h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*waves to Caerwynn*

just a touch of the 'flu Caer. Fever, Sweats and the Chills so i'm being sensible (or rather Mrs Trician is making me be sensible )
and i'm staying home today instead of going out in the bright sunshine and 25deg. temperatures

alec.

Right. baby's awak and hubby's home, so in between feeding the pair of them, I'll see what I can do.

Alec - if it's the pipe *in* the dishywashy, why did it work in the workshop?

Caerwynn - where would I put the soda crystals? In the machine or what?

Yes indeed, we bought a Bosch for reliability, however my trusty wachine machine repair man only does Hotpoint, which might sway me to that brand in the future.

Whisky - one of the firemen was....NORWEGIAN!!!!

Cloviscat...did you actually see the machine working in the repair shop?

I'm just going through a process of elimination, as there are really only a few parts that can go wrong.

alec.

The soda crystals and boiling water go down the sink and basin plugholes, Cloviscat. If you are going to do one, you might as well do them all.

Alec, I can see you're as cynical as I am.

No - I didn't see it in the worshop. They took it away lasy Monday, and sad they would call us to let us know what's wrong/how much so we could consent to the work.

No-one called, so on Friday pm hubby called them. They said they had run it and run it, had found "only a small leak" which they had fixed without checking with us, and as nothing else seemed wrong, could return it on Tuesday...

Tuesday being today, it was returned, and you know the rest...

Yes, I was a bit suspic. about that story. I had wondered if it had flooded because of my foolish onion, and then wouldn't fill because it had tripped a safety cut off switch... but why did it then flood when I tried it this morning?

Hmm...well, don't look now, but: I've tried to follow your advice, and gone looking at the innards in the bottom. I've unplugged it, bailed it out, removed all the gratings and plug type things I could find, stuck my finger (carefully!) down what ppeared ot be the waste pipe - no blockage that I could find. I then switched it back on to put some water in it - but no dishes, soap or gratings...

....

....and it's running. It's emptying during the course of the wash. On the dial, a wash starts at ten past, and finishes at o'clock. It flooded this morning at half past. Well, it's at twenty to now, and still going. By ten to it's on the drying cycle, no more water....

...better get back to the kitchen, I've been sitting on the fllor for the last 3/4 hour, with a teatowel amd a pile of

Fingers crossed....

well... it's got to the end of the cycle, with no wetness. What is going on????

Now what do I do? Hubby's got the engineer coming back tomorrow! Shall I do the carol-singer shuffle under the window when he rings the doorbell?

...sorry about the delay in getting back to you Cloviscat
i had to go and have a little lie-down and suddenly its two hours later.

erm if it has now run through an entire cycle without flooding/bursting into flames or otherwise demanding to be sent back to The Creator, then it was probably just the float switch that was stuck, and now it ain't.
The water valve should open and fill (only to about 30mm depth)
something like 3 or 4 times during a cycle.
1 First wash
2 Second wash
3 first rinse
4 second rinse
Each time it does this, that float switch tells the water when to turn off.

All i can suggest now is that you try and break it again....
go ahead, make it work hard (but don't try to make it digest another onion)

alec.

Now an hour or more later, we put all the bits back in, checked salt and rinse aid, stacked it with baby bowls (what with all the sitting around, dinner never got cooked, so we ate trash and watched the middle bit of Fellowship of the Ring) and it's now done a 'real wash...

Hubby's just tried to leave a message palming off the engineer's visit - we thought it was less embarrassing to talk to an ansaphone, but no ansaphone, so it's tme for one of us tomorrow.

Thank you, everyone, and especially Alec from your bed of pain - without you I wouldn't have had the guts to run the damn thing.

No more onions - promise

I think it is so to be able to open it mid cycle to add the the cups and glasses discovered in No1 son's room to find that the water is neatly contained in the bottom of the machine.

glad to be of some help...
is this a first ?? major appliance repair through hootoo??

alec.

It's just washed some more dishes!

Hubby has cancelled the engineer

There've been software fixes aplenty on hootoo, but I know of no other white goods repair - transatlantic or otherwise.

Isn't hootoo a wonderful thing?

Big thanks again to everyone. You probably don't fancy right now Alec, so have some