Dishwasher not heating or drying, faulty heating element or Thermostat
If your Dishwasher water is not heating up during the washing cycle!
Then you might have a heating fault or thermostat failure the dishwasher cycle settings vary from 30 degrees Celsius to 65. However, the water is staying cold through the whole cycle. Grease and grime are starting to build up and food-based products are not cleaning from dishes properly. This is normally a problem with the heater system or thermostats see our video to help you on this.
This video will help you remove the old Dishwasher heater and replace with a new one also common faults with heating system
Youâll notice a couple of symptoms which make it easy to spot if your dishwasher isnât heating up the water properly â at the end of a wash program your dishes wonât be clean, and they wonât be dry ( NO Heat). Lack of hot water can be caused by a few different reasons and the problem is also dependent on your dishwasher model. But a simple hack is put the dishwasher on a hot cycle and record the high and low temperature with a thermostat or a recording device like our testing system.
Dishwasher heating faults
Error Codes
On digital displays you may get a fault code displaying telling you the fault with the dishwasher.
But on non-digital displays you may only get a flashing light or a sequence of flashing lights which is very hard to work out unless you have the manufactures workshop manual.
Heating Element
Regardless of whether itâs 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 under the machine usually) 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 multi-meter you can measure the resistance of your heating element which should read somewhere between 15 and 35 ohms Depending on element size fitted by the manufacture. A reading above 40 ohms would mean you either have an element below 1500 watt or it 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.
Check ohms law with the size of the element fitted and the voltage of your appliance.
On a 240 volt system
Example
1800 watt element should read 32 ohms (Ω) this will be pulling 7.5 amps when on
2000 watt element should read 28.8 ohms (Ω) this will be pulling 8.3 amps when on
A replacement heating element isnât massively expensive, and if youâre comfortable getting your hands dirty then itâs fairly simple to replace the part with a basic toolset and our video.
Thermostat
The thermostats are 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 itâs faulty then the dishwasher wonât âknowâ when to turn the heating element on and off to keep the water at the required temperature. there is normally a thermal cut out protector/thermal cut-out when this goes above temperature then it goes open circuit and canât be reset.
Just like the heating element, you can test the thermostat using a multi-meter to determine whether or not it is the source of the fault. Luckily itâs a very cheap part if you need to replace it, the only real difficulty is getting access to it as youâll find it underneath the dishwasher. On flow through heaters they normally canât be changed.
Other faults that can be causing this are:
The wiring may have gone faulty check the wiring back to the program especially around the door area.
The relay switches on the printed circuit board (PCB) may have become faulty.
You may have a faulty NTC sensor not reading the correct resistance at temperature.
All these tutorials are available at our site.
You can always attach a multi meter to the element and see if power goes to the element when on heating cycle, or you can try a continuity test on the thermostats and heating element.
-
How to replace a pump on a commercial glass washer dishwasher
-
Tumble dryer printed circuit board heater relay faults
-
Bosch, Neff or Siemens Dishwasher not emptying fault E25 Error Code
-
Hotpoint, Indesit Ariston dishwasher not filling F02, F06 or F07 error code
-
Indesit dishwasher error codes and faults Diagnostic fault finding
Hello
Hi,I have a dishwasher brand Bush DWSF146W. Dishwasher during the work stopped and was the error codes E7 (heating element). Plugs were off. Can I use heater from other dishwasher or I must to use exactly the same model heater?
Thank you for answer and help
Pavol
I have replaced the circulation pump/heater on my Siemens IQ300 diswasher twice and after 3 cycles the heating element in the pump has blown. I get E04 and E09 errror codes. What is causing the heater to blow?
Hi
I’m trying to fix my mum’s dishwasher, the check water light comes on, I’ve put a video on YouTube
https://youtu.be/ZSp4oZrtkec
Thanks Wayne
Hi
BOSH SMS40E82IL/73 dishwasher with heating problem
I called a local technician that replaced the main electronic board
He also test and found that there is 9 Amap in drying time (Donât know for how long, wasnât at home)
It looks like that it works ones but now it fail again
He said that there is no issue with the main electronic board and suggest to buy a new dishwasher âč
Any recommendation before buying a new machine
Thanks in advance
Doron
Hi,
Am hoping you can help regarding a zanussi ZSF6128 dishwasher that is intermittently not drying. Following your guide I replaced the heater element, which seemed to work fine for a while, but now every other wash is not drying properly.
Would appreciate if you can give me any other pointers to try out and fix the problem.
Many Thanks in advance and hope you are all keeping safe.
Neil
i think my john lewis dish washer is going through its cycle with only cold water and no drying
is it a common fault and is it possible to repair it
My dishwasher turn on but it is just continuous wash. When after about 3 hours I turn it off the water drains away fine but the items are very wet and cold and not terribly clean .
Hi, we have a Baumatic / BDW65S/W which has developed a problem. The cycle starts but shuts down almost immediately, the power remains on and runs the full onscreen time. Water and drainage connections are all fine and have been tested. Is it at all possible that the heating element if it is not working could have a detrimental effect on the wash cycle?
Would appreciate any input on this problem. Thanks Steve.
I have a Samsung dishwasher model DM300trs
It shows error code f4..which is a high temperature error
But the machine doesn’t fill nor start
Hi. I have a Beko dishwasher. I had a problem with water not heating. I replaced the flow through heating element, but still no hot water
If you know that the thermostats are good on the heater and have not blown again, then you may have a problem with either a sensor on the machine or it is possible, a broken wire normally inside the door frame, another common fault a really on the circuit board may have been faulty and not able to send power to the heating system