In my previous post, I wrote about measuring the consumption of the dishwasher using a Tuya smart socket and Home Assistant. The bottom line was that buying a new one doesn’t pay off.
But there’s more to it. Knowing how much it consumes per washing cycle I found an issue with the door microswitch which caused 60%-100% higher electricity consumption. How? Read on 🙂
When I observed the power chart I noticed several spikes to 2200W:
Ok, I thought this was normal. Nevertheless, something didn’t feel right.
For several months the dishwasher had strange issues – it stopped working every now and then. A gentle push to the door reactivated it and it continued the cycle. Sometimes it continued washing after a while. It wasn’t a big issue, but quite annoying.
I suspected some kind of bad contact caused the pauses, but I couldn’t figure it out. Three or four times I disassembled the door and checked all contacts on the main board (right):
Disconnected all connectors, bent contacts to fit tight, and sprayed them with contact spray, with no success. The dishwasher was still stopping randomly.
The last thing to try out was to fix the door micro-switch (the middle part):
I couldn’t buy the part online (Bosch shop) or contact the official repairman (won’t pick up the phone). I could order it if I lived in UK or IE (for 50€), but I’m not from there and they do not deliver in EU.
I spent 2-3 hours googling and couldn’t find an online shop with spare parts that delivers across the EU. All national (EU) #Bosch online shops either:
- don’t have the part,
- don’t accept orders,
- don’t deliver in other countries or
- redirect to the local service phone number.
I found out it is a generic 16A 250V microswitch type D45X or D42X (for 10€) that also fits on Miele and other dishwashers. Finally ordered it from Amazon.
I received the microswitch 2 days later.
It’s almost identical to the original one (except it’s black), 5x cheaper and most importantly, it works.
After changing the microswitch the dishwasher runs as it should, without stopping.
I checked the power and consumption chart in #homeassistant:
I’ve noticed there is only one spike now. The heater now heats the water only one time. A faulty micro-switch caused the heater to turn on several times.
What about the consumption?
Per cycle:
- Before: ~1.3 kWh per cycle
- Now: 0.6 – 0.9 kWh per cycle
The difference: 0.4 – 0.7kWh
Yearly (300 cycles):
- before: 390 kWh / year
- now: ~240 kWh / year
Difference: 150kWh (28,5€) / year.
This means the Tuya smart socket (~10€) + microswitch (10€) already paid off. Or will, in a few months.
*Update: The next day I found out it wasn’t a microswitch!
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