DCS/fisher paykel dishwasher issue

[tomdawg]

I have a friend of mine who is having issues with their DCS dish drawer. They start it, blue light turns on. drain pump starts and then it stops. Red light turns on.
They said it will only work if they pre fill the dishwasher with hot hot water before starting the dishwasher. Sometimes it takes a couple of times. Both dishwashers will do it, but mainly the top one does it.

I believe it’s about 4 years old and they run it probably 3 times a day. They are a busy family of 7.. well now it’s down to 5 as two of them moved out of the house. There’s no doubt it’s been through some west and tear.

They clean the filter out often

My thought is, the drain valve is probably clogged or built up with gunk/grease- the dishwasher initially drains to test the pump- if it doesn’t drain it turns off. I believe the hot water breaks down the gunk to clear it enough for it to work.

I’m not sure how the cycle sequence works- but I thought I’d ask.

I told them to get a dishwasher cleaner to see if that helps with getting rid of the gunk in the drain pipe.

 

[DADoES]

 
Model number not cited.  Is it a single- or double-drawer model?  If double, are both drawers exhibiting the problem?

There have been several design revisions since my nearly 20yo model but I'm not aware that any of them have a drain valve as such.  There is an anti-siphon flapper on the outlet port where the drain hoses connect to the pump housings.

Fault codes, if any, are displayed via either on the LCD panel or via the pattern of lights on the front panel buttons and the cycle selection buttons.

Ask your friends to try something:  After the next successful cycle on the drawer(s) of problem, tell them to pull the filter and use a turkey baster to siphon out all the residual water in the sump, reinstall the filter, then observe if the problem occurs on the next run.

Serial numbers are coded for the month and year of production regards to age of the machine.