

You get to the machine by taking the bottom off.