DIY fixes on the Miele Dishwasher

This Miele is a superb dishwasher - it not only cleans well, when you take it apart you notice things that say 'this is well made'. Over ten years food gunk will lead to some little crises, none of which merit calling for a repair technician. You can avoid these problems unless you obsess over every blob of food that enters the machine! 

Here are some notes on maintenance and repairs one can do at no cost.

Maintenance

Ignoring the maintenance instructions will lead to a fault such as poorer performance. If you're stuck for something to do clean the tray in the base/sump! Also remove the three rotary sprinklers and reverse flush them to remove rice and bits. Every six months or year works for me.

Turbothermic dryer is noisy, gurgling and giving out water / steam at the door vent.

Over time, perhaps three years, a scaley sludgey, emulsion can build up in the pipe inside the door. (You might have seen this on the oil or cooling unit on a car). Clearing this sludge solves this problem: 

Quick repair

A quick repair, without dismantling, is to unblock the two water drain holes inside the rinse-aid unit. With the rinse aid door open they are closer to the centre and if they're totally blocked you might not notice them. Use a toothpick to break up what's there. Or try gently threading a nylon line from a garden trimmer into the holes. 

Full repair

The above will buy some time but the complete fix requires a screwdriver. Unplug the washer. Open the main door flat onto a thick sofa cushion (this is better than supporting the door cover you'll be unscrewing). Notice the line of screws, near the edge facing down, on the wet side of the door. You want to undo the three lowest screws, nearest the hinge, on each side. (The higher 6 screws remove the control panel cover - you might not need to remove this. Note that the inward facing screws release the hinge - avoid these as it's hell to replace them).  As you undo them the door outer will fall away onto the cushion and show you the soundproofing and electronics. 

Remove the black tube running from the Turbotronic unit to the rinse aid unit. Clean this and reconnect each end in turn and blow through to remove any gunk. 

Water outlet / inlet fault

The same error light is used for both inlet and drain problems. You can tell whether the fault is caused by inlet or outlet as follows: 

Hold the Start button for some seconds to remove the error light and start a washing program. Pour a wash bowl of water into the dishwasher and close the door. As the wash program starts it will drain water from the machine. Then it will fill the base/sump with water. If it drains OK the error is probably the water inlet and not a blocked outlet. If it fills OK and starts chugging away it's probably a drainage problem.

Water inlet blocked by debris from the water supply

The water supply connects to a special solenoid unit on the inlet side. Cut the water supply to the dishwasher, unscrew this unit and clear the gunk from the filter. A pair of pliers removes the filter cone to do this. 

Water outlet blocked

Remove the food catching tray from the base. Take care hereon as there may be a piece of glass in the base. Undo a clip, remove a plastic elbow and clean up / siphon out / flush the area with water. A chip of glass for example will stop the exit pump turning.

Water outlet / inlet light flashing happens during a wash  / mid-wash

If the dishwasher repeatedly gives up during a wash with this error the causes may be many. I had all but bought a new motor when I discovered how to get to the main pump. Start a wash, turn off the water supply and turn off the machine when the water is pumped out in the first minute. There will still be water inside you might want to siphon out or not. Unplug it.

Turn the dishwasher on its side and remove the base looking for the rubber connections to the main pump. Disconnect these to have access to the pump. Feel around for foreign objects - but be wary of glass. I found a small square of bubble wrap from supermarket packaging was obstructing the pump impellor. Lucky find! Huge saving. 

Don't touch the water softener unit - it looks yucky always.