KENWOOD DISHWASHER KDW12SL3A PROBLEM

[clubb699]

Hi all,


Used my dishwasher the other night and was fine. Put another load in today, starts up fine and makes a draining sound as to drain any water away. It then fills with water and then will usually make a click and the water starts jetting out of the spray nozzels to carry on with cycle( Normal operation).

This does not happen now and instead i get a low hum noise with no water jetting. When the hum stops its quiet and after about 10 minutes the tablet dispenser releases but nothing else is happening. Dose anyone have any idea what this may be?

The dishwasher is about 14 months old i took the botom of the dishwasher apart tapped the motors thought i might free anything put it back together and got same problem.

Thanks for reading


Kind regards

 

[needyahelp]

Hi, may be too late for the original post here but in case anyone else finds it useful later on:
I had the very same problem with my Kenwood a few weeks back (mins a KDW24fI/B i think) at the end of summer 09. Anyway it turned out to be a blown motor run/start capacitor. This can be found attached to the main motor chassis inside the bottom of the machine at the back (you have to turn the machine around and remove the lower metal panel on the back to get at it, i would NOT reccommend turning the machine over or tipping it on its side as there is a hidden open water 'resevoir' on one side of the machine that will spill if you do). Just unscrew the nut and disconnect the two cables from the lugs. The only way i found the the capacitor had failed was because it was not perfectly cylindrical, it looked like it had suffered some form of internal explosion/over pressure and had bulged in places as a result. The replacement capcitor i needed was a: polypropylene film 450V 5uf (aka 5 micro farad) motor run/start capacitor. I couldnt get the very same brand one as in the machine (a hayoe brand) as they only supply from China and the minimum order is 1000 of them i think! Instead i found the one i wanted on a site called cpc.farnell.com (sort of a mix between tool station and maplin, quite a useful site but only when they dont demand a minimum order of 45 quite- come on cpc match toolstations delivery policy any ill order more often!)and the best thing is the part cost less that 2 quid! The voltage range printed on the replacement product on the cpc site had a variation of 425-475 but i think thats just how it goes (as long as its not miles off or you could risk fitting a capacitor that may explode prematurely) and as long as its the same microfarad rating (5uf in my Kenwoods case) you should be OK (unless anyoneelse knows better). Anyway i fitted the part and also took the opportunity to slap some anti rust paint on the kenwood where it had strangely badly rusted on the inside panels of the machine (not inside the wash area!) you can get the anti rust paint form toolstation for a few quite. Put the machien back together and its been working since. Reckon it saved me at least 100 quid as i was originally going to replace the wash motor/pump! Anyway hope this info is useful. Its amasing what you can replace yourself at relatively low cost (apart from time!) and sites like toolstation and cpc.farnell (any freebees welcome site owners hint hint!!) really do help! Note: dont try any of these diy service jobs unless youre prepared to get grubby and have your kitchen full of parts, oh and obviously fiddling with stuff you know absolutley nothing about isnt a good thinng to do unless you have some common sense and are capacble of working carefully & safely. Hope this item helps!

 

[LRRHOOD01]

Hi, Thankyou for this advice as I also have the same model as the original post, with exactly the same fault that occured at roughly the same time and has been sat in the kitchen, ever since. We were saving up for a new dishwasher in the sales before the vat goes up however for the sake of a few quid and a bit od mess I will give your tip a go. Wonder how many more people have had the same problem with this machine

 

[Leccy758]

A little bit of info for those that were expecting Kenwood dishwashers to be made by Kenwood itself or in fact to be anything to do with Kenwood.

They are made specifically for DSG (Dixons stores group) and have nothing at all to do with Kenwood (try getting support from them and they will tell you)

If you take the motor start capacitor into a local appliances shop they should be able to test it for you (we do for free). Quite a few multimeters now have capacitance testing settings now as well as not all capacitors have any obvious sign they have failed.

 

[needyahelp]

The thing is still going with no failures after all this time! Makes you wonder how many appliances get ditched just because of a tiny part!

 

[DIYRon]

I also have a Kenwood KDW12SL3A dishwasher that has recently suffered a mystery fault.

There's no fault code presented, just that it appears to start the cycle with a short period with the drain pump, then it fails to start washing, although the timer counts down. The cleaning tablet gets dumped out of the door as normal, but obviously with no water it is not being disolved.

There is a bit of residual water in the bottom though which is above the filter, which made me intially think that perhaps the filter was blocked. Having cleaned the filter, no difference there.

I'll have a check on the capacitor as mentioned above, inthe mean time if anyone has any other ideas, appreciate the advice.

Cheers
Ron

 

[teddyman]

hello all,
i have a kenwood kdw12st3a dishwasher and its not starting the cycle??,,,i can get the program up on the display screen but when i close the door it just keeps beeping and wont start the cycle,,it could be something simple or it could be unfixable
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Thanks all

 

[Rhydm]

Many thanks for the thread - still being used years later. My dishwasher issue started as an E3 fault. I fiddled around, but the only thing I could find wrong was a rusted earth connection on the heater (no continuity). So I polished this up and the fault went away. However, I then had no water circulation. I tried everything I found on line, but nothing worked. In then end, I stuck my screwdriver into the end of the pump's impeller and it was stiff. I jiggled it back and forth a few times and suddenly it ran free. Dishwasher now fixed! Hope this helps others..

 

[Matt Hitchmough]

Hi all, I have this dishwasher. It has failed 3 times since I bought it in 2017. First 2 times Curry's came out & fixed it but it failed again (1 week into lockdown, typical). Impossible to get hold of Curry's now so I ordered a capacitor form ebay for about a fiver. All the numbers are the same, 3 uf +-5% 450V 50/60Hz but these number are different 25/70/21 on the unit I bought but 40/85/21 on the original. Tried the new unit in the machine but it still cycles without actually cleaning anything. Scott, if you could send me a link to the unit you bought I would be very grateful. I can't find anything on CPC. Thanks guys

 

[Matt Hitchmough]

Scott, you're a legend.
Thank you

 

[BJW64]

Just signed into the forum to pass on my thanks to the posters on here, particularly Scott and Needyahelp.
My Kenwood dishwasher failed after about 2 years with same symptoms. My model is KID60B14.
I ordered the part Scott put the weblink on for and then went looking for the motor on my model. It was actually accessible from behind a front plate under the door at the front. The RH side panel needed to come off to get good access to the terminals to pull the wires off.
The capacitor on mine was the exact match for the part Scott linked including the 3uF +/- 5% rating.

Cost about £8.00 with postage.

Thanks again to all posters on this thread.

Brian

 

[Dynamac]

Just signed into the forum to pass on my thanks to the posters on here, particularly Scott and Needyahelp.
My Kenwood dishwasher failed after about 2 years with same symptoms. My model is KID60B14.
I ordered the part Scott put the weblink on for and then went looking for the motor on my model. It was actually accessible from behind a front plate under the door at the front. The RH side panel needed to come off to get good access to the terminals to pull the wires off.
The capacitor on mine was the exact match for the part Scott linked including the 3uF +/- 5% rating.

I have a KID60B16 so i'm hoping it's very similar to your dishwasher. Did you just do the replacement from the front panel? There doesn't seem to be a lot of space and i'm having some difficulty finding the capacitor. There would also be hoses from the pump in the way when accessing the motor from the front. I assume the capacitor is the big(ish) cylinder attached to the side of the motor body? This seems to be located to the left of the motor which is at the back of the dishwasher so well hidden away and can't even be seen from the right side with the panel removed. Did you have to remove the integrated door panel to gain better access to the front panel? Thank you.

 

[Dynamac]

Hi all

This thread helped my just over 1 year old Kenwood (DSG) KDW60B16 Dishwasher.
I had the same issue where it started filling with water and then nothing. Turned out to be the £1.90 motor capacitor 3uf variant mentioned in Needyahelp’s post. Got a new one from CPC.
Saved me buying a new dishwasher!

I literally signed up on here to show my appreciation!

Thanks.

Hi Scott,

Was your original capacitor metal cased and replaced with a plastic cased one as linked? The capacitor on my KID60B16 is metal so I don't know if it's a direct substitute?

Also how did you access your capacitor? I can't seem to access it from the front or side panel and the bottom seems to be one piece of plastic chassis without a bottom panel on my model even if I wanted to flip it on the side. Thank you.

 

[BJW64]

Dynamic

The metal panel to remove is hidden behind the bottom edge of the front door trim panel that is fitted to match your kitchen cupboard doors (See attached photo of front RH corner looking up from the floor). It is fitted just above the plastic chassis.

I took the rh side panel off to get to the wires at the end and to have more space to remove and refit the new capacitor.

The capacitor as fitted is a metal one (see second picture) but the replacement is indeed plastic.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dynamac]

Dynamic

The metal panel to remove is hidden behind the bottom edge of the front door trim panel that is fitted to match your kitchen cupboard doors (See attached photo of front RH corner looking up from the floor).

Thanks again BJW64 - my unit looks the same at the front bottom as yours. I wasn't able to confidently access the capacitor from the front or sides. So I ended up tipping it and accessed via the bottom. There is actually a bottom plastic panel - silly me for thinking the chassis is one whole unit. Once that's open (held by clips) and anti-flood wire removed, it was a piece of cake to get to the capacitor. My capacitor is identical to yours. So i just ordered a CPC one.

In terms of the capacitor - do I need to worry about residual charge and to discharge it first? The dishwasher has been unplugged for at least a day.