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Bosch Dishwasher Repair - Tank Won't Drain

My BOSCH SHE43P26UC/64 dishwasher generally works pretty well, however, it recently developed a problem where the dishes were coming out dirty. After washing dishes by hand for a week, a fix was overdue. I suspected that the dirty dishes were caused by the water not being drained from the tank of the dishwasher. By all appearances, the dishwasher was a happy camper. It would run through the complete cycle and the countdown timer ticked off the time. In the end, there was usually water in the bottom of the tank and it looked dirty. In fact, I tried to clean out the water and tank once and after the next wash, the dishes were less dirty, so what I think was happening was that the dirty water was getting dirtier after each wash. Since I could hear the drain motor running, I suspected that there was a clog some place that was preventing the water from draining.

Here are the steps I took to resolve the issue:
1) Searched Google for Bosch Dishwasher Repair Training Manual

2) Read the manual and learned that my model drains the tank using a timer.

3) Pulled the dishwasher out from under the counter.

4) Put a screw in at 20" up the wall so that a loop in the drain tube can be made over the screw.
This loop prevents cavitation in the small drain pump. The loop is required even when an air gap is used.

5) Removed and cleaned out the clear plastic air gap on the left side of the unit.

To run the drain pump to test your work, lift the red plastic vertical rod upward to activate the drain pump.

6) Disconnected the drain tube from the air gap and ran the pump to test whether or not the drain pump was flowing enough water. If you try this and your pump works, you'd better have a pitcher to catch the water. Clearly, my pump was not the problem here as this pump push quite a lot of water.
I learned a neat trick. There is a red-colored plastic rod that runs vertically from the basin under the washer to the switch that drains the tank if you have a basin leak. It turns out that if you move the plastic rod upwards, the drain pump will run and drain the basin. The first time I tested the unit, I scooped the water out with a cup, which is stinky and tiring.

7) Fired up the air compressor and blasted air through the drain pipe that leads from the back of the washer to the air gap. This forced a clog to blow out the tube with impressive force, necessitating a clean-up effort. If you repeat my manuever, put a sock over the open end of the tube. The air pressure was sufficient to dislodge a wooden skewer that had caused a clog to form.

8) For good measure, I removed and blew air through the remaining length of hose that ran from the air gap to the garbage disposal.

Bosch Dishwasher Repair - Controller Board Burned Up

My first Bosch Dishwasher was a SHU3306UC-U12. Other than a bad water valve, I didn't have any trouble with it and it did a great job with the dishes until it caught fire at 2 AM 10/02/2011. Apparently, there was a recall on the controller board for this model, but I didn't know that at the time. The house started to fill with smoke and oddly, my fire alarms did not trigger. By the time I awoke, the smoke was chest-high in the house. It was alarming to say the least. I raced around the house trying to find the source of the fire, but I couldn't find it. I went up into the attic to make sure the fire wasn't up there. Fortunately, there was no smoke smell at all in the attic. I found myself in the oddest place of all; having the smoke getting thicker, but having no idea where the fire was. At that point, I called 911 and the experts arrived on scene. They used a thermal imaging camera to try to find the source. I had done a bad thing in that I went around the house unplugging things to make sure they weren't the cause. The fireman said that that could prevent them from quickly finding the cause. At one point they had asked if I had run the dishwasher that evening and I answered "yes." The fireman said "the smoke is definitely getting worse." Then one of them asked me if I had had the recall done on my BOSCH. I said I didn't know there was one. As we looked at the dishwasher, the flames inside could be seen through the warped black plastic control panel. Since the entire unit was black, it had hidden the obvious signs until it was closely inspected. They pulled the unit out of the house and hosed it down. I still find it amazing that the house could fill with smoke like that from an essentially invisible fire inside the front door of the dishwasher.

I called Bosch to see about getting a new unit. After some convincing, they grudgingly said that they would send a repairman out from our local Sears to repair the unit. Naturally, I told them that it wasn't repairable and sent a photo, but the representative insisted. A couple of weeks later, the repairman came out and looked at the unit, blamed the fire on me (improper loading of the unit), and wrote up an invoice that said that the unit wasn't repairable. Yes, he was a moron. I didn't argue, since his opinion wasn't requested by Bosch. The defect in the board was likely a cold solder joint on one of the heater relay pins.

After calling Bosch back, I was directed to yet another number to call, where I was eventually offered another dishwasher very similar to the one I had. So I was without a dishwasher for almost two months. Sadly, the new one doesn't wash dishes or load as easily as the old one. My opinion is that Bosch should have come to the conclusion that they owed me a new dishwasher much sooner. If I hadn't have woken when I did, things could have been much worse.

Last update: Jan 12th, 2014