Baumatic BDWI640 drain problem

gerryo

I have this for 5+ years, just recently it ended the wash cycle early with pings to say job done. However, because it's an integrated unit,
I didn't see the flashing glass symbol that means the flood alarm was triggered.

Next time i tried to run it the flood alarm was still active & the drain pump was running while pinging, no program could be selected.

I removed it from the cabinet, took off the side panels, I could see there was water (not a lot) in the base. I tipped the
machine 45 degrees to let the water out & a few minutes later was able to start a program.

Original problem was still there, first thing it does is pump out the drain water & I could see it was splashing onto the base from
(what I later learned) is called an 'air breaker'.
Some water was flowing back into the wash area via the filler in the sidewall. The flood alarm was activated again.

I had to repeat the tipping to clear the alarm.

I disconnected the drain hose from the spigot under the sink & ran the water into a shallow bowl.
This time it worked as expected, no back flow & the program started to draw cold water.

Put the drain hose back on the spigot again, problem returned.
Looked online for a similar problem, found one guy with the exact same problem. Was on a UK
white goods forum, user posted a picture of the air breaker with a problem description that matched mine.
He got a reply to check drain hose for blockages & check the sink was draining properly. I checked mine & all were OK.

In the attached picture <air breaker.jpeg> , the water follows the path traced out by the blue line.
I can see the drain pump starts pumping water out the drain pipe, then it falls back down &
meets the water from the pump, moves up the narrow tube then splashes out into the base.

Has anyone ever fixed anything like this?
It looks like a pump problem, pump does work, maybe it's gotten weaker over the years? Maybe some seals are leaking?

I took out the air breaker, I found this inside it. <valve.jpg>.

Anyone know what that is?
It looks like a non-return valve, but I have no idea where it came from.
The internal dishwasher filters would block it so it must have come from
inside the machine.

May be a red herring or something that fell in when it was made.

Opinions?

Regards
gerryo

The Red Ace

what you describe as valve .jpg I assume is at the spigot end at the sink, this would be there to prevent sludge coming back from the sink basin into the d/w. re assemble the spigot using a piece of plastic bag as sealer and run the d/w hose into the sink ,if it works ok that non return valve is sticking closed putting back pressure on the pump. if there is still a problem I would suspect a problem with the flow meter which is the pcb with two wires attached in the other pic, this allows the correct level of water into the d/w

gerryo

The Red Ace wrote: »

what you describe as valve .jpg I assume is at the spigot end at the sink,

That's what I though too! it's too small however, I should have put a ruler in the picture to provide a measurement & show the scale properly. It's really the size of your small finger with the internal bore about 5 mm.

It's definitely some sort of valve, but not sure from where.
The d/w pumps fine as long as the hose is near horizontal, but it can't pump properly if attached to the spigot under the sink. I think the pump is weak.

A new one costs over €75 + shipping.

I now think it's been leaking water into the bowels via the side wall filler (the air breaker assembly seems to allow overflows to do this). Probably everything is contaminated with dirty water & will not be easy to clean without a total disassembly.

I tried cleaning it but could never really get rid of the smell.

The bottom basket is showing a bit of rust & there may be other parts about to fail. it's probably time to get a new one as it's not been washing properly for a while now.

Thanks for your interest.