Miele G863 SCVI Incognito DW is flooding

[johnd]

Help! My Miele dishwasher has a problem. The power button is off, and after several hours there is water in the bottom of the tub and on my kitchen floor. I have cleaned both the filter and the drain pump. The machine will drain when a cycle, e.g. normal/130F cycle 1", is selected but will not progress beyond the initial drain cycle. Any ideas? I have turned off the water supply to the dishwasher to prevent flooding.

Now a commentary on Miele service. On the plus side, the man who spoke with me was very polite and professional over the phone. On the minus side, when I called on Oct. 19th, the first available service appointment was Oct. 31st! I expect faster service from Miele. This is a bit surprising to me. I was also told that the service charge will be a minimum of $175. This seems a bit much, even for the S.F. Bay Area. Does anyone know of another repair service near Oakland that knows how to repair a Miele?
Thanks.

 

[tomturbomatic]

At risk of stating the obvious, this type of slow leak generally involves the fill valve not closing completely. There is no reason to be without a dishwasher until the service call; just turn off the water after each load. Sometimes a bit of grit gets into the valve and keeps it from shutting properly resulting in a slow leak. This is one of the many things that can happen with plumbing and why, when I used to travel, I shut off the main water valve for the house before leaving, after turning the water heater control to "pilot." That's not to say that if the tank failed I would not have a flood, but it would only be 50 gallons, not the thousands it would be if the water were on.

As to the comment on Miele Service. I think this is like the difference in service charges between a Toyota and a Jaguar. There is a great difference in cost between the cars. The parts are more expensive and the Jaguar service organization feels that they can charge whatever the traffic will allow because MOST Jaguar owners have money. In the 70s, a friend bought a beautiful used T-bird. It needed a wheel cover. At the dealership, a new one would cost most of his weekly pay.

 

[johnd]

Thanks, is this a layman's job?

Tom,
Thanks for the guidance. I had followed both of your suggestions, by turning off the water valve to the dishwasher and always turning my hot water heater to "vacation" mode before leaving for any period of time. The problem is that the dishwasher will not advance beyond the initial drain portion of any wash cycle selected. It's as though it knows there is a problem with the water inlet valve and it keeps draining to compensate for that. I'm not formally trained on appliance repairs, though I am adventurous. Is the water inlet valve something that I should be able to access and inspect/clear on my own without undue risk to the machine? I also suspect there is a bit of grit caught in it. My hot water heater recently failed and in the process of troubleshooting, a lot a grey, particulate matter came through the pipes. There is a reasonable cause to support your theory of grit blocking valve closure.

About Miele service, the cost is one thing, but what really blows me away is that at those prices they expect a customer to wait 12 days for a repairman to show up. I expected to see a service person within three days at that price point.

 

[jerrod6]

I have a G2830 but used to have the G885 from the year 1996.  I think both of these models( and perhaps yours) have the inlet valve as a part of the device that connects to the water pipe.  The inlet valve is in the large grey box that connects to the water pipe and it is usually outside of the DW right at the beginning of the water hose.  You can unscrew the box  from the water pipe and clean out the screens and this might help if the problem is particulate matter.

 

Sounds to me like there is a break in the water line itself perhaps inside of the machine.  If the machine detects a break in the line(this is why the installation instructions warn you not to cut the hose) or if it detects water in the bottom pan under the DW it will drain and stop.

 

[johnd]

It's fixed now.

Thanks for the suggestion Jerrod. The Miele guys came over today, and unfortunately it was my circulation pump that had failed. They replaced it, and it works like new again.

I asked what might cause the circulation pump to deteriorate and fail, and they told me that overuse of detergent is a primary factor. The suggested I use one teaspoon of powdered detergent. That is way below the 20ml line to which I usually fill the detergent cup. Interesting that the manual also recommends 20ml for normal loads. But I'll try it, and if the dishes are clean, I'll go with it.

 

[pierreandreply4]

dishwasher detertgent tabs

Most dishwasher today recomend using tabs to wash dishes like finish dishwasher tabs or cascade dishwasher tabs me in my kenmore elite i use the cascade dishwasher tabs soap amd i do not have any problem with my dishwasher and also when needed i clean my dishwasher with finish dishwasher cleaner every 3 months