Temporarily DW motor failure due to Fairy tabs

[dimitris]

Last night I was really terrified...

I am not sure if this "Imperial" part of the site is the right place for writing this (apologies if not).

I had a full load of dishes, put a Fairy Platinum tab in the detergent dispenser (first time using it) and ran the normal cycle in my Bosch.

After prewash and about 15 minutes after the main wash started, there was a funy noise coming from the motor of the DW.

Like the motor was struggling to perform...
It was every 5-10 seconds and was lasting for 2-3 seconds.

I thought that's it, the motor is slowly dying...
I stopped it for a minute and start it again.
When started, didn't do the noise, after minute, there it was again.

I opened it and there were suds, not too much but I think enough for making the motor sucking air instead of water.

So now I did an other cycle with out unloading the dishes, I just did not put detergent so I am sure that the suds caused the noise and there is not a motor failure...

Did anyone had a similar experience?
Could it was something else?

If mine did like that, ( which is a 1995 model) Fairy tabs in a new DW that uses much less water than mine wouldn't aloud it to circulate any water.....

What are your thought??

 

[washer111]

Underfilling

You may find that the extra foam caused by the tabs exaggerated an existing low fill issue. I would suggest running the machine on a regular cycle and see if adding an extra litre of water improves the wash action. If so - you will need a new fill valve/hose, as it may have become chalked up with sediment and hardness (slight) over the years. 

 

If your dishes aren't really greasy - don't bother with tablets or the most expensive ones, since their scrubbing action comes with a price. I find that some loads in our machine, even with powder have more foam than others - due to grease levels and other soils in the machine. 

 

[dimitris]

The DW was installed 15 days ago, it is old but never been installed before, I was the first using it so blockage in the water inlet ( aqua stop system) should not be the case.
Plus, we have super soft, rain water, we always have to use less detergent as they are not made for so soft water.
My dishes were not heavily dirty at all, I bought new bowls and cookware and I wanted them to be washed but they were actually clean before...

 

[joe_in_philly]

I agree with what washer111 said. It sounds like there wasn't enough water and the pump was sucking in some air. This could be because the tablets caused extra foam which prevented water from returning to the intake fast enough. If it happens again, add a liter more water to the machine and see if the problem goes away. If it does, you know it isn't a motor problem, but a lack of sufficient water.

My Bosch dishwasher will do that on occassion. Ever since I had the control board replaced (due to fire recall), it seems to cut off the water fill a bit earlier than with the old control board. So if water accumulates on the top of cups or other items, the amount of water circulating goes down and causes a little air to be pulled into the pump system. If I add 16oz of water, it solves the problem.

I usually run the dishwasher when I go to bed, so I don't know if this happens very often. Even if I do hear it make that noise and do nothing, everything still comes out clean.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

DW pump cavitating

As was said earlier can becaused by low water level, too much suds or a parially blocked filter. In your case it sounds like a suds issue.
WK78

 

[logixx]

Likely too much suds.

 

[dimitris]

I am sure it was too much suds because I ran the DW again with no detergent and it did fine....

 

[logixx]

Happened to me as well. This is with one Quantum tab (couple of years ago).

 

[ricky5050]

Too sudsy !

Hello it's due to fairy tabs are way too sudsy for older machines which have higher water levels and higher pressure sprays. My mums 1990 aeg makes terrible rising and falling noises when using fairy. They are designed for average to hard water hardnesses, modern machines which use less water have lower pressures so cope ok.

Try old fashioned powder ie finish or sun or even Ecover ( Eco friendly tabs ) as they don't cause as much foam and give a nice pleasing wash sound.

The noise doesn't actually harm the machine or result in poor cleaning but doesn't sound great.

Good luck with your machine it will last you ages I hope !

Richard

 

[jerrod6]

I've noticed this in my machine when I use Cascade Platinum. Not sure it is the same as Fairy. Seems like the problem shows up after the 20 minute mark in the wash. After that time it would happen every two or three minutes. No problems in the rinses however. I did not open the door to check on suds.
I switch detergents every week so the next week I was using Finish Quantum tabs and there was no problem.

The next week I went back to Cascade Platinum and the problem returned so I think there is something about those tabs that causes it. This week I am using Finish Powder and no problems.

My DW uses so little water per fill(only the filter screen is covered during the wash) that I wonder how well tabs really work when you have a lightly soiled load and there is nothing for the detergent to really work on, and there is less than 1 gallon of water in the entire machine.

 

[washer111]

Soil Level

I'd say, without the extra soil (you mentioned it was new plates being washed), the tablets just didn't have enough food and grease and other garbage to munch on, so they frothed up. That and some underfilling. 

 

Perhaps load a greasy load and try them out again - you may find they don't perform as oddly as these. 

 

[dimitris]

Thank you all so much for your responds!!!!!

When I tried finish Quantum, the dishes were heavily dirty, it did great, no funny sounds.

I think I am going to use Finisg quantum for large and very dirty loads and Finish powder for cases like the one the other day, that dishes were not so dirty....

 

[mark_wpduet]

I used Finish Quantum tabs

And I noticed the struggling sound during the main wash too! It didn't kill the motor and I let it continue and everything came out great, but it made me paranoid to use them because you know that has to be harder on the motor. And I don't have soft water, so I could imagine how much foam they create with soft water.

 

[washer111]

Last night I had a particularly greasy load for the dishwasher. After running the rinse cycle (like always) before starting the machine up normally straight afterwards, I added one of those Fairy Tabs (All in One: Lemon) with the yellow gel. They are fully dissolvable, and did create some suds, but not LOTS like they sometimes do (or like the Finish Dishwasher Cleaner). The tabs rinsed out fine on the 3 rinses with the Delicate cycle and the 3rd rinse was clear water. 

 

[miele_ge]

somat powder does the same thing in my Miele

Been using Somat (by Henkel) powder for a few years now and love it.  If the dishes are not really dirty, it doesn't take much for it to generate some foam causing the motor to sound labored.  Our water is pretty soft, auto softener on the machine is switched off, so that may add to it.  The powder is great because you can dose to the size/soil level of the load.  Tried the Somat 2 in 1 tabs and they were WAY too strong for us even with a full load of dirty dishes so the box just sits there.  At least the box is pretty to look at. 

 

[optima]

Dishwasher detergent

Quite simply avoid buying the fancy higher brand named Henkel / Procter & Gamble dishwasher detergents & buy Value tablets & use seperate Rinse aid. Never had a problem with them & they have always cleaned very well.

 

[rolls_rapide]

I have to agree, P&G's Fairy does create lots of foam, so they are only really useful if you have seriously greasy pots and pans.

I have used cheaper "Value" tablets, and discovered that two cheap tablets (one in prewash, one in mainwash on the Super Intensive Wash) actually performed better on tea-stain removal than Fairy Platinum. Less foam too, and the machine didn't sound so laboured either.