Sunday, March 22, 2020

My Dishwasher Finally Works! And How I Fixed My Blomberg Dishwasher's Drainage Issue E01

Warning, this post contains gross pictures, because the inside of a dishwasher that was filled and then never run doesn't look good, especially once the dishwasher tab starts melting everywhere.




When I came back from Vienna last Wednesday evening, I was very frustrated to see that my Blomberg brand dishwasher wasn't working. It kept on making a draining noise, even when it wasn't on, and whenever I tried to turn it on, it gave me an E01 error message.



So my first thought was to call a dishwasher repair person, but being in quarantine I am not able to do that, so I turned to the internet for help. However, the internet basically told me that E01 had to do something with the drainage, which was a great help (sarcasm intended) because I could hear it constantly attempt to drain even though there was nothing in it, even when it was off.



Places told me to empty the drain and clean it out, so I took out the little container that was inside the drain, hoping it would be a simple fix, but there was barely anything in it to clean out, and it didn't stop the issue once back in.


Apologies for the grossness, dripping from dirty dishes
So then I thought that maybe there was a problem in my U-bend under the sink, because the water goes down from my sink a little bit slowly. I unscrewed the drain under my sink to try to remove a clog from there, but there was literally nothing in the U-bend blocking it, so what I thought might be a simple fix wasn't. (And unfortunately since then I haven't been able to tighten it perfectly, so its still dripping a little water under my sink when the water drains. So I have a container to try to catch things, and will try to fix that soon.)

I posted in a local online group asking if anyone had the number of a repair person who could walk me through the steps to fix it, and this woman gave me the number of her husband, Moe.

Sorry for the grossness of that melted dishwasher tab

Moe first told me to take out the filter, and I took out the plastic piece and sent him a picture of that, but he told me that I need to remove the filter that that plastic piece was in. I thought it was impossible to remove without unscrewing the screws on the bottom of my dishwasher, but he told me to try unscrewing the filter itself, and I turned it and it came out!

This is what it looked like with the drain removed. No key to remove, just plenty of grossness
He then told me to reach inside and remove this plastic piece that should be like a key inside, but there was nothing like that inside. I showed him a picture of what I saw, and told me to try shutting the dishwasher door, and running it without the filter inside. The E01 error code wouldn't go away so I couldn't start it. He told me to unplug the dishwasher for a few minutes and plug it back in, to see if the error code would go away. No such luck.

He then told me to try pouring water into the bottom of the dishwasher drain. I filled the dishwasher with water, closed the door, and the water all drained out. I did this a few times (and rinsed out the gook that was in the dishwasher from when I filled it and it wasn't able to run) and the drain was pretty much empty. Then he told me to try to run it, but still the error code was there, even after unplugging it and waiting.

Then he told me to pull out the dishwasher from its place and tilt it forward. He said there must be water somewhere in the machine that isn't draining, and to help it drain. First he said to tilt it forward 5-10 degrees but that didn't help. Then I put it to 45% approximately. And nothing happened. But after a few minutes, the draining sound stopped finally, even when I straightened it! But the error code was still there.

Finally, I unplugged it, and after a few minutes plugged it back in. The error code was now gone! I put the filter back in, and just ran my first load.

I am crying tears of joy to have this dishwasher working again. Dishes are the bane of my existence and needing to hand wash all these dishes during this hard time was really trying my patience and zapping me of all my energy.

I offered to pay Moe for the help he gave me, but he wouldn't take any money. What a doll. I know I'll be hiring him when I need help in the future and am out of quarantine.

I'm posting this here for a few reasons. Also because I'm excited that it finally worked, also because I figure that with everything going on more and more of us will need to be fixing our own things in the future, and lastly, because maybe Google will index this and in the future when someone Googles how to fix an E01 error code with a Blomberg dishwater, people will find this post and be able to figure out how to take care of their issue.

On a side note, if you don’t have the time or need a repair pronto, you can consider the services of a home warranty. This home service contract covers the major appliances and systems in your home and offers repair and replacement services at discounted prices. The top home warranty companies in the market have been around for years and offer comprehensive coverage options.

Kitchen equipment are now available in a variety of modern looks, which can complement nicely with your home decor. When you have an open kitchen design, the contemporary kitchen equipment enhances the aesthetic of your home. Shirley from Today'sCave.com discusses several popular today styles and how to create a modern kitchen with ease.
 
Have you ever fixed your own dishwasher? What was the issue, and how did you fix it?

16 comments:

  1. Our dishwasher was acting up recently. Not spraying water. Keep in mind this dishwasher is less than 3 years old but we have been killing dishwashers for sometime now. We’ve been in Our current home for 9 yrs and it’s our 3rd dishwasher. My husband tried cleaning a few filters and resolved it by resetting it which would make it work. That fix would last for a few cycles and we’d be back to square one. He was ready to just chuck it and order another but I was adamant we could fix it. We bought a nicer model (kitchen aid) in the hopes it would last longer. Honestly aside from some trays breaking it’s been a dream. So quiet and cleans well. I figured out what the code was, you had to decipher from the amount of times in blinked. It was an issue in a hose under it so hubby pulled it out and cleaned the hose. I guess it was filled with gunk/food. I think our issue with killing dishwashers is not rinsing the food off well enough as it was all getting clogged in the pipes underneath. I always assumed you didn't have to wash the dish before going in the dishwasher and hadn’t taken care to rinse enough food off. Now we are being extra careful. I also don’t let any veggies scraps or rice go down the garbage disposal. I used to back up my sink to the point it would overflow from the overly low spout and flood the underside of the sink. Hard lessons learned there. Haha. To be fair I didn’t grow up with these things, my parents still wash by hand even when they stay with us.

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  2. Wow!
    I was sure that I have to call a technician. Thank you for posting this article!

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  3. Wow just had the same problem. And it works! Thank you!

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  4. At my inlaws, and we just came across the e01 error code. Tried every resource we could find, but nothing helped. Came across this post, and it actually solved the issue! Thanks a bunch!!

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  5. Greetings from Canada! The tipping trick worked for me!

    The long story is that the dishwasher outlet was blocked and in resolving this we apparently spilled enough water to trigger the flood sensor. Sliding the dishwasher forwards and tilting it (at which point a lot of water came out) has fixed it and now it's working fine.

    Thank you!

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  6. Just had the same issue, came across this article and tried it. 20 mins later, all working. Thank you!!

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  7. Thanks for the tips. Worked for me too. My filter was clean as I normally pre-rinse dishes prior to putting them in the dishwasher, but the machine was still displaying the error code. I pulled the dishwasher out from under the counter where it is, tilted and shook it a tiny bit and the error code went away.

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  8. Thank you from both of us 🙂. We were both overwhelmed and almost in tears. Reading this has saved us time money and a relationship 😀

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  9. Man, thank you a lot you saved us a lot of money and helped me, thank you!

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  10. Thank you so much for this article, you saved me days of washing dishes by hand !

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  11. 2 years later and this is still helping! Tipped over the dishwasher, a bunch of water came rushing out and now it works! Thank you so much!

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  12. Tell Moe he just fixed another one! He just saved me ~2 weeks of doing dishes. That's how long I would've had to wait for a repairman.

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  13. Thanks for the tip it worked for me !!! When I started to tilt the dishwaser, a lot of water started coming out of the bottom, like enough to soak a whole towel. After the water stopped, ran a quick rinse and the error was gone.

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  14. cool! do you tilt it forward or backwards? to get the dishwasher out enough to tilt youll have to disconnect a lot of things? thank you

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  15. Thank you for the 45 degree advice.... just had to do that with ours and it seems to have sorted the E01 code. So, just to be clear: I removed all excess water in the bottom of the machine using a jug. Then, removed the filter and removed the water in the bottom of the filter housing. Then, pulled the machine out and tipped it back 45 degrees and lots of water came out the bottom of the outer casing (have some towels handy for this part). Held it there for a minute to make sure it was all drained out. Set it upright, unplugged it, waited a few minutes and plugged it back in. All working now.

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