Top 10 Fisher and Paykel 23 in. DD-603SS Built-in Dishwasher Questions & Answers

Just had the same problem, removed the excess water from the drawers, turned off the power, removed the bottom drawer by pushing in the lugs at the bottom of the drawer where it butts up to the drawer front and pulling out the drawer. Then had to mop up with 4 t-towels and half a roll of kitchen roll the water in the bottom of the machine housing. The water gets into the electronics at the rear of the housing and obviously warns you of this by the F1 code?. I removed the white cover over the electronics with a screwdriver by pushing it into a slot then sliding the cover across to the right, it is indicated on the cover how to remove it. I also then removed the screw on top of the PCB (printed circuit board) and lifted up the grey plastic base and wiped under that and the under side of the PCB. The PCB unclips on the left hand end of it and lifts out, try not to pull the cables out though. I then used a hair dryer as suggested by someone else on here to dry out any excess that you could not wipe dry, my daughters Hello Kitty hair dryer didn't last long though, she's not impressed! So try not to stick the dryer right in the housing to avoid overheating it. About 5 minutes did the trick for me, then re-assembled everything, turned it on and hey presto! It worked!!!! Its not that hard, good luck!!!

I've never found personal ranting to work myself. However F1 is meant to be a flood warning, there's a sensor in the bottom of the drawer unit that stops the dishwasher if water accumulates in the casing, not the drawers!

So the error could be caused by a leaky hose, a broken or fouled lid or a blocked drain hose stopping the drawer from pumping out, at least these are the problems I've heard of or had.

TURN THE POWER OFF BEFORE TRYING THE FOLLOWING.

To see if you have water in the unit you need to remove the lower drawer, to do this open the lower drawer and you'll find the drawer release clips on each side of the drawer in the corner to the front and at the bottom. When doing this always support the front of the drawer in one hand while releasing the clips with the other. To release the clip push it in and slide it back 3-4cm while gently lifting the front of the drawer (don't try to lift it out, you only want to make the clip slide back easier!). Repeat this with each clip.


The drawer is on telescopic side rails, so while supporting the front you need to slide each side back, the clips you released are at the end of each rail and you can slide these easily by feeling just under the edge of the drawer. When they're both slid to the back you should find that the drawer will slide further forward and you can lift it out but don't try and pull it right out because all the hoses and wires are connected, just have a towel or something that you can put on the floor to protect the drawer and leave it there.


You should now be able to see into the base of the unit and see if there's water there. The sensor is attached to the bottom panel in the casing, if there's water puddled here you may have a hose or lid leak, you'll need to dry the casing out (thorougly, probably with a hair dryer before you can clear the F1 error).


On older models the lid motors on either side of the unit (they were white) did have a reputation for breaking, if you see water splashed around the sides it might be one of these that's gone, check for tell-tale signs for leaky hoses too (that would be water where it's not meant to be).

To replace motors and hoses is up to you.

http://www.fisherpaykel.com/admin/pdfs/pdf_usecares/527971B_DD_user_guide_USw.pdf

leave it unpluged to stop for now, the machine has detected a leak and is constantly running hte pumps within the drawers to try to remove any water.. problrm is the water detector is in bottom under the lower drawer and htere is no pump to remove that water ..canbge a fickle machine as far as leaks are concerned, but the easy reason is usually misloading of the drawer itself, was an item put in that was too tall , preventing the lid from coming down and sealing off drawer causing water to overflow down the side??? there should be(so logn as no previous repairmen have taken it) a tech/trubleshooing guide taped to teh back wall behind the lower drawer, which is easily removed by unlocking hte hinges on either side of the front of drawer, explained in your manual

Hello there..
How do you know the hose is blocked at all? It's rare for that to happen, I work on these machines daily as I am a Factory Authorized tech. You need to be careful in your approach to this, that is an expensive machine and it can be damaged by improper service procedures.
For starters, there is a flap valve on the end of the drain hose that would prevent you from introducing any sort of pressure backwards into the machine via the drain hose. For example, if you took and tried to blow air thru the drain hose outlet end, you would force that flap closed and create pressure in the hose. Also putting caustic drain cleaning substances is very, very bad for your machine and can cause some serious damage.

I will be happy to try to assist you, but let's start at the begining, shall we? What prompted you to conclude that the drain hose is 90% blocked? The first thing you should do is take out the rack, wash arm and tha large stainless steel filter plate. Next, pull the rotor up and out of the pump base (none of these procedures require tools) and make sure the grey impeller is not "freewheeling" or has become detached from the rotor shaft. The blue wash impeller on the top and the grey drain impeller on the bottom must be "one to one" meaning they are firmly connected to the shaft of the motor and turn together.
Next, check the tube or passageway in the drawer between the sump (where that small removeable filter screen is) and the pump's sump area (where you pulled up the rotor)
If you have any blockage, it will be in that tube.

There is some glitch here where I do not get notified of response to questions, so I will check back to this post.

Hi Aaron...
You wrote "I had a F1 problem that I cured by blow drying the control board"
I see techs on other sites telling people to "blow dry" the mains filter board (which has the flood sensor and controls lid motor operation) and it always makes me wince.
F1 is a flood condition. All you do by drying out the board is stop the machine from trying to tell you something is wrong with it. There is a reason why the board got wet in the first place. You won't cure anything by simply drying it out if there is an underlying condition causing a leak.
On your dishwasher, as you may or may not be aware, the lid is controlled by two motors that pull the lid down onto the top of the drawer in order to provide a seal. If, for some reason, the lid either does not come down on one or both sides or something is interfering with the lid's mechanical operation, the machine will leak, and the flood sensor will trip. The machine will appear to "go on by itself" and run the drain pump constantly.

The cure is to determine what happened.

Some possibilities:
1. Improper loading:
When someone places a tall dish, utensil, etc in the wrong position, it will "prop" the lid ajar when the lid comes down. A gap of even 1/4" can cause a leak. It is in cases such as this that drying out the mains filter board (yes it is called mains plural) will restore machine operation, as it was a temporary issue that caused the leak (More on this later).

2. Broken hose link support strap:
On older model 603's, there is a nylon strap that guides the hoses and wiring harness as you open and close the drawer. Over time, this strap can break right in the middle. What happens next, is when the drawer is closed, the strap gets caught between the lid and the drawer's edge, causing a leak. This is easy to see if you dis-engage the tub clips on the drawer rails and slide the drawer forward enough to see the strap behind the drawer. In a case such as this you can blow-dry that board all you want; it's not going to do much good, as the machine will leak again as soon as that strap gets caught in the lid. The fix is to replace the broken link support with the updated kit from Fisher Paykel, which is a part number 528437. You can purchase them here:
http://www.fisherpaykelparts.net/ecart/item.php?item_id=242&category_id=58
On double-drawer machines, I always replace both straps, even if only one is broken.

3. Worn or inoperative lid actuator/motor:
As mentioned, the lid is motorized. There are two motors, one on each side of the drawer. They can become worn mechanically, or they can fail electrically or fail to operate because that mains filter board is not sending the signal to one or both motors. The machine's main control board (the one where you select cycles) can also cause a problem.
There should be a detailed tech sheet behind the drawer (lower drawer on double units) that has instructions on how to put the machine in diagnostic mode and you can run the lid motors with the drawer open and check if one is not coming down. And again on older 603, the lid motors can stop working correctly. If they are tan in color, replace them with the new style, which are black in color and have rubber boots over the arms to keep water from running down the shafts and into the motor. Part numbers are 528112 and 528113 and are always changed as a pair. Lid motors can be obtained here:
http://www.fisherpaykelparts.net/ecart/item.php?item_id=240&category_id=58

Bad or damaged Mains Filter Board:
This needs to be read over carefully.
On older 603's there will be a GREY colored plastic cover over that board. This is a tipoff that you have the early model. The underside of that board in the area of the flood sensor is uncoated and the solid-state components are exposed to moisture. Over time, calcified deposits build up around the edge of the board on the side where the flood sensor protrudes. These deposits can cause a "phantom F1' condition where the machine thinks there is a leak but there isn't one. Whenever I speak to a customer on the techline who says "I am sure there is no leak but the F1 is activated" I tell them to examine the underside of the Mains board for these deposits. The other thing to be aware of with regard to "blow drying" the board, is that it will warp and sag in the center and this can break the tiny solder joints and cause all kinds of problems for you. The most recent version of this part has a nice, thick almost rubberized coating over the bottom of the board and it's much more durable that the first versions. it also comes with a WHITE colored plastic cover and this is how you can tell if you have newest version of the board. You always should replace the grey cover with the white one. You can get the updated part here:
http://www.fisherpaykelparts.net/ecart/item.php?item_id=248&category_id=58

I hope this info is useful to you.

Remove the bottom drawer by pressing in the tabs on either side of the drawer (bottom edge towards the front).

Dry out the compartment with towels and let air dry.

Hey I dont know if you have this problem, but with mine the gasket seemed to be blocking the opening, so you could close it, but you had to shove a lot. The FP help line said to just unplug and replug in the unit. I did it and lo and behold it worked fine again. It did seem to leak a little bit the first time I reran it, but that seems to have gone away. Hope this helps

Sorry did not see your problem report earlier. If you have checked the sensor under the bottom drawer and it is dry, then F1 is caused by top drawer power filter fault. This means the bottom drawer controller is giving the F1 error but the top drawer controller has no power. Can you confirm this.

The pump and motor for DD603 is the same device. It is a rotor lodged inside a cavity under the drain filter plate. I am assuming the dishdrawer is drained properly and at end of the wash there is no water sitting inside. You need to take the rotor device out from its cavity and check for damage. This video will help.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXzuJvKIIgU