Why is the water not heating up during the washing cycle
Why is the water not heating up during the washing cycle
The cycle settings vary from 40 degrees Celsius to 65. However, the water is staying cold through the whole cycle. Grease and milk based food not cleaning from dishes properly.
You’ll notice a couple of symptoms which make it easy to spot if your dishwasher isn’t heating up the water properly – at the end of a wash program your dishes won’t be clean, and they won’t be dry. Lack of hot water can be caused by a few different reasons and the problem is also dependent on your dishwasher model, and whether it is plumbed into the hot or cold water supply.
Unfortunately there usually isn’t a quick fix to this type of fault and a replacement part will be required. That said there are some causes that you can troubleshoot and repair yourself.
Heating Element
Regardless of whether it’s plumbed into a hot or cold water supply, your dishwasher will have a heating element (visible in the tub) or a flow-through heater (which isn’t exposed) that are used to control the water temperature and aid in the drying process.
Although the heating element is generally a very reliable component of a dishwasher, it can burn out or suffer from an electrical/wiring fault.
If you have a multimeter you can measure the resistance of your heating element which should read somewhere between 15 and 30 ohms. A reading above 30 means the element is faulty and will need to be replaced. If the resistance reading is OK then check the wiring and control board for damage.
A replacement heating element isn’t massively expensive, and if you’re comfortable getting your hands dirty then it’s fairly simple to replace the part with a basic toolset.
Thermostat
The thermostat is the other component that can commonly cause your dishwasher to not heat the water. The job of the thermostat is to regulate the water temperature throughout a wash program. If it’s faulty then the dishwasher won’t “know” when to turn the heating element on and off to keep the water at the required temperature.
Just like the heating element, you can test the thermostat using a multimeter to determine whether or not it is the source of the fault. Luckily it’s a very cheap part if you need to replace it, the only real difficulty is getting access to it as you’ll find it underneath the dishwasher.
Hot or Cold Plumbing?
Whilst almost all dishwashers can operate using the cold water supply and heating water internally, many people connect their dishwasher to the hot water supply if their model allows it, as it can be more energy efficient and inexpensive (especially if you run a cold/no-drying program).
If you have your dishwasher connected to the cold water supply then it’s highly likely that a faulty heating element or thermostat are the cause of the water not heating.
If you’re connecting to hot then it’s worth checking the water supply to check that there is actually an issue with the dishwasher and not elsewhere. Try running the hottest washing program to see if the dishwasher itself is able to heat the water to the required temperature.
As a side note it is worth paying close attention to the operating instructions if you connect your dishwasher to the hot water supply, making sure you don’t exceed the maximum water temperature. Many modern models will also detect if the water entering the machine is already hot and shorten the duration of the wash cycle accordingly, which can result in sub-par cleaning.
Check out the Dishwasher Not Drying wiki as well, as it deals with some related issues."
"There are two things that influence the temperature of a dishwasher.
1. Heating element
2. Thermostat
The heating element is a coil which is responsible for turning the water hot that comes in to your dishwasher. While the thermostat controls the temperature of the heating element, how hot you want it to be on each cycle.
Using a multimeter you can check these components for resistance and replacing them is not that expensive too."
SOLVED my problem - this blue wire runs down the inside of the door from the PCB into the back. Not sure what it does, but it had broken at the bend at the door hinge.
People, remember to "prime" your system with hot water at the SINK before doing this, these heaters are only so strong, my suggestion is, and manufacturers also, is to run sink until your water is hot, then run the dishwasher.
WDF530PAYB6 I had a bad heating element. Replace it and the high limit thermostat, and still had no heat. I then found Service sheet W10580720A. It read that a diagnostic mode needed ran to turn the element back on. Diagnostic mode started by using the 123123123 button method. After that unit was fully functional.
First, look at the heat coil in the bottom of the tub to see if there is any visual damage, such as a melted or burned through spot. If you see a spot like that, the element is bad and needs replacing. Otherwise, the dishwasher needs to be pulled out so the heating element can be checked at its terminals on the bottom (unless you're lucky enough that the terminals are at one of the front corners, as they are on some units) outside of the tub with a multimeter set to ohms. Depending upon the manufacturer, the element should read 15 to 25 ohms of resistance. If it reads "0", then it's bad and needs replacing.
