New Day, Old Story

[may63]

Was walking by neighbor's condo. Noticed water logged carpet in the hallway. Noticed it getting bigger. Called the building guy. Building guy opened condo. Carpet totally flooded. Answer: 25 year old BOL Hotpoint dishwasher spilling over with owner no where in sight...

 

[scott55405]

...and being that these particular machines don't do much *but* fill, drain, fill drain, repeat, ad nauseum, that's a lot of water and a lot of mess!

 

[westytoploader]

Those old, BOL GE-design dishwashers are like time bombs just waiting to go off, especially if you leave them unattended! The timer probably died mid-cycle and it just kept right on filling; our 90's BOL Hotpernt (and probably this one) had a timed fill if you can believe that! If you pushed the dial forward even one increment while it was filling, it would stop, and you could go back again and fill it up even more.

Hopefully it didn't do too much damage...I'd get that thing out of there post haste!

 

[DADoES]

Many dishwashers do operate off a timed fill, but typically have a float for overfill protection. Of course a float doesn't help if the water valve hangs open.

A few (like KA for some years), have a pressure switch for overfill. Our KDI-17 had a pressure switch (and dual-water valves for backup protection against valve failure). I'd sometimes reset the timer for maximum fill. Once the pressure switch activated it wouldn't fill any more even by resetting the timer. However, when the max level was reached, if the cycle was paused and restarted, there'd be some leaking for a few moments from the door vent upon the restart.

My KUDS-22 has a float.

I'm not sure what DishDrawers do for overfill sensing. The fill may be timed, but also is sensed by feedback on the motor. DishDrawers also have a flood sensor in the bottom floor of the machine.

 

[toggleswitch]

our 90's BOL Hotpernt DW (and probably this one) had a timed fill if you can believe that!

Don't they all, with a float added as a safety?

 

[hoover1060]

similar situation

I had a similar incident in my past apartment, my kitchen sink and apt across the hall were on a common wall, and emptied into the same stack... well she put something down her disposal(a badger I) and clogged the stack, which resulted in stuff backing up BOTH sides of my kitchen sink and overflowing... I came home to quite a mess!!!

 

[gizmo]

dishdrawer floodsensor?

I'm not sure about DishDrawer, but the F&P basic dishwashers have the motor sensor for water level detection, when the maze filter at the pump inlet gets blocked, it floods into the pan underneath and trips the float which stops the machine.

chris.