What to do if a dishwasher freezes

Dangling the dishwasher is a fairly common occurrence, which does not necessarily indicate a breakdown. Often the dishwasher freezes in the first or last minute as a result of a local failure, but sometimes it is a symptom of a serious breakdown that needs to be localized and repaired. Let's see why the dishwasher can start to hang, how to find the cause of the hang, and how to quickly fix it with your own hands.

Why does a malfunction occur?

If the dishwasher suddenly freezes for no reason, the cause of the problem is quite difficult to determine. Often with such a problem, the machine does not produce system errors, which means that you will have to intuitively limit the range of possible problems.

1. If the freeze occurs in the first three minutes after starting the program, but the water has not yet had time to pour, it may be a heating element.
2. In the event that the machine freezes in the first 15-20 minutes, it is worth paying attention to the control module. Usually this is what electronics do. In this case, the machine does not produce any errors.
3. Banal reasons can also prove themselves: overloading the machine with dishes, skewing of the case, a failure in the power supply network, or a blockage in the sewer.

The list of possible breakdowns can be much wider. The leakage protection sensor may be triggered, the pump, the intake valve or the circulation pump may break. But we exclude these reasons, because when they occur, the dishwasher self-diagnosis system responds by issuing an error code. In our case, the dishwasher freezes not accompanied by the appearance of an error code, based on this fact, we limit the range of possible malfunctions.

It is not uncommon that the cause of such a malfunction is serious damage to the PMM control module.

Urgent action

The reasons for the breakdown are, of course, good, but what should the user do in the first minutes after he discovered that his "home assistant" is hanging? He won’t get right away to disassemble the dishwasher with a multimeter at the ready in order to check the health of the heater. And you don’t have to climb anywhere, at least right away.

First try rebooting the dishwasher. Advice, of course, is banal, but it helps in about 1/3 of cases, it would be foolish to neglect it. Reboot should be correct:

• turn off the machine with the button;
• disconnect the plug of the network cable from the outlet;
• expect for 30 seconds;
• turn on the dishwasher again and try to start it.

If the reboot helped, the main cause could be a power outage. So that in future glitches do not disturb the equipment, it is worth purchasing dishwasher stabilizer. If the reboot did not help, we begin to understand. In the event that the machine has been working for you for a long time, and you did not move it from its place, and the freeze occurred in the middle of the program, it is worth looking at how well the water goes into the sewer. A common clog in a drain pipe, the self-diagnosis system of the machine may not be recognized and at the same time hang.

Imagine that you bought a typewriter recently and have been using it for no more than a month. Then the cause of the freeze may be the installation of the housing is not level, with a significant difference. In fact, PMMs are not as sensitive to distortions as washing machines. A wash from a skew of 4-5 degrees may stop working normally, but a difference of 10-15 degrees can become critical for a dishwasher. The solution to the problem is the alignment of the machine body.

Well, no need to discount the overload of baskets. If a load sensor was installed in the dishwasher, it could well work for overload. Then why didn’t the machine produce a system error? It's simple, for some models of Bosch dishwashers from 2013 to 2014, the load sensors had a similar defect.They worked without warning the machine’s self-diagnosis system, introducing the hosts into a stupor. Such cars can freeze for no apparent reason, and then go guess what happened.

Before opening the body of the machine, you should check everything that is possible. If the results of the check did not lead to a result, internal diagnostics should be performed.

Troubleshooting

Before we tell you how you can test the performance of the likely culprits of the hang, we consider it our duty to warn: this is not an easy task and requires some skills in working with a multimeter. If you have never heard of this device, and indeed have not been involved in the diagnosis of complex household appliances, entrust this work to a professional. At least you will not lose time in vain. If the machine is new and under warranty, then it’s generally better not to go to it. Let this be the “headache” of the service center specialists.

In the event that the warranty expires, special attention should be paid to the heating element of the Electrolux dishwasher or any other brand. Perhaps, it is the punched heater that caused a mysterious hang. What shall we do?

1. We block the water entering the dishwasher and turn off the appliance.
2. Disconnect all hoses, and unplug the power cord from the outlet and rewind.
3. Remove the fasteners holding the machine in a niche (for embedded PMM).
4. We unscrew the screws holding the side walls of the housing. We remove these walls.

In most dishwashers, through the side walls of the case, you can get to many details including the heater.

5. We disconnect the wires from the heater coil and check its resistance with a multimeter.
6. Using the same multimeter, we check the heating element for breakdown.

If a malfunction is detected, the heating element must be changed. The item can be ordered on the website of the company that manufactured your dishwasher. Suppose that the heating element is in order, then the matter is most likely in the control module. To check the electronics, there is little certainty in owning a multimeter, here you need more serious knowledge, and only a specialist has it. If there are suspicions that it was the control module that broke, you need to call the master, nothing can be done.