Not draining — dirty water left in the base
The programme ends or stops with two or three inches of grey water standing over the filter, often with a drain error code and a smell.
Dishwasher Repair
Dishwasher repair across Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire — drainage, heating, spray arm, door seal and control faults fixed in your kitchen with a 6-month guarantee.
From £90Call-out
labour included
labour included
8–10 yearsTypical lifespan
with maintenance
with maintenance
12Common faults
diagnosed below
diagnosed below
6 moGuarantee
parts & labour
parts & labour
Dishwashers are the appliance most affected by water quality, and in our patch that matters enormously. Cambridge Water and Affinity Water supply chalk-borehole water at roughly 280–320 mg/l calcium carbonate — around 20 Clark degrees — which is at the very hard end of the UK range. Every wash deposits scale on the flow-through heater, in the spray arm jets, on the wash pump impeller and across the internal pipework. A dishwasher in Huntingdon or Royston that never has its softener salt topped up will scale up in three years in ways a machine in Glasgow never would. That is why the first question we ask on a dishwasher call is about salt and rinse aid. Almost every dishwasher sold in the UK has a built-in ion-exchange water softener with a resin chamber, a salt reservoir and a hardness setting in the control menu. Set that hardness setting too low for our water — and it usually is, because factory defaults assume medium hardness — and the machine will scale regardless of how much salt you put in. Getting the setting right is often the single most valuable thing an engineer does on the visit. Beyond scale, the recurring faults are drainage, heating and spray coverage. Blocked filters and macerator chambers, failed drain pumps, blocked non-return valves, perished door seals, failed flow-through heaters, faulty NTCs, broken wash pumps, jammed detergent dispenser wax motors and cracked spray arm bearings account for the overwhelming majority of calls. We repair freestanding, semi-integrated, fully integrated and slimline 45cm machines across all major brands — Bosch, Neff, Siemens, Miele, Beko, Hotpoint, Indesit, AEG, Zanussi, Candy, Hoover and Whirlpool. A £90 call-out covers the visit, the diagnosis and the labour; parts are charged on top and quoted for your approval first. Twelve months parts and labour on everything we fix. We work on domestic dishwashers only.
What the call-out costs
| Freestanding dishwasher | £90 |
| Integrated dishwasher | £100 |
| Parts, if any are needed | Quoted before fitting |
| If we cannot repair it | Call-out only |
£90 for a freestanding machine. Integrated appliances incur a £10 surcharge, so £100 — an integrated machine has to come out of the run of units before anything can be diagnosed, and go back in afterwards.
The 12 faults we see most
If one of these sounds like your machine, we have almost certainly fixed it before. Tell us which and we will bring the right parts.
Book a repair
Pick your own slot in the diary — appliance, address and a time that suits you, in about a minute.
Book online (opens in a new tab)or
07849 033758Same-day slots when we have one. Call-out from £90, labour included.
Straight answer on price
£90 call-out — that covers the visit, the diagnosis and the labour. Parts are the only extra, quoted for your approval before we fit anything. No hourly rates. 6 months guarantee on parts and labour.
Dishes come out dirty or gritty
Food residue left on plates, grit in glasses, and detergent tablet only partly dissolved or stuck in the dispenser.
Not heating — dishes cold and greasy at the end
The cycle finishes but the interior and dishes are cold, plastic items are soaking wet, and greasy residue is left on everything.
Leaking water onto the kitchen floor
Water at the front of the machine or seeping from under the kickboard, sometimes only noticed as damaged flooring or a swollen plinth.
White film, cloudy glasses and limescale marks
A chalky white bloom on glassware and the tub interior, white spots on cutlery, and a rough deposit around the heater or sump.
Won't start or no power at all
Nothing happens when the door is closed and start pressed — no lights, no fill noise, or lights come on but the cycle never begins.
Not filling with water
The machine starts and hums or clicks but no water enters, and it errors out after a few minutes.
Dishes not drying properly
Everything is clean but soaking wet at the end, particularly plastics, and water pools in upturned cup bases.
Detergent tablet not dissolving / dispenser stays shut
The tablet is still sitting in the closed dispenser at the end of the cycle, or a partly dissolved tablet is stuck in the flap.
Loud grinding, buzzing or humming during the wash
A harsh grinding or rattling from the base, a buzzing that rises and falls, or a loud hum with poor spray pressure.
Bad smell from the dishwasher
A stale, drain-like or eggy smell when the door is opened, worse after the machine has stood unused for a day or two.
Error code displayed and cycle stops
A code such as E15, E24, F04 or a flashing tap or drain symbol, with the cycle abandoned part way through.
Is it worth repairing?
Dishwashers repair well because most faults are drainage, sealing or scale rather than catastrophic mechanical failure. Use the 50% rule against a replacement cost of £350–£550 for a decent mid-range machine, or £450–£700 for an integrated one once you account for fitting and transferring the decor door. Our charge is a £90 call-out covering the visit, the diagnosis and the labour, so the part is the only figure that moves — and on a machine under eight years old the common parts sit well inside the 50% line. Typical lifespan is 8–10 years for mid-range, 12–15 for premium brands like Miele. The clearest replace decision is a failed wash pump and flow-through heater assembly on a budget machine over eight years old — the part alone can approach half the price of a new appliance. There is also a strong environmental case for repair here. A dishwasher contains a significant amount of stainless steel and copper, and its manufacturing footprint far exceeds a few years of running emissions. Modern machines also use less water than washing by hand — around 9–12 litres a cycle against 40 or more at the sink — so keeping a working dishwasher running is genuinely the low-impact choice. We'll always tell you when the numbers say replace, and we can supply, fit and take the old machine away.
If it's time to replace, see what we sell
Brands we repair
We work on every major manufacturer, and our vans carry spares for the ones we see most in this area.
First-time fix
Our vans carry a wide range of dishwasher spares so most jobs are finished on the same visit. If we need to order a part, it's usually fitted within a couple of working days at no second call-out charge.
What the call-out is
£90 for a freestanding machine. Integrated appliances incur a £10 surcharge, so £100 — an integrated machine has to come out of the run of units before anything can be diagnosed, and go back in afterwards. Parts are on top and quoted for your approval before anything is fitted.
Domestic only
We do not work on commercial or coin-operated machines.
Maintenance
Make your dishwasher last longer
Water across Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire runs around 280–320 mg/l. That limescale is the single biggest reason appliances die early here.
Set the water hardness for Cambridgeshire, not the factory default
Our supply runs around 280–320 mg/l calcium carbonate, near the top of most machines' scale. Go into the settings menu and set the hardness level to its highest or second-highest step. Factory defaults assume medium hardness and are the single biggest cause of scale damage locally.
Keep the salt reservoir topped up
Use proper coarse dishwasher salt, never table salt, and check the level monthly — in hard water a machine can empty the reservoir in three to four weeks. Make sure the cap is screwed down fully, because a leaking cap lets salt into the tub and corrodes cutlery. All-in-one tablets do not replace salt at our hardness.
Clean the filter weekly
Twist out the filter assembly, rinse it under a hot tap and scrub the mesh with an old toothbrush. Check the sump underneath for glass fragments and fruit stones. A clogged filter recirculates dirty water and is the leading cause of poor cleaning results.
Clear the spray arm jets monthly
Unclip both arms and poke each jet with a cocktail stick, then rinse them through under the tap. Scale and seed debris block the small jets first, which creates the classic pattern of clean plates at the front and dirty ones at the back. Check the arms spin freely by hand.
Run a hot service wash every month
An empty 65–70°C intensive cycle with a dishwasher cleaner or 150g of citric acid strips the grease and scale that eco cycles leave behind. If you run mostly 50°C eco programmes, this is essential rather than optional. It also clears the smell most people accept as normal.
Keep the rinse aid topped up
Rinse aid lowers water surface tension so it sheets off rather than beading, which is what actually dries your dishes. In hard water set the dosage a step or two above default. Empty rinse aid is behind most 'it doesn't dry properly' complaints we attend.
Scrape, don't rinse
Scrape solids into the bin but don't pre-rinse plates under the tap — modern detergents need soil to work against, and a spotless load can actually wash worse. Just keep bones, stones, labels and skewers out, because those are what wreck pumps.
Wipe the door seal and the door trough
Run a damp cloth around the seal and along the trough at the bottom of the door frame every couple of weeks. Debris collects there, degrades the seal and causes both smells and eventual leaks. A door seal replacement means a call-out plus the part; a cloth is free.
Error codes
Dishwasher error codes
If your machine is showing a code on the display, look it up here and we will tell you what it is reporting.
E15Bosch E15Water in the base — the anti-flood float has been triggered by an internal leak.E24Bosch E24Check drain — the machine cannot empty within the expected time.E25Bosch E25Drain pump blocked or failed — the pump cannot move water out of the machine.E22Bosch E22Filters blocked — water cannot circulate through the filter system.E09Bosch E09Heating fault — the water is not reaching wash temperature.E15Neff E15Water in the base — the anti-flood float has been triggered by an internal leak.E24Neff E24Check drain — the machine cannot pump the water out.E25Neff E25Drain pump blocked or failed — the pump cannot move water out of the machine.E22Neff E22Filters blocked — water cannot circulate through the filter system.E15Siemens E15Water in the base — the anti-flood float has been triggered by an internal leak.E24Siemens E24Check drain — the machine cannot pump the water out.F03Hotpoint F03Water drain failure or timeout — the machine cannot empty.
Questions
Dishwasher repair FAQs
How much does a dishwasher repair cost?
A £90 call-out covers the visit, the diagnosis and the labour; parts are charged on top and quoted for your approval before fitting. Drain pumps, door seals, inlet valves, dispensers and descaling are all inexpensive on the parts side. The higher-cost job is a combined wash pump and flow-through heater assembly, which is a single expensive part on most modern machines.
Is it worth repairing a dishwasher?
Usually yes if the machine is under eight years old, since a mid-range dishwasher costs £350–£550 new and an integrated one more once fitting is counted — a £90 call-out plus a pump, valve or seal is easy arithmetic. The judgement call is a pump-and-heater assembly on an older budget machine, where the part cost alone approaches half a replacement.
How long does a dishwasher repair take?
Most jobs are done in one visit of 45 to 90 minutes. Pump and heater replacements on integrated machines take a little longer because the appliance has to come out from under the worktop and be refitted. We carry drain pumps, valves, seals, NTCs and dispensers for the main brands.
Can you repair an integrated dishwasher?
Yes — the majority of the dishwashers we attend are integrated or semi-integrated. We release the decor door, slide the machine out on its supply and waste, work on it and refit it with the door alignment, hinge tension and worktop brackets correctly reset.
What guarantee do you give on dishwasher repairs?
Twelve months on parts and labour, directly with us. If the same fault recurs within six months we come back at no charge. That covers everything from a drain pump to a control board.
Why does hard water damage dishwashers so much around Cambridge?
Our chalk-borehole supply runs at roughly 280–320 mg/l calcium carbonate. Scale plates onto the flow-through heater, blocks spray arm jets and coats the wash pump, reducing performance and eventually causing failures. Setting the machine's internal softener to the correct hardness level and keeping salt topped up genuinely prevents most of it.
Do you repair slimline 45cm dishwashers?
Yes, slimline machines are common in Cambridge terraces and flats and we service them routinely. Parts availability is slightly narrower than for 60cm models on some budget brands, which occasionally means a day or two longer on a special order.
Which dishwasher brands do you repair?
Bosch, Neff, Siemens, Miele, Beko, Hotpoint, Indesit, Whirlpool, AEG, Electrolux, Zanussi, Candy, Hoover, Smeg and Belling among others. We work on domestic dishwashers only and do not service commercial or catering machines.
How long should a dishwasher last?
Around 8 to 10 years for a mid-range machine, and 12 to 15 or more for a Miele or comparable premium model. In a hard-water area, whether the softener has been used properly makes a bigger difference to lifespan than the brand does.
Do you carry spare parts on the van?
We stock the high-frequency items — drain pumps, inlet valves, door seals, NTCs, dispensers, filters and catch assemblies — for the major brands, so most repairs are completed on the first visit. Wash pump assemblies and control boards are model-specific and typically ordered in within two to four working days.
Dishwasher playing up? We'll take a look.
Call-out from £90, labour included. 6 months guarantee.