Bosch shpm65z55n dishwasher thinks the door is open
This is a fairly new washer. We’ve had it less than 6 months. Last night I thought I ran a cycle, but it never started. Here’s what now happens:
- I set the cycle, press start, and close the door.
- The red light comes on solid, but the washer does not beep. Beeping is the sign that I’ve closed door without pressing start. By turning on the red light but not beeping the washer is acknowledging that I’ve pressed start and closed the door.
- After a couple of seconds, the red light starts flashing.
- The cycle never starts. The washer remains in that state indefinitely.
I examined the door latch, and it appears to be working correctly. When I trigger the lever, the latch descends. When I press hard on the latch, the latch retracts. When I close the door, the latch clearly engages, but there is a little bit of play. I don’t know if it that play is normal or not.
If I hold the door shut by keeping pressure on the door when I close it, the washer behaves normally. At any point if I release the pressure on the door, the cycle will stop, and the red light will begin blinking.
If I place a magnet to the left of the left screw that secures the door latch to the door, the washer believes that the door is closed and behaves normally.
I used a bit of ferrous metal to test the magnetic area that sits above that screw when the door is closed, and it is indeed still magnetic, though not as strongly magnetic as the magnet I used to test with.
I appear to have isolated the problem to the door latch/sensor. Before I go buying parts and replacing things, can anyone give me some confidence about whether I should be replacing the:
- door latch
- door sensor
- the magnetic bit the sensor is supposed to be sensing
- something else, like maybe the door hinges?
Thanks!
Is this a good question?
2 Comments
This comment from https://forum.appliancepartspros.com/pos... is exactly what I'm experiencing:
I just called the Bosch help number in the manual, 1-800-944-2904. Lady spoke native USA english, had me cycle the start button (hold down for a short period) and then close the door.
Red light still flashed. She then instructed to close the door firmly. I did but it continued flashing. On my own, I closed the door and still held pressure on it and noticed the light went steady. I told the technichian what I observed and she indicated the latch probably needed to be replaced. I thanked her and hung up. I played with the door and was ably to get it to stay latched. Obviously, the flashing red light indicates door not latched. The fix is to reset the door latch or just have it replaced. Dishwasher is 4 years old and this was the first problem. Documentation (manual furnished at time of sale) had little indication of what the idiot lights represented.
by Daniel Templeton
very helpful. I fiddled with the latch a bit and heard a click. then the dishwasher started. thanks
by Marion Speidel