So last year I bought a Bosch dishwasher. Via Amazon. It’s been mostly great. But now I’m getting an error code meaning that water is leaking into some bit under the main compartment. Could be an issue with how it’s hooked to the plumbing, I don’t know.
NOBODY will touch a Bosch in my area as far as I can tell. Amazon Services concurs. Should I just start calling random plumbers and see if somebody will take a look? Sorry, I’m not the best at this sort of thing. I did call one general plumbing/fix-it place and thought they would come out and at least see if the hookup was okay, but as soon as I mentioned I had a Bosch dishwasher, I got the cold shoulder.
I’m seriously getting fed up with this sort of thing. I bought a general Sears warranty for my old washer/dryer, one which stated that if the machine needed more than three servicings, they’d buy me a new one. At the fourth servicing, they refused and simply sent out yet another replacement pump (which didn’t fix all the issues anyway), so I just bought a new washer myself without useless warranty. Can’t wait till this one breaks down…
Any advice welcome, including “You idiot, you should have bought X brand from Y store in your area,” but I already heard that one from Mom. :rolleyes:
I’d think you’d be calling an appliance service company, and not a plumber. And I Googled and found a company that services Bosch appliances in Indianapolis, but I have no idea if that’s anywhere near you.
I’ll bite - you bought a machine which requires not only electricity but (hot) water aw well and which is permanently installed.
Who did the installation?
How handy are you, what is the floor covering under the dishwasher?
Now is a good time to learn:
Most dishwashers* are secured in place by two screws going up into the counter.Removing those two screws allows the dishwasher to be slid out of the cabinet hole. The electric and water connections are at the rear of the dishwasher.
You may find that either you do the work or it doesn’t get done.
I don’t blame people who take the position: “If the Internet was good enough to sell you that box cheap, the Internet can fix it”
I have never seen Bosch dishwasher, and do not know why your people refuse to touch them.
Such blanket refusal is either due to financial (we don’t service things we don’t even sell) or practical (those things built exactly backwards and fall apart if touched. We don’t invite litigation).
I assume it was new, right? If it was, you should have a warrant on it. Why not just call up Bosch and ask them about your options. If you’re covered under the warranty, it’s on them to figure it out, not you. If the warranty is expired, check to see if your credit card has an extended warranty program, many of them do. The ones I’ve seen usually double the manufacturers warranty (up to 1 year). From what I’ve read, with my credit cards, after providing them with the documents and being approved, they’ll refund you for the purchase amount. However, one of those documents is typically the manufacturer denying your request, in writing. So if Bosch does deny you, you should probably email them as well, so that you have the denial in writing, ready to go.
Now, if you don’t have any kind of warranty, I agree with the others that this isn’t a plumber thing. This is something for an appliance person. When you say water is leaking underneath somewhere, I’m not sure exactly what the means without know exactly what code your seeing and looking it up, but I’d wager a guess that it’s not a inlet/drain connection, but rather water getting into the motor housing or slipping past some other seal that it shouldn’t be.
Are you calling these places and asking them to do warranty work and getting turned down, or are they turning you down based on not wanting to work on a Bosch? If they’re just turning you down for working on a Bosch, and lots of them are doing it, I might start to take that as a sign that it might not be worth it to repair. My WAG (again without knowing the exact code) is that the repair guys know it’s an expensive fix and don’t like going out on a service call just to have the customer tell them they’d rather get a new dishwasher then spend half that to hopefully fix this one.
TLDR call Bosch and tell them you need a warranty repair. Go from there.
BTW, if the error says E15, I’m seeing lots of reports on the internet about that and some remedies that either fix it or fix it temporarily (possibly depending on underlying problem).
The seem to involve pulling the unit out and tipping it back or unplugging it for a day, but both seem to deal with letting the sump dry out.
One of causes also seems to have to do with too many suds. If you used too much detergent, the wrong kind of detergent (like dawn) or too much rinse aid, that could cause an issue with suds.
Sorry for not following up, I finally finished washing my dishes!
Thanks for the replies. Yes, it is an E15 error. I can wait about a week and then run it again, but the error message comes back after one or two cycles. I have a suspicion that the garbage disposal (sink) may be backing up into the dishwasher; I’ve run the disposal while the dishwasher is opened, and noticed greywater backing up into the dishwasher drain or just gurgling. Oh, and I don’t use rinse aid, just Finish dishwasher tablets, usually.
I would pull the dishwasher out, but I remember that the installer had a horrible time squeezing it in (vertically). To the point that the countertop is a bit jacked up now, literally and figuratively. It’s a very old house, and the kitchen needs remodeled. It’s also a rental property, and a long story. TLDW: landlord is a pain, bought my own replacement dishwasher that I planned on “gifting” upon my move.
I’ve been looking for my paperwork this weekend and haven’t found it yet. We moved the home office to a different room a few months ago and may have misfiled it or sent it down to the basement. Also, apparently we didn’t order from Amazon. I checked my email and I can’t figure out where I got the damned thing. I’m really losing it these days…
I checked with Bosch via the website, and while they have techs in Indianapolis (about an hour from me) they apparently do not service my zipcode.
BTW, Bosch is supposedly a better brand of dishwasher, and well-known. I think mine cost in the neighborhood of $1500. I didn’t know I’d have such a hard time finding a serviceperson, obviously!
Thanks again for everyone’s input. I’ll keep looking for the warranty info.
You paid $1500 for a dishwasher? And that was the really good price you got via Amazon? That’s expensive. We were looking at getting a new dishwasher for my parents, and the Bosch models at Home Depot or Lowes started around $600 or so. We weren’t looking at any about maybe $800.
It sounds like the person who installed it didn’t plumb in a trap for the washer. There should be one to prevent backwash from the garbage disposal from getting into the dishwasher. The error is letting you know “Hey! There shouldn’t be anything coming from the sewer line into this thing that is trying to get the dishes clean!”
There is nothing wrong with the dishwasher, the fault is with the goober who installed it.
Above your sink you should have a little thing sticking up that looks like this. That’s the thing that prevents water from backing up into your dishwasher, to an extent. It’s actually designed more to make sure the dishwasher can’t siphon water out of the drain, but if turning on your disposal shoots water into your dishwasher, that’s still a big problem.
If you don’t have some type of anti-siphon device, you need to deal with that first. Sometimes, instead of a standard, above the sink air-gap like the one in the picture, there some under cabinet mounted ones. In some cases I’ve seen the drain hose just looped way up to the top of the cabinet, brought all the way back down (this is usually done inside the dishwasher cabinet, sometimes even mounted on the side of the DW), then brought to the disposal. If you have none of these, if your dishwasher drain hose leaves the dishwasher and goes straight to the disposal, that’s your problem, and there should be an easy fix.
If you do, in fact, have an air gap above the sink, pop the top off and take a look. If it’s all gunked up, see what you can do about cleaning it out.
Also, when you use your disposal, make a point of turning it on, then feeding food into it, a little at a time. You shouldn’t load it all up, then turn it on.
All you need to do, if you do want to get it out, is remove the kick plate, then find the front legs and turn the screws above them to lower the front end. I’m going to guess your installer adjusted them to the height of the counter (possible the height from the unfinished floor to the counter), then jammed the dishwasher in.
When I installed mine, I…well, I tried that first, then I lowered it, pushed it in and raised it back up. That was way easier. When I needed to pull it back out a few weeks later, same thing, lower it, pull it out, then push it back it and raise it right up to the bottom of the counter.
How old is the garbage disposal, and what kind of stuff has been fed it? They can fail in ways to block even water flow.
You can also check that water from the D/W flows unrestrictedly.
Chicken bones are the poster child of “ways renters destroy”, sub-category Garbage Disposal.
If not already mentioned:the “air gap” has a shiny cover that just (easily) pulls off. Under that is a tube-inside a tube. The cap on it should screw on/off - remove the cap and look for blockage - a bit of crud coming out of the D/W can lodge under the cap and block flow.
I have a Bosch dishwasher manufactured in Hell. About eight years old. Paid a thousand bucks for it. They said it was quiet. Not mine. Noisy as hell. My sister loves hers, and my wife’s friend loves hers, but mine is a piece of shit. Cycles for 5 to 6 hours on a load. I had a service contract for many years, paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And I’ve had at least 6 service calls. To a man, they have refused to do anything except offering advice on making my water hotter, mostly. Bosch dishwashers don’t do that, you see. It’s my fault, even though my water is coming in 10 degrees hotter than my plumber says it should. But it’s cycling for 6 hours. What can you do about that? Not a damn thing, my man. Try some Dishwasher Magic and call us again sometime. Total piece of shit. I have my eye on a cute little, non-European, Whirlpool. The metal-pickers will get a treat.
Ah no, I am many years wise to the ways of disposals, and the worst I feed the kitchen pig is an onion skin or an eggshell just to keep it in fighting trim. No potato peels or 2 pints of leftover soup.
Also, I do not have that kind of air gap device, nor have I seen one in anyone’s kitchen. My disposal has a 2.5 ft coil of mesh/plastic piping under sink, that’s all.
If the drain hose goes directly from the disposal to your dishwasher outlet and never goes up, I’d bet that’s your problem. At the very least, correcting that will probably fix your problem with backflow from your disposal to the dishwasher. That 2.5ft coil was probably, at some point, looped up and fastened up near the top of the cabinet. I’ll bet if you look up near the top, you’ll find a small screw hole where it was. In any case, if you can find a way to rehang it, that will probably solve some of your problems. They make zip ties with holes for screws. Creative use an electrical pipe clamp. Even a loop of something strong like some sand paper (then screwed in to the cabinet) will work. Hang the hose up as high as you can get it.
The installer probably pulled it down to pull the old unit out and didn’t put it back up because they forget or didn’t understand it.
I’ll keep looking for the warranty info.
