Dishwasher repair
Poor cleaning, standing water, leaks and cycles that never finish — diagnosed properly rather than blamed on the tablets.
What this costs
- Call-out and diagnosis
- £49.00£58.80 inc-VAT
- The repair itself
- £30.00£36.00 inc-VAT
- Parts, if any are needed
- Quoted first
6-month guarantee on repair work. Nothing is fitted without your say-so.
Most dishwasher call-outs start the same way: the plates are coming out gritty and someone has already tried a different tablet, a hotter programme and a bottle of machine cleaner. Occasionally that is the answer. More often the spray arms are not turning, the filter has packed solid, or the wash pump is turning too slowly to lift water to the top basket.
We work on freestanding, slimline and fully integrated machines from every major manufacturer. The usual faults — drain pumps, wash motors, heaters, door seals, spray arm bearings and the inlet valve — are stocked on the van, so most jobs are finished in the one visit.
A dishwasher that is not draining is also the one appliance on this list where waiting genuinely makes it worse. Standing water goes sour within a day or two and the smell gets into the seal.
Faults we see most
If one of these sounds like your appliance, say so when you book — it is often the difference between a repair finished on the day and a second visit for a part.
- Water left standing in the bottom at the end of the cycle
- Blocked filter, a kinked or blocked drain hose, or a failed drain pump.
- Dishes come out gritty, or the top basket is untouched
- Spray arms not turning, jets blocked with limescale, or a wash pump losing pressure.
- Not heating — the load is wet and cold at the end
- Failed heating element or thermostat. Plastics stay wet because there is no residual heat to dry them.
- Leaking from under the door
- A perished door seal or a door that has dropped on its hinges and no longer closes square.
- Stops mid-cycle, or will not start at all
- The door catch, the anti-flood float switch, or a control board that has lost a phase.
- Smells even after a hot cycle
- A filter and sump that need stripping properly, or a drain hose with a standing trap in it.
What happens on the day
- Filter, sump and spray arms stripped and cleared — done on every visit, whatever the reported fault.
- Drain path checked all the way to the trap under the sink, which is where the blockage often actually is.
- Wash and drain pumps tested under load, not just for continuity.
- Door seal and hinge alignment checked; a dropped door is a common cause of a leak nobody can find.
- A test cycle run through to the end before we call it fixed.
Questions we get asked
Would a different detergent fix the poor cleaning?
Sometimes, and we will say so if that is what we find rather than charging you for a repair you do not need. But if the spray arms are not turning or the pump is weak, no tablet will make up for it.
There is water in the bottom. Can I leave it until the weekend?
Better not to. Standing water turns within a day or two and the smell gets into the seal and the sump, which then needs stripping as well as the original fault fixing.
Do you fit integrated machines back behind the door?
Yes. Removing and refitting the furniture door, the plinth and the fixings is part of the job, not an extra.
My machine is full of limescale. Is that covered?
Descaling the spray arms and jets is part of a normal visit. If the heater has scaled to the point of failure it is a part, and we will quote it before fitting.