Home DIY

I'd be very reluctant to buy a ladder anyone has ever described as terrifying...

I've got a £20 one from Amazon and it works really well.

No house burning yet!

Ta! I'll grab me one of those.

vinegar ... veg oil ...

Are you making salad dressing, or cleaning limescale from a dishwasher?

Vinegar is mostly water. You can buy liters of acetic acid on ebay for a few pounds.

Less smelly is citric acid, which is a few pounds for a few kilos.

(Or you could stick with your dressing, and squeeze the juice from 20 lemons)

Basic chemicals > condiments

Removing limescale might compromise any seals - not because they rubber / metal is being attacked (which is unlikely even with properly strong acid, let alone the weak acid in the above), but because the limescale may have formed behind the seals, damaging them in the process, and removing it may mean there's now a gap.

Have you tried soaking the area with a solution of washing soda/soda crystals,
normally on the same shelf as soap powders in 1kilo bags for around £1.

We also use it for every wash in the washing machine, to counter the hard water of Affinity Water, (was Three Valleys Water), in outer north west London.

Alternatively any of the scale removers based upon sulphamic acid,
which are often gelled, seem to work better around handbasin taps etc.

We had this. Tried the above plus various versions of filling the base with hot water. There is also a video about how to take the bottom off to remove the pump and check for a blockage. This was relatively easy to do BUT when I did it one of the internal pipes split (it was pretty old and brittle)

Miele have a great customer service dept - they emailed me schematics etc and I was able to send them photos.

Ended up getting a service engineer out who identified a broken part and replaced it straight away. Cost around £100 all in.

Tldr. Might be fucked, call miele

Terrible photos but in just over a week I turned a smelly shoe/tent/rubbish store into a little office ready to put the place on the market. Its a little rough round the edges but I don't think it's too bad a job.

I had a similar problem with my Miele after re-installing it when our new kitchen went in. I borrowed the carpenters compressor and blew compressed air through the drain hose, sticking the nozzle of the airgun down the drain hole near the impeller and detaching the end of the drain hose from the plumbing. It cleared some junk from the drain and its worked fine ever since.

Is/was yours filling with water during the cycle (i.e. not draining)?

Is/was yours filling with water during the cycle (i.e. not draining)?

To me it looks like it is draining - as an eg when I remove the non-return valve thing and ran it, it filled up and didn't drain. Then when I refitted it, the bulk of the water disappeared.

Right now it is making a noise like it is trying to drain, but never stops, and is displaying the inlet drain light warning / error light.

Are you making salad dressing, or cleaning limescale from a dishwasher?

Great post. Would rep.

The internet fixes recommend cooking oil to help loosen it. I assume being eatable makes it safer/preferable.

Vinegar is what I had. And it was the cleaning variety rather than an aged balsamic.

You do make a good point about the seals. A bit like motorbike caliper pistons(?). To clarify the concern was over drain cleaners rather than vinegar.

But yeah I will see if I can get something else, have a crack then call Miele.

You may have water somewhere where it shouldn't be, and a sensor is being triggered - the machine thinks it needs to drain, and will keep the pump running (this happened on a Bosch - Miele's may be very different though).

drain cleaners

Depends on the cleaner - sulphuric / sulphamic acid, or sodium hydroxide based, and on the type of rubber.

http://mykin.com/rubber-chemical-resistance-chart-6

sensor is being triggered

I was also wondering this.

Other than drying / sucking out all the water I can see it's hard to think how to resolve that one.

I forgot to mention how it seemed likely to jump off the retaining hook as you pull the spring-loaded hinge down.

If it had some method of retarding the extension (gas struts or springs etc) it would be better but even then it was very heavy compared to a normal aluminium ladder.

Today it's 900kg of mixed topsoil/compost. At least the delivery was after lunch so I got out for a bike ride in the morning.

What is this?

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@CYOA thats a mini expansion vessel as seen here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BOSS-Mini-Expansion-Vessel-314449-Water-Hammer/254129370459?hash=item3b2b4a755b:g:L4YAAOSwIS9cAq37

Interesting, thanks.

Water hammer - Hydraulic shock is a pressure surge or wave caused when a
fluid, usually a liquid but sometimes also a gas, in motion is forced
to stop or change direction suddenly, a momentum change,

Was looking for a stopcock to test why our water was out (turns out a burst main nearby and all the streets are shut so I've been on the gin since about 3pm) and spotted said expansion vessel - somehow never seen it before.

sensor is being triggered

After another shot at cleaning I Googled some more and came across this
https://www.justanswer.com/uk-appliance/6sea7-hi-miele-638-plus-dishwasher-reading.html

Inside there's a shutoff switch of some sort with a little float underneath. It's very cleverly designed. There is a slight leak from somewhere, the inlet pipe(?) maybe? This is Triggering the switch. So I cleaned it and moved it to higher ground for the moment.

... I also got a shocking reminder of why water and electricity don't mix.

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Need a replacement bulb for the cooker, could just order one online but seems a shocking waste for something that should only be a couple of quid that I can stick in my pocket. Anyone know of anywhere near SE19 that is likely to stock them? It's for a Bosch so it will be one of the 40w E14 more spherical shaped ones.

SE6 is a bit far from you, but we have a great little appliances shop that either stocks that kind of stuff or can order it in. It's a branch of Euronics I think. Also have you tried just asking in nearest Travis Perkins or similar.

Not sure if you have a Wickes near you, but that's where I got my replacement - was c. £1 I think.

Maplins?

Maplin is no more. Well, it's internet only now.