Indesit Ariston LI645A Dishwasher Short-circuits

[EthemD]

My Indesit Ariston LI645A Dishwasher keeps getting short circuits after I close the door. I've had this problem a year ago and left the door open and it got fixed after not touching it 1-2 weeks. After that it worked perfectly for half a year.

Now I got the problem again, I've tried leaving it open, but the problem did not get solved. The first short circuit happened during a wash and left the machine un-drained (like earlier this year)... in that situation it would even go to short circuit when I tilted the door or barely touched the door to the machine. Now I've left it open long enough so that the water evaporated or drained, but it still gets me short circuits. It starts normally and goes into short circuit after 1 minutes of start. There are no flashing service lights... so I have no clue what to do.

My father told me that it might be water stuck at the joints of the door... does that sound reasonable? Is that even possible? This error comes always in the wrong time in my life, I'm so annoyed

 

[Leccy758]

Does it trip a MCB or blow a fuse
Or
Does it trip an RCD (circuit breaker with a press to test button on it)

Without looking I would be inclined to think that since it happens when you move the door that you either have a loose connection or a broken wire in the door or possibly where the wires go from the door into the base.

 

[EthemD]

The short circuit trips a double-switch where one of the switches has a test button (which makes it trip as well), so I don't know... it might be a combination of MCB and RCD, though it controls the electricity of more than 1 room.

Another awkward thing is, that it even causes a short circuit when I close the door while the machine is turned off.

I can try to remove/open up the door if you think that might solve the issue. (of course if I can, it seems to be furnished to the counter and I've never seen it stand alone)

Thanks a lot for the reply by the way!

 

[EthemD]

Update on this:

I opened up the front and now have access to the control units and the cables.

This seems to be the control unit. It looks clean to me. Capacitors don't look broken and the relay seems to be working as well.

This thing seems to have melted or so... but I doubt that that is enough to cause a short circuit.

This is how the cables are bundled beneath the machine:

- short circuit when the door contacts touch eachother when machine is turned off
- no short circuit when the door contact touch eachother when machine is turned on
- short circuit after waiting a while when the door contacts do not touch and the machine is turned on
- short circuit after closing the door and starting a wash when machine is turned on (might be the same symptom as the one above ^)

 

[EthemD]

Another update on this:

I opened up the whole machine - took me quite some time. Had to lay the machine to the right side and open the bottom to access the components. I oriented myself to find out what kind of components there are... but didn't touch anything else. There was some leakage though, which I needed to clean. I put the machine halfway back together and testing it now - running an empty clean! So far so good!!!

At first I was worried the barometer/pressure valve (located at the very bottom) would get some water, because of my tilt and would then result in false detections. Still hope that won't cause any problems... also the pcb I called 'control unit' is actually the main pcb of the machine, there was no other pcb in the machine. Surprised how much smaller it is than the one in my washmachine.

 

[EthemD]

I think I'm gonna get crazy

I waited for the empty wash for 2 hours and it completed normally for which I was really happy. Now I put all the metal casing of the machine back on just to clean up. I wanted to start another wash (with dishes) but this time it won't start and gives me flashing lights! Out of 4 service lights, the 1st and third ones from the right are flashing. It should be a F05? But I looked up the service codes on this pagehttp://www.indesitservice.co.uk/hs/pages/content.do?keys=FAQ:ERROR_CODES and it only has F10, F11, F20 and F21.... I assumed it was F10 and went on and check the water inlet and drain.... and they are both just fine! I am stumped

Can anybody help?

 

[Leccy758]

From rocks1

dishwasher fault codes with bit 100 pcb(written on serial no)
led1=overflow water in base
led2=inlet valve
led3=thermister
led4=timeout heating
1+2timeout draining. EDIT 1+2 can also be Software recognition error.
2+3timeout filling
1+3filters blocked
1+4software error
2+4heater
3+4timer hardware

 

[EthemD]

Thanks Leccy... it's hard to believe it is a heater fault though. I've ran one empty wash cycle and I remember very well how the heater worked. I think I'm gonna remove the casing again and look inside. :/

EDIT: Okay now it's working again! I think the cable was just not connected properly... weird that it caused a heater error though... let's hope it keeps working until I put it back to it's old position.
I know my problem was not a common one... so it's a bit difficult to find a solution right away. I mean I still don't know what the underlying cause was. I always search intensively online to find out if others had the same problem and then end up here thanks for all the support though Leccy!

 

[Leccy758]

The heater relays on these boards do wear out and fail, sometimes with intermittant faults for a while before hand as the contacts stick or dont make properly.

The contacts on the connectors can oxidise or just become loose the spade type ones sometimes need tightening up to grip properly.

 

[EthemD]

I think I have a pair of spare relays from my Indesit washmachine that I think are similar to the one on this board so I'll save them for possible future problems. And I'll make sure to check the spade connecters next time. Thanks a lot Leccy! You know the actual long taking part was getting the machine out of the fournished counter on my own and putting it back the exact way. Now it's back though and I ran two wash cycles and it worked perfectly... hopefully it will last longer than last time!