I had the opportunity to work on a Fisher & Paykel DD602 dishdrawer a couple days ago. By the way, I’m a big fan of Fisher & Paykel equipment–if you ever have the opportunity to work on one, you’ll see why. The engineering is elegant in its simplicity. Well-engineered equipment is actually much easier to work on because they’ve designed serviceability into the product.
Anyway, the problem with this particular dishdrawer was that the top drawer (with an 11 minute wash) was giving an F1 error code after the initial rinse, about five minutes into the cycle. The F1 code indicates an overfill condition. One of the most common causes for an overfill fault is that the dishwasher cannot pump out the dirty water due to a plugged drain hose.
So, I put the dishdrawer into diagnostic mode and tested the fill and pumpout functions–everything was peachy. I ran the top drawer in a normal wash cycle and, sho ’nuff, the drawer faulted out on F1 after the first rinse. Well, Houston, we had a problem and it was time for the Samurai to break open a can of whup-ass on this dishdrawer. First thing I did was pull the front panel off the drawer, like ahso:
Fisher Paykel DD602 dishdrawer with the front panel removed.
With that front panel off, I pulled the wire harness connectors off the main control board (lower right-hand side) to inspect for gookus. None found–my quest continued.
The next step to remove the botton drawer from the unit so I could inspect the flood switch. In order to do this, I had to remove the wire harness cover on the underside of the drawer. This is what the underside of the dishdrawer looks like with the botton cover panel removed:
Fisher Paykel DD602 dishdrawer, looking at the underside of one of the drawers with the wire cover plate removed.
With the bottom cover off, I could unclip the wire harness, fill hose, and drain hose. Then I unclipped the linkage at the back of the drawer and lifted the drawer off the slider arms. All this to expose the flood switch, shown on the left-hand side of the bottom panel in the picture below:.
Fisher Paykel DD602 dishdrawer with the lower drawer removed. The flood switch in mounted on the base, left hand side.
After noting the positions of the wires on the flood switch and removing them, I unclipped the switch housing from the base panel. The switch housing contains one switch for each drawer. The switches are wired normally closed (NC) and each switch has three spade connections, so it’s important to note where the wires went. With the switch housing out, I could ohm out both switches and both checked good. I inspected the contacts and noticed that one of them was oxidized, evidenced by discoloration.
I had a flash-back to my Navy days and heard Petty Officer (AT1) Crowe’s voice in my head, “Here, take this ruby red eraser and clean off them contacts. That’ll restore the current flow for that circuit. Good to go, Sailor.” You gotta understand, Petty Officer Crowe was my technical guru in the Navy; he taught me many of the practical and theoretical troubleshooting skills that I still use today.
So I cleaned the contacts as instructed by Petty Officer Crowe’s mental image in my brain and reassembled the dishdrawer. I ran the top drawer and…no F1 error code! I ran it several more times just to be sure.
Good to go, Sailor.
Hello, how did you remove the panel in the front? I was not able to remove mine.
You remove the front panel by removing two “pins”. There is one on each side of the drawer, and they are at the bottom and circular with a recessed tab – like an inverted slotted screw.
You just pull the tabs straight out. After that you pull the front down and out.
Samurai ARM, thanks for the dishdrawer pages.
I’ll note that we’ve had our dd since 1999, and we just had our second F1. Both were due to water causing the float switch to trip.
The first one I don’t know the cause as the unit was 3 months old, and a F&P repair dude came out and did his thing under warranty.
The second one happened last week, and it was due to a cracked drain line on the lower drawer. The crack was in a place that I could cut the line and splice it back together, which is what I did.
These washers seem to have a bad reputation for flooding and maitenance – but I think that this washer is well designed and easy to pick through.
My younger sister flooded the washer and I had to hunt around to find a way to fix this – I work at a Apple store so I knew my way around computers and a washer (I believed) couldnt be that harder…
After much confusion over the photos, I managed to pull it all out. Then I set about to get rid of all the foamy water with a combo of towels and lighted tealight candles – my mates thought I had made a funerary shrine to the dishwasher – but it all dried out and when I put it together – surprise, surprise it worked! only an hour and a half of work too!
Fisher Paykel Repair service wanted. Can anyone refer me to a knowledgeable and fair repairman in the Los Angeles are for my 603 Dishdrawer?
Many thanks. Dreamdogs@aol.com
Great site which helped me understand what the problem was, how it happened and how I fixed it. I got the F1 code which was caused by a tray put in the top of the draw to be washed by my son. This however allowed water to spill over the back of the draw and into the base of the unit. Well I looked at the schematic of how to pull the unit apart and thought there must be an easier way. With the lower draw open you can see into the base of the unit and with the use of a torch (flashlight) you will see water in the base of the unit which was the cause the fault in my case. To eliminate the water I used a towel placed in the base to remove the initial puddle and a hairdryer to evaporate the remaining water. It took about 15 minutes to get all the water out. I switched the machine back on and it is now working fine. So for those of you that do not have the mechanical aptitude I suggest this method but apply common sense. Switch the Dishwasher off at the wall outlet first to avoid electric shock and keep the hair dryer out of the water. You could direct a fan heater into the gap to achieve the same but it may take a little longer than the direct method. I hope this helps someone out there.
jsjones@ihug.co.nz
we followed your insturctions and put our machine back together after drying it out, with a hair dryer and rags. but upon starting it again it came up f1 to our dismay.
any suggestions ?? could you give us a diagram of the float switch wiring?? thanksss lk
If you cleaned the switch contacts as I said in my instructions and you’re still getting the F1, then you need to replace the float switch. If you need more help, come to the Samurai School of Appliantology.
my mother just had her F & P dishwashers replaced (both) not due to the problem she was having but because of small strip of rust on the front inside edge of the drawers. I have the same dishwashers…first generation about 5-6 years old. have you heard of the replacment program? I’d like to have mine replaced before this program runs out.
Thank you soooo much !!
I just did the towel and hairdryer “fix” for my flood switch error and to my joy my machine is now working perfectly…………..YIPEEEEE I hate washing up !!!!!!!!!
Thank you again
How do you separate the drawer from the side arms?
If you’ll look right behind the front panel, down at the drawer slide arms, you’ll see a circle bisected by a raised ridge on each side of the drawer. Rotate vertically and pull. I find that a sturdy pair of electricians needle-nose pliers are the most efficient selection of tool for this task.
Then the front panel pulls out, down, and off. Piece of pie, comrade!
Thank you very much, I got the drawer out! I found out that the rubber seal on top of the upper drawer might be leaky. Water leaks out from the back on the top during the wash cycle. A 2-inch section of the rubber seal in that area seemed to be “softer” than the rest of the seal ring and I’m suspecting that this is where the water leak is coming from. The water drips to the bottom during the wash cycle and would eventually create a puddle of water that causes the F1 error (after drying, the F1 message stopped). Do I need to replace the rubber seal? if so, how?
Thanks for your help, again!
Another thing: the plastic wiring harness at the back of the top drawer was snapped in two. Could this contribute to the leakage problem?
You are most welcome!
The broken harness won’t contribute to leakage problems but it may contribute to control problems. I’d fix that, too, while you’re in there.
The most common source of leaks is a split in the drain hose. This can be confused with a leaky gasket. Use the diagnostic mode and carefully observe the machine during the unit operations to detect the exact source of the leak.
I think I finally got sometime tonight to work on my DD603 (I have to say that my wife ‘s been very patient with me). Since I’ve never done this before, the following question will sound very dumb.
What should I do during the diagnostic mode? For example, should I switch the upper drawer to wash cycle while having the lower drawer removed so I can observe from underneath where the leak is around the upper drawer? I’m not sure what I can and can’t do during the diagnostic mode. Please advise, thanks!
All diagnostic mode does is let you manually run each unit operation in the machine. So, to diagnose a leak, energize the fill valve to get some water in the drawer (and to see if the leak occurs during fill). Then I’d stop the valve and energize the drain pump to see if and where the leak occurs during pumpout. Easy, da?
Ok, I got into the diagnostic mode. I first tested the lid system (Ld) and it seems to be closing all around properly. I then turned on the fill water valve (FU) and filled the tub with some water. How do you drain the water at this point? I can’t find a code that’s associated with the drain pump. I did try P2 (motor drain direction) but no draining. No leakage observed up to this point. I also noticed quite a bit of calcium build-up along the top of the tub on the inside.
P2 is the drain function. If it’s not draining when you activate P2, then you have a drain problem.
I think I’ve found the problem. There was no leakage from the hose. Out of curiosity I placed a video camera with a light mounted on it inside the drawer, aiming the camera at the upper edge of the drawer. While recording, I closed the drawer slowly, then opened it to see what I captured on tape. Guess what? as soon as the drawer was closed completely, I saw the broken plastic link support (wiring harness) protruding into the tank through the rubber seal on top! I’ve ordered a replacement link support from F&P for $8.31, shipping included.
I think I’ve save myself some major $$. Thanks a million dude!
Hey, I went and got my popcorn ready to watch a movie and… no movie. 😉
Good find! That’s one for the record. Thanks for posting it.
I dont have a error code (F1), but when I run my bottom washer, it drains into my top one. Why is this?
THank you
Drain hose is either clogged or is installed incorrectly– very common problem with these units.