Our 3 year old integrated NEFF dishwasher mistakenly condemned.
Our 3 year old integrated NEFF Dishwasher, although going through its washing cycles, was not heating the water that was being circulated through the machine.
August 30th 2019, I called Staffs Washers who said that they could call round in a few days, but would charge a non-refundable call out fee of £35 because it was an integrated appliance (somehow more difficult than a stand-alone) - I gave them the go-ahead to call round.
Staffs Washers came out a few days later and diagnosed a faulty Heat Pump, which he said would cost us £140, so I agreed that he order a new heat pump and fit it. I then paid his £35 call out fee - £35 for around 60 seconds work to remove the washer from its cupboard housing. He photographed the washer’s make and model detail plate and left with our defective heat pump.
September 10th Steve (Staffs Washers) called saying he had the new heat pump, which he could fit the following day. I requested him to bring the Heat Pump’s receipt for my records - just to ensure it was a genuine part, not recycled and in case anything went wrong later with warranties.
September 11th Steve fitted the Heat pump, secured the washer back in its bay and asked for another £126 (cheaper than his original £140 quote), making £161.00 in total. I asked him for the Heat Pump’s receipt that I had requested the previous day, he said it was in the system back at his shop and I couldn’t have it. So I asked him for the company’s name who provided it to him so that I could phone them, he would not tell me. I then asked him to copy the receipt and send it to me, he said that he couldn’t. I said “how do I know if the part he’d fitted was a genuine part or not our original Heat Pump that had been repaired” given that I had no receipt. He then produced our original heat pump from his van - it had been taken apart and had suffered a botched attempt at screwing it back together (not flush and a screw missing) he later said that he had taken it apart to see if it could easily be fixed.
However, we potentially had a working dishwasher so I paid him and he left.
Later that day we tried to use our dishwasher, but it just made whirring sounds because no water was entering the machine from its inlet tap. I called Steve and he said that he had probably kinked the inlet hose when he pushed the machine back in place and he will call round tomorrow to have a look.
September 12th after some time working on the washer Steve said that he did not know why no water was entering the machine and would have to go back to his shop and check his circuit diagram to see what the problem was. I suggested that he spoke with NEFF or Bosch support as they should know what the problem was, but he said something about not speaking to them - also how he would have access to circuit diagrams for all models and makes of NEFF dishwasher is quite a feat. He left with both his replacement heat pump and our old defective and damaged heat pump.
September 13th Steve phoned us in the afternoon and said he had bad news, something I was expecting, as when he left the previous day he was not confident and took his heat pump AND our old heat pump away with him, presumably to return our old heat pump in the same condition as it was before he took it apart. He said that on checking his circuit diagram he was 90% certain that our dishwasher’s Control Board was damaged and these cost around £200 to fix, making a total dishwasher repair cost of £361 - he further added that he DID NOT FIT Control Boards - I wonder why?
I said that this was unacceptable because when he first called to fix our dishwasher there was only ONE fault, which was the water was not heating and that if there was now a new fault and he must have introduced it. He said that there was nothing he could have done to cause the problem, but added that he had found that our original heat pump had short circuited and that this could have damaged the control board - he had to think of something fast.
I said that it was not worth spending £361 on a 3 year old dishwasher, especially since he was only 90% certain that a new Circuit Board would fix the problem. He then said that if we purchased a new dishwasher he would install it for us, I replied that this was too risky and that if we went down this path I would rather have someone else do this job or I would install it myself.
I asked Steve to return the money that we had paid him and our old Heat Pump in the condition that he found it so that I could install it myself to see if it would allow water to be circulated, as it did prior to him attempting his repair. He said that he would call around the following day (Saturday).
Waited all day Saturday, but he did not turn up!
Monday September 16th Steve turned up with our original Heat Pump, missing screw replaced and screwed together and a cheque for £126 to refund us for the Heat Pump and labour that he charge, but did not fix our fault. However, he retained the £35 call out fee that we had paid him, despite his calling card that he left us with on his first visit specifying “Free call out / Fee estimates”.
September 17th I installed our original defective dishwasher Heat Pump and the water inflow to the machine was re-established - the machine was working, but not heating water, as it was prior to Staffs Washers (Steve’s) visit.
When installing our old heat pump I noticed two anomalies related to the Dishwasher’s AQUASTOP hose, which Steve had not noticed and the correct circuit diagram would have identified. The AquaStop hose is a safety feature with several modern cloths and dish washers (including AEG, Bosch, NEFF and Siemens). Its purpose is to prevent flooding, so long as there is power to the AquaStop hose the tap’s valve is open, when power is cut the tap’s valve closes. These were the two anomalies I found, either would have caused our tap valve to have been closed:
1. Our AquaStop hose fixing plate, which should have been secured to the lower back of the dishwasher, was trailing loose and the two wire connector plug, which controls the opening of the AquaStop’s tap shut off valve, was loose.
2. After tipping the dishwasher on its side to gain easy access to the heat pump, quite a lot of water was emptied from the base of the dishwasher. On the dishwasher’s base plate there is a float sensor in a recess and when there is a little water present, indicating a potential leak, the float is raised and power is cut to the tap’s shut off valve and it is closed preventing any water entering the machine.
So, since we now had only a water heating problem, I ordered a Genuine NEFF Heat Pump from the NEFF website costing only £76.67, a tradesman could have obtained one cheaper.
September 21st it was a straightforward job to install the new Heat Pump and our dishwasher is now working perfectly and has been for over 10 washes now.
It took me around 3 hours with some DIY help from the internet to save our dishwasher from being scrapped and saving us around £490 if buying new.
STAFFS WASHERS had not checked for the obvious causes of a water inlet blockage on these modern appliances (the AquaStop) and therefore had wrongfully condemned (not economically repairable) our 3 year old dishwasher, which would have cost us dearly.
I wonder how many people have had to pay for unnecessary parts or even scrap their appliances because of an incorrect diagnosis.