BOSCH WVG30461GB WASHER/DRYER NOT DRYING

Hi,

This topic was very handy but I found something useful for anyone with same issue (Bosch wash dry 7/4 not drying the clothes)

like many of you said it’s due to the fluff stuff accumulated inside the motor and around the sensors.

I have found an easier way to open the motor chamber (see pictures) in red is the screws in the back of the washing machine that we need to remove and then at green is bracket that we need to push inside and then down to lower the motor just enough to pull the motor out.

after that just need to clean all the inside parts and around the sensors.

very important don’t forget to reset the switches. Just press this buttons.

Hope this helps someone. I don’t advice just to reset and close the machine because if they trip is for a reason, always clean the machine before resetting them.

Cheers,

Jose

Thanks, very useful thread here. Aftter pressing the two TOC s back in and have them trip each time, I fouond I too suffered with a blocked hot air plenum, but not for the same reasons as everyone else. I hadn't used the drying unit for about 4 years, preferring instead to hang outside or on airer indoors. Machine has only just reached 5 years when deceided to use the drier once more (due to broken leg) and discovered I had this fault - the alumium plenum and fan casing had corroded so much that it created enough fuzzy powder blocking both units. Afer sucking most of it out with a hoover and scraping off remainder (into hoover again), it finally worked. Ditto to the stupid placement of the fan casing / metal strut, which made cleaning the fan area difficult. Will definitely resort to angle grinder to cut that bit out next time I have a blocked plenum!

Hi Chris. It sounds like the programme is only designed to flush out fluff from inside the drum, and is of little or most likely no use in preventing the buildup of fluff and lint inside the heating element, fan chamber etc. I'm not even aware that there is any problem with a buildup of fluff and lint inside the drum because this area is amply flushed with water during all of the constant wash and rinse cycles.

I think that my idea of putting the dryer onto a drying cycle for half an hour, with no laundry inside, is a much better possible maintenance cycle. Doing this would cause all of the drying parts to get hot, and then cool down slowly on the last 10 minutes of the cool down at the end of the drying cycle. This should ensure that everything inside the drying section would be dry, instead of damp, And dryer lint and fluff is more likely to get sucked or blown into the main part of the drum where it can be pumped away during the wash and rinse cycle.

However, it's possible that nothing will make any difference. Maybe it's just something that will always happen due to the design. In a normal tumble dryer, all of the fluff and lint is trapped and collected by proper filters inside the drum. These are totally absent on a washer dryer.

Hello Andy. According to the washer instructions the Fluff Clean programme is listed for drum hygiene or fluff removal. Temperature can be selected for this cycle:

90 degrees = antibacterial programme do not use detergent

40 degrees = antibacterial programme special drum cleaning detergent can be used

cold = fluff rinsing programme, to remove fluff accumulated in the tub during drying cycles

Before I detected the root cause of the blocked cooling fan I ran all of the listed programmes several times but did not detect any improvement. I suspect the fluff programmes are designed as a means of prevention rather than a solution to fluff build up. Perhaps structured fluff cleaning maintenance followed from new may have prevented my fan becoming clogged with fluff. Having said that it has taken twelve years of use before a problem arose with the drying cycle.

Image shows the cut out switch that kept tripping prior to dryer fan cleaning.

Hi Chris. I would like to know exactly what this cycle does. I'm struggling to imagine how any special cycle could possibly prevent a buildup of fluff inside the motor. It would be useful if you tried it and reported back what it appears to do. The only thing I can think of is if it just sets the dryer going for long enough to heat up all of the insides of the dryer fan, motor and pipework? If this was the case then it may well dry it all out and allow lint and fluff to drop away and be removed.

During normal dryer operation all of the internal section of the drying system get pretty hot, humid and damp and this allows a lot of the link and fluff to stick.

My Bosch Washer Dryer had also stopped drying clothes. Model number is: WVH28360GB. Thank you to all that have contributed to this thread. Following others advise I have been able to repair it myself. Initially the clothes were still wet at the end of a wash dry programme. The top of the machine felt stone cold throughout the drying phase of the programme where in the past it always was fairly warm. Running an additional drying programme made no difference. Despite this fault the machine did not display a fault code on the display. After reading the thread I found that the cut out switch closest to the front of the machine had tripped. After the resetting this operation briefly returned to normal, but when running a complete wash dry programme the cut out tripped again. After reading this thread I released the dryer Motor from its housing to find the fan was completely clogged with fluff. I spent a good hour with an industrial vacuum cleaner and a small scraper cleaning the fan and removing the fluff. Since this process it has functioned properly.

I find it mystifying that Bosch do not make the fan more accessible for cleaning as this is an item prone to contamination. I did read a suggestion that removing a circlip under the sticker on the motor may make this cleaning operation easier. I will try this next time. As a motor vehicle technician with over forty years experience I am used to fiddly repairs, but feel Bosch has made this cleaning procedure unnecessary complicated.

I have to be honest and acknowledge that I had never run the fluff clearing programme on the machine before. I was not even aware it had one! Machine is now about twelve years old. Perhaps running this programme regularly before a problem occurs could prevent problems? However, running the fluff programme once the fault occurs does nothing to repair the fault.

The only other faults I have encountered since having the machine were a cracked water heater element that tripped my RCB on my home as soon as machine was switched on. We have very hard water and lime scale had damaged element.

I also replaced drive motor earlier this year as brushes had burnt out. Perhaps a new set of brushes would have repaired this but I replaced the complete motor.

Thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread.

The endoscope was a dual camera model with display and was only £59 delivered next day with Amazon. Worth the money imo as I can use it for other things (I work with cars so it will come in useful)

I daresay a washing machine engineer would have been more expensive.

I removed that black plastic hose (arrowed in photo) and put the camera down there and could see a blockage. I removed the fan and had a look at the other end and it exited with a blue pipe with a sort of termination at the end with 2 gaps at the side and fluff was hanging out of it.

Close by there was a build up of fluff as well, something I wouldn't have been able to see or access without the help of the endoscope. With some bendy wire and an amateur contortionist act I managed to clear it out as best as I could.

Using the endoscope I looked down the condenser and there were lumps of wet fluff nestled in the corners. Nothing that looked like it would be impeding flow though, but cleared it out with the bendy wire.

Put back together and it was drying again! Unsure whether it was the bits in the condenser or the blockage lending from the black pipe.

But disaster! There was water leaking all over the kitchen floor!

Opened it back up again, bottom of machine was swimming in water, and dripping from the bottom of the condenser. My fault, I'd not secured the clip properly.

Quick mop up and assembly.

So far, so good. It's drying well.

Wow, wouldn't it have been cheaper to get a repairman in 🙂

A partial blockage anywhere in the system could potentially cause problems. The black hose looks like it supplies water, but I'm not sure about the plastic hose. However, with it being connected to the same spigot as the water inlet I would guess it may be some sort of steam vent. Does the other end of that plastic hose fit to vent on the casing?

It's me again!

The problem is back. Not drying, clothes wetter than before.

I've checked condenser again. No blockage, very clear. Fan works, and it gets hot.

Only thing I found was plastic bit on top of condenser (see photo circled in red) had a bit of fluff debris in it, I've cleared that out (as far as I can see) but don't see how that would affect it anyway?

I've ordered an endoscope which should arrive tomorrow, so I can have a proper look.

You were absolutely spot on!

I removed the fan again, and tied a cloth to a piece of string and pulled it through the condenser pipe and got more debris out.

Now drying fine. Better than it has been for ages!

You know your stuff, many thanks.

I would guess there's more stuff blocking it that you didn't find. If its heating up, and fan is running, and water is trickling in - then it has to be fan airflow restricted by blockage or water gettiing trapped in condenser chamber through blockage.

Unfortunately it didn't solve the issue.

Clothes come out hot and absolutely soaking, wetter than they went in.

What else could it be?

That's it. Looks promising. Just make sure it doesn't leak from where you removed and refitted it.

OK, so the long white bit leading to the drum in the picture?

I've undid the clips and there was some debris, as pictured. I've cleared this out, I don't feel it's enough to cause a blockage but going to see how it goes with a dry cycles now.

No its on the back of the drum. That's the top of the drum 🙂

Is it visible in this picture?

It should be on the back of the drum. Essentially it's the path for the water that's trickled in during the drying cycle to get inside the main drum.

Thanks for the reply.

Where is the condenser chamber on this machine? Is it the plastic chamber where the fan sits on?

Hi there. That's normal, well the adding water bit. It uses this water to condense the steam created through drying back into water. This water then runs down into the condenser chamber and then the drum, and is pumped out. If everything is working OK, but it's not getting rid of the water, there may be a blockage in the plastic condenser chamber and/or at the bottom where the water runs into the drum.

Check my article on it here - Laundry comes out of washer dryer hot & steamy

I've got the Bosch model WVG30461GB washer dryer.

The problem with the unit seems to be it's adding water on the dry cycles. Coming out wetter than they went in.

I've followed the procedure to clean the fan, just a little adjustment on the directions that avoids the need to angle grind the metal bit off. Underneath the sticker on the fan there's a little circ-clip, if you pop this off, and undo the 3 screws, taking out the assembly then undo the 5 screws from the main fan cover, plus the 2 screws from the back securing the fan housing to the washer, there's now enough give for the whole impeller to lift out so you can clean it and the sensor inside the housing as well.

Anyway, I fitted it all back together and tried drying again. The fan spins and it gets hot, but comes out soaking wet, and hot. You can see a trickle of water inside the drum as if it's adding water in a drying cycle.

Any ideas on this one?

Aye that's the service mode for engineers. It's not much use if you aren't an engineer and don't have all the instructions on what to do with it. There isn't normally a reset. If there's a fault, a washing machine usually shows an error code. The only way to clear the error code is to fix the fault.

If no error code is displayed, then the fault will cause symptoms. But they can't clear until the fault is fixed either.

No I meant this seems to let you enter the service mode. Is there a similar way of resetting the machine from that ?

That worked. That video doesn't show opening up the machine at all.

https://youtu.be/ASHjWsdVTCs

Strange. We've had them before. Did you select share url on YouTube and paste the link in the post?

I found this post on YouTube.. is there a way to hard reset this machine from the front without opening the whole thing 🤔?

You have to be careful you don't stretch and break the fill hoses. Check all hoses including drain hose to make sure they are long enough to accommodate the washer being pulled out. Otherwise they may need disconnecting first.

Also make sure you disconnect from mains. To be frank, I wouldn't mess with it unless you are confident you can work out how to get it out, take the lid off and find the reset button - if indeed there is one. There usually isn't but I've seen some with one.

Thank you.

I think I interrupted it’s cycle and need to press that reset button where ever it is?

Any advise how to open the machine?should I just pull it out from the cabinet and open the screws ?

best wishes

Hi, if the laundry is coming out cold, the best place to start is here washer-dryer not heating on drying cycle

Hello everyone

I am new here and came across this helpful forum after my washer dryer Bosch stopped working. It washes but no drying.

the code is WDU28560GB/02

I have not tried anything yet. I seem to be out of warranty and I can do some level of DIY if guided and would prefer to sort it myself if it is not very difficult to do.

Any guidance would be extremely helpful I.e. how to open/what part to open etc.

machine is about 4 year old and used frequently so J suspect must have clogged as mentioned by other friends in this forum

I am slightly concerned about pulling the unit out from its compartment should it be easy to pull out? I don’t want any wires/pipes being pulled causing spillage all over.

many thanks in anticipation

Hi, I'm new here and landed here when searching for ways to fix my WVG30441EU wash-dryer machine. Mine looks very similar to ones shown here in the pics. Problem started when I noticed that the clothes came out wet from the dryer, wetter than before. So the water for drying doesn't evaporate. So when I start the drying program, the machine doesn't get warm, and the water stays in the drum.

I followed the tips in the link provided and measured the TOCs (or are they limiters?) and the heating element:

TOC 1 and 2: both 1.3 ohm (so no open circuit, means they still work I guess), heating element: 35.7 ohm. The ventilator spins. I haven't opened it yet to clean out lint etc. because the screws are difficult to reach. I still have to cut out a piece with my dremel to get properly the screws out, but it spins. I just doesn't get warm. See image. Is there something else I can do? Some fuse or something?

Hi DiogenesVS. Apologies for not replying to your comprehensive posts before. If the cuttouts have failed or tripped it is almost always because the dryer has overheated and that has been caused by something else. It is possible for one of these small stats to go faulty for no apparent reason, but they are generally an extremely reliable part. Any competent engineer who finds one of them to have failed, or suspects one of them to have failed would make extensive checks to find out why.

There are several possible reasons why a washer dryer may overheat, which are covered in my article here Washer dryer not heating on dry cycle

If no other fault is found then it is wise to advise the customer that no reason for the failure has been found, and that there is a fair chance that replacing these parts will fix the machine - but there is also a possibility that some intermittent fault currently undetectable could cause them to fail again. It's a shame that you didn't get full refund because essentially they failed to fix the fault so that's what you were definitely entitled to, but at least you got something back.

Part IV - They Made Me an Offer I Should Not Have Refused

The appliance repair guys have returned. I have the machine pulled out and the top removed for their convenience. They sense I am upset without much discussion. More diagnostic work happens and the guy with the Miele/Bosch/Siemens Formula One team jacket determines the ventilator fan needs to be replaced. It's not spinning. They missed that on the first visit. The point man with the phone , who has been talking to another customer in English, suddenly forgets how to speak English with me who can't speak Dutch.

Fortunately my wife is fluent in Dutch. He shows her the part that he needs to order from Bosch. It's €145 retail but he can buy it for €95 according to the display on his phone which he does not want to show to me. My wife is an accountant. She notices stuff like that.

He then offers to replace the fan for the price of the part (€145) with no additional labour costs. After paying almost €100 more than we should have for parts that I was not even sure were actually replaced, I said "feck You! No Thank You. How about you give us back the original parts and a full refund?"

Unfortunately, the original parts have been discarded we are told. I reply "Fine, remove the parts you replaced, take them with you, and give us a full refund."

We eventually settled for €80 refund for the parts they installed. They left them installed because they, uh, discarded the original parts. They had diagnosed the problem that I missed so suppose I owed them that much.

After they left, I open the ventilator plenum and open the fan casing to have a look. Nothing is plugged-up from lint as discussed in the previous posts in this thread. I set out to determine how much work it would be to replace the fan. I start taking things apart.

OMG. You have to dismantle everything and hoist the whole assembly out. It's like replacing an engine in a car. I replaced a car engine many years ago. The only difference is that you don't need to rent an engine hoist.

I think it is at least 2-3 hours of work. I easily spent that time taking everything apart and putting it back together just to see if I can do it. Everything still works which really surprised my wife.

I still have not ordered the fan. It's €145 for chrissakes!

Part V - Will this ever end?

Part III - Let's Try to Make This Right, Shall We?

The story so far: My Bosch Washer-Dryer combo was to not drying. I called in the professionals. In 35 minutes they have diagnosed the problem, replaced two thingys, tested the dryer function, prepared and emailed us an invoice for €175.45 and had €145.75 debited from our bank account.

Yes, those last two numbers don't jive. They are supposed to be the same. Somebody might have dyslexia. Maybe both of us. Nobody noticed that difference until later. That was not all that went wrong.

The machine still did not dry, so I had another look. I had 3 days to stew about this failure and research the problem on the internet. Here is the top view of the machine with the dryer ventilator shown. The black rectangle highlights the two thingys that were replaced(?). I watched the mechanic remove them and later install them.

Those two thingys are thermal limiters or Thermal Overload Cutoffs (TOCs) on some sites. They are shown below along with a picture of the part from the Bosch website. I believe they work like circuit breakers. If the temperature is too high, the switch pops and opens a circuit. I believe if you press on the green button between the contacts, you can reset the breaker. One of the TOCs even has 155 C printed on the side.

I found the part on the Bosch-home website. I can order this online and have it in a couple of days. Two of them cost less than €13 retail.

Doing the math - €175 less €65 (for 30 minutes of labour as advertised) means we paid €110 for parts that we could buy for €13.

I was more than a little upset. We would have been happy if the problem was solved but it wasn't. I wasn't even convinced the parts had been replaced. They did not leave us the original pieces.

After I figured out what happened (3 days is a long time in the internet age) I was convinced they would never show their faces again. But the phone number was local and the invoice showed an address and tax (VAT) number.

Much to my surprise, three days later they returned.

Part IV - They made me an offer I should not have refused

Part II - Call in the professionals

I selected a site that looked quite professional. They advertised a 30 min diagnosis for a flat €65. Two guys showed up that did not look anything like the guys on the website. I already had the machine pulled out from under the counter which is not easy at all because it is so damn heavy. More on that later. I also had the top off. Only two machine screws (Torx 20) hold the top in place.

The mechanic guy disconnected two thingys, measured something with his meter and muttered something to the point man with the phone. The point man told us it would cost €175 to repair. We agreed. The mechanic then removed the two thingys and gave them to the point man who went to the truck to get some replacements. The point man returned with 2 other thingys and the mechanic installed them. The point man declared it was fixed.

We asked him to test it. He turned on a dry cycle, let it run for 5 minutes and said yeah, there is heat and declared everything was fine. We asked for a receipt. He went on his phone and emailed us a receipt for the gross amount. He said there was a 1 year guarantee and if there was a problem, just call.

And with that, they left, exactly 35 minutes after they arrived. They refused to move the machine back under the counter, leaving it where I had pulled it out for them because "it was too much work". OK. They were jerks, as unfriendly as any I have encountered. Fine. I have dealt with jerks before. As long as everything works.

It didn't work. I tossed in a rack-dryed sandpaper towel that was so stiff it could stand on it's own. Two hours and 30 minutes later after an intensive dry cycle, it came out as a damp rag.

We phone them back. Houston... we have a problem. They said they would be back 3 days later.

In the meantime I learned a lot about Bosch washer dryer combos. I did not expect these guys to return, but they did. I was ready to file a police report for fraud and theft, even if there was no point.

Next - Part III - Let's try to make this right, shall we?

Great forum here. Great discussion. I have my own story to tell...

We have this Bosch 7/4 Maxx washer dryer combo that is six years old (WVH28340EU/01). We only used the dryer function on our bathroom towels and dry everything else on the rack. Bed sheets hang on doors. Towels dried on the rack feel like sandpaper. so yeah, we tumble dry the towels.

A complete wash/dry cycle takes forever so my wife used to set the timer before bedtime and the towels would be fresh & warm when we woke up in the morning. Life is so good when things work like they are supposed to.

Then it (the Gentle & Intensive dry functions) stopped working. The circuit breaker to the washer (and fridge) popped in the night.

I prefer to fix things myself and I really tried to diagnose and fix this problem. I gave up. Google was not helpful. It was almost useless. So I called an appliance repairman... sorry, engineer, which I found, of course, on Google. It did not go well.

We simply moved from simply useless to worse-than-useless.

To be continued... /2

Thanks Bob. Very useful

Hi Andy - this is good background info, thank you. I have just realised in my single minded attempt to fix the darn machine I forgot to introduce myself as a new member! So “Hello” to the forum!

I’m pretty good with electrics/electronics so all the more obvious fault finding steps I had taken proved the basics of the machine to be ok. So this was likely something physically retarding air flow and then causing local overheating at the element?

Next steps taken :

Carefully vacuum all airways with a thin flexible extension to Karcher wet and dry Vac.

Remove the cover to the heater chamber after carefully prising all the sections apart. Vacuum again - a sensor in the last section of duct dropping down to drum wa heavily clogged. Gave the now fully visible fan a good clean although it wasn’t too bad. Checked the machine drain hose and catch filter. Flexi pipe trapped presumably when reassembling after the drum bearing replaced.

Reattached earth tag to motor (!) whilst checking all electrical connection possibly same reason as above.

Correctly routed some small hoses near the condenser unit. These attached to some sort of pressure switches?

Reassembled all parts of top duct and fan housing. Retrieved some lost screws left by a previous “visitor” .Checked the socket correctly wired, and earth continuity on machine and switched on - no pops and all fine.

Quick wash two small towels all ok no leaks. Gentle heat dry cycle OK for 30 min no trip. Intensive dry 30 mins ok.

Full load of bedlinen cotton cycle all ok, separated into two drying loads on intensive auto - worked as if new! Currently hoping it’s now fixed....

Things that may have caused the problem - trapped hose to some kind of water flow sensor to condenser?

The clogged sensor at front of duct to drum? Fluff build up maybe but fan looked ok?

Apologies for great detail but thought info may be useful to someone looking for the same solution!

Bosch have sent me an exploded diagram of the machine if this is any use here? However no key to the part numbers!

I have an article here about a washer dryer (or tumble dryer) not heating which includes a section on tripping TOCs. See if it helps.

Reawakening this topic......

Same machine, no heat when drying, trip pops, reset trip, pops after a while drying.

Look on this forum (thanks everyone for posting) for info to get the fan off — struggle as you all have here - why did they design this machine in this way?

Eventually lift fan enough to examine fan blades - big disappointment - hardly any fluff deposit!

So figure that the blockage may be further along maybe in the tunnel over the drum to the front door seal area? Decide I need a thin torx driver rather than my hex set as it won’t fit through the frame holes - but no - someone has been here before me and not refitted the screws! Only been a BG service engineer inside prior to my visit..! So will separate top of the heater box assembly and check for blockage next, this being easier with two less screws. Tomorrow. No patience left now !

Will update with progress in case others have had these issues, but with an unclogged fan.

Just to add to this thread really that the advice given is golden. My Bosch drier also stopped drying. Having taken the top off using the two screws at the back (was very stiff, thought I was breaking a clip or something sliding it back and up), I followed what everyone else has done and also found the impeller really clotted up with rock hard fibres. Not as bad as Chris' but not far off. I spent about half an hour with a small screwdriver going through the small gap you can get with the top member still preventing you from removing the fan, with the hoover sucking out as I went. Reset the jumpers and was confident, especially when I felt it heating up on the test dry. However, the cycle finished and it was all wet and cold still. Checked the over-heat switches and they had tripped again. Reset and started a new cycle to try and see what was happening and the fan obviously wasn't going. So I got the grinder out and chopped away enough of the metal cross member to get the fan out. The plastic housing it rested in was also completely caked in fibres so I cleared all that out (plus clear off the metal insert below the bowl - looks like some sort of temp sensor, which was also fully caked), put it back together, reset the jumpers and tried another test. The fan is now working, I can feel heat more through the glass than through the lid, & it's finished a drying cycle. Looks like the whole surround is prone to clogging. In retrospect I would not have just done the half measure of cleaning through a 1" crack. Even if it had fixed the problem it would definitely be much better to go the extra yard to clean it out properly (either with a grinder or doing it the proper way and removing the upper rear and upper top bars), if only to prolong the time between having to do this. Personally I'm good with having taken a grinder to it, I am resolved to needing to do this periodically and this mod will make it much easier.

So, thanks everyone. Have bookmarked this forum.

Thank you so much for the advice given on this page, I was having to reset the thermostat switch constantly until the other night when we could start to smell burning, switched off immediately obviously!!!

i took the leap after having to buy a torx screwdriver set first and managed to dismantle enough to find the motor fan and wedged it open enough to clean offending fluff so much of it. I did notice underneath the sticker on the motor that the fan is help onto the housing using a circlip, I did wonder if I removed that would I be able to remove the top and then lift the fan out (without the need to use a metal saw?) on the occasion I didn’t try it in case I couldn’t fix it back on) but may try next time.

Just to say thanks again for giving me the inspiration to try it I have so far run 2 fluff cycles a quick wash and am currently drying towels, there is no smell of burning the heat is good and the thermostat hasn’t tripped.

You can take the screws off the top if the fan unit and the top will move far enough to access the fan to remove the lint, but it is very fiddly and time consuming. We did this, but a couple of months later the sensor has tripped again.

I’ve been very careful with the loading, making sure that the 5kg drying limit (8kg wash) isn’t exceeded and with the drum clean run monthly as per the instructions.

Either way it’s now a lot easier to remove the fan assembly now that I’ve cut that ridiculous obstruction off. Whipping the fan out is now a simple 10 minute affair and a worthwhile modification.

Will revisit the fan in 6 months or so and post an update on the condition.

I am currently half way through disassembling my Bosch to clean the condenser fan, and came across this. Can I not remove the rear or side panels to get to the fan rather than use a circular saw?

Many thanks Chris. Great photos. That fan is seriously blocked. The only thing I can think of that keeps causing such buildup of lint, which is supposed to be pumped down the drain, is if the whole of the venting system for the dryer is reeking with condensation and steam. That would allow the lint to stick to the sides and the fan blades instead of being blown through and finding its way into the bottom of the tub where it should mix with water then be pumped away down the drain.

The fact that this seems to be a very common problem means either these designs or just flawed and not fit for purpose, or potentially too many people are overloading the dryer causing it to struggle to deal with the steam. I honestly don't know which.

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but my own Serie 6 washer dryer stopped drying a couple of weeks ago and google brought me here.

So, turns out the impeller was SERIOUSLY blocked and needed some TLC - the machine being only 2 years old.

Rather than waste my time, I decided on some “user in-service modification” by removing an offending bit of metal from the back panel to enable the drier motor assembly to be removed fully (see attached pics). I achieved this with a trusty Dremel and cutting disk along the black pen line in the pic.

Takes about 30mins to do, carefully. Make sure you pack around the area with tin foil to catch the sparks.

Fan was completely clogged, as was some sort of sensor thingy just below it in the well.

Helpful tip: when digging the fluff out the gaps, use a small flat-headed screwdriver, insert it between the blades from the outside, starting at the top and scrape down to the bottom, or vice versa. This picks all the fluff off the blade in one go.

Don’t dig the fluff out at random as plenty sticks to the blades and is a PITA to tackle.

And thus ends the tale of overcoming Bosch bad design - all for the cost of a new Dremel cutting wheel.

Had this E18 as well, just seemed to do it at random for no reason, checked discharge pipe for blockages same as Roger but everything was clear.

That's an unusual fault Roger, it doesn't make a lot of sense because water in the drum normally means the washing machine isn't pumping the water out properly. But if that was the case it wouldn't complete a wash cycle without error. During drying water constantly trickles into the condenser chamber at the back. This water mixes with the steam blown into the condenser so that it condenses back into water. The water is then pumped away.

So the pump should be running on the drying cycle, if not constantly, then every so often frequently. If for some reason it wasn't that would allow a buildup of the water. Apart from checking everything is working there's nothing much else to suggest, the heater, fan, water valve and pump all need to operate on the drying cycle.

I have the same washer dryer with different problem, it washed fine, on the drying programmes it dries for the time set but on completion it displays error code E18 and there is water in the drum,I have checked the filter,waste pipe etc and all is clear,can you suggest a solution please.

I have this model. I took out an extended bosch 3 year guarantee, taking it to be covered for 5 years in total.

2 years and 3 months it stopped drying the washing, 1st engineer visit was told nothing wrong with machine, said reset and left,

2nd visit ordered spare parts

2 weeks later arrived on 3rd visit to fit parts.

Still not drying.

Different engineer on 4th visit, switched on and off, said he had spoken to other engineer, he had replaced all the parts he would have done, left the same as when he came, didn't even pull it out to look at anything. Said he would do report and they would phone me, waited 4 days phoned them, was told report with technical dept and man would phone me, phoned next day man I spoke to not there, said I wanted a call or would phone again and want to speak to a manager. Phoned next day spoke to a manager who said a case had been opened from my call just yesterday, so had been fobbed off with previous calls.

Called 4 days later still no reply from there technical department, waiting to see what they come up with, husband wonders how they can do a report on an item they do not have to examine.

There customer service is crap, machine not been drying for over a month.

I would definitely run the cycle once a month. Also make sure you don't overload the drum when drying, remembering that washer dryers can wash a lot more than they can tumble dry. If overloaded I reckon it will create a lot more steam circulating which will soak the fan blades and help fluff to stick to them.

Recently moved to a bigger house, very first thing we bought was a cheap conventional Indesit tumble dryer .

The last few months before we moved saw the Bosch permanently in the middle of the kitchen floor with the lid off. Totally given up on the Bosch , now used for washing clothes only.

Just an update - I had the fan cover off yesterday and it was absolutely clogged with compacted lint. Pulled out as much, if not more than Iain's pictures above!! Quite alarming at how compacted it was between the blades. Also took the duct cover off as much as I could and it didn't look quite as bad but annoyingly the sensors triggered yesterday during a test run. This morning I had it apart yet again and cleaned up the duct (where the sensors are specifically) and also ran the "Fluff Clean" cycle on cold, which admittedly I had probably not ran anywhere near as often enough previously (knowing what I now know) AND ran an empty wash cycle with some washing machine cleaner in. It's currently drying 1/4 of what was on the wash cycle (decent sun today so most stuff went on the line). Fingers crossed, otherwise I'm kind of out of ideas. Unless triggering and resetting the sensors so much has made them prone to trigger more easily? Is that a thing?

Perhaps running the Fluff Clean cycle more often is key to solving this? It doesn't stress in the manual that it's even necessary, only to run it when drying cycles aren't working as they should.

Would just like to add that I am also experiencing the exact problem as described by Iain (same model too). I also was about to buy replacement sensors (which trip regularly) but I’m glad I didn’t as that doesn’t appear to be the issue. I’ll be dismantling the fan and ensuring it’s clear of any lint later today (will report back) but yeah, not something I want to be doing every 6 months. I can’t really add anything other than #metoo . Just wanted to add some weight behind it being a design flaw I guess.

Have you read the article that I linked to in my first reply on this thread? Anyone with the problem of a washer dryer not heating, or tripping the TOC's should read it Washer dryer not heating on dry cycle

That's a bit concerning; if it isn't obstructed with lint/fluff then the fan should remove the hot air efficiently enough so that the overheat sensor doesn't trip.

Ah, thanks again Iain!

There is no filter, that's the problem, the moist air is drawn straight off the drum by the fan.

Hi Iain- I managed to get into the fan and all seemed to be clear of lint. Do you know where I can find the filter to try clearing that out please?

Thanks,

Steve Q

Great stuff Iain- many thanks for responding! I'll give that a go tomorrow!

Steve Q

The fan is the circular grey object visible at the rear right hand side of the machine once you take the lid off, the hot air ducting leads to it. You'll need a T20 torx bit I think to remove the screws which hold the top cover of the fan, you won't be able to get the fan cover off fully but that doesn't matter, you only need to lift it enough to provide access to the fan blades. I just use a set of tweezers to pull the lint out from between the blades.

Hi all, this thread seemed best for my call for help.

I have a Bosch Serie 3 washer dryer (WVG30461GB/01), and am not getting heat from the dry cycle. I found the TOC's which had tripped, but they have continued to do so after being reset, so as per comments in this thread, there must be another problem beyond probably overloading (which might have been the source of the problem!). I would like to check/clear out any lint from the fan, but cannot work out where this is?! The Bosch user manual doesn't seem to even try to explain the inner workings! Any help would be much appreciated as to where I should start.

Steve

Actually I’ve been thinking about this since posting. Maybe air is recirculated?

Hello Iain. If the drum is overloaded during the drying cycle then air cannot flow properly through the whole system. You will get a big buildup of steam. Air is sucked in from the fan on top of the drum, and blown over the heating element. From there it should blow down into the drum and through the laundry. The hot air should then go through to the condenser chamber at the back of the drum when it hits a flow of cold water trickling inside. Should then condense into steam and get pumped out down the drain. In theory there is no need for fluff off the laundry to get onto the heating element. Don't forget this is not a complete cycle like it is on a tumble dryer. The air that is drawn in and blown over the laundry should pass through the laundry and out through into the condenser chamber. It shouldn't recirculate back to the heating element. Therefore I am guessing that this sort of problem would be much worse if the drum is overloaded.

If you know you are using it correctly but this problem is a constant issue then I would say it is a design fault.

That's exactly what we do, wash a load then split it and do two dries.

I don't see what difference the amount of washing being dried would make anyway, the way the condenser drier works means that the hot air being drawn off from the drum is always going to be saturated with water vapour, particularly at the start of the drying cycle when the washing is at its wettest. The problem is the free fibres that are released during the washing cycle and also the drying cycle aren't prevented from getting to the fan, but as you say there's no easy way of putting a filter anywhere in the current air draw off ducting between the drum and the fan that wouldn't still require removal of the lid for user access. Other than a complete redesign to put a filter on the front or back of the machine, I can't see what can be done other than to accept that it's a flawed compromise which doesn't work.

If this is something that is happening regularly then it could be argued that it is a design flaw. The way that a washer dryer works makes it impossible to have a filter in the drum like there is on a tumble dryer. Unfortunately fitting a filter elsewhere is probably tricky. Manufacturers are not going to fit a filter which needs cleaning by customers that is only accessible by taking off the lid and messing around with the insides.

It is possible that this only happens if the dryer is overloaded. I'm not saying that is definitely the case. But I would strongly recommend that you get hold of the instruction manuals for these machines and thoroughly read them with regard to using the dryer. A washer dryer typically can only tumble dry half of the load it is capable of washing. Therefore every time you wash a full load, when it has finished spinning you will have to take half of the load out. If this isn't being done, all it is being inadvertently overloaded on the dryer cycle, it will drastically interfere with the efficiency of the dryer. It would interfere with the airflow, and it will certainly cause the laundry to take much longer to dry.

For me this could theoretically cause extra damp conditions inside which may allow the fluff that should end up being pumped out down the drain to stick to the sides of the fan chamber and fan blades. The fan blades might be getting wet through with condensation and excess moisture.

No other option I'm afraid but to strip it down and clean it yourself, I'm having to do it about every six months but the frequency will obviously depend on how often you use the machine for drying. Bosch engineers must be kept going by customers who have the same problem but are none the wiser.

Ok so I have an identical machine, and after many months of poor drying tried this and exactly the same , the fan impeller was totally clogged !! Are all washer driers prone to this , or is it a particular issue with this machine?

if this is an issue then a user cleanable filter should be installed , I'm gong to need to be doing this every year or use a separate dryer .

Does anyone know of an easy solution as I had to remove all the top ducting and control panel to access the fan. I wpold say beyond the skill set of most users .

Thanks. I have just a small list of affiliate inks after the first post on every topic and 2 links in my sig. I was hoping they'd still stand out instead of banner ads. Just double check the instruction book btw way to ensure there is nothing you need to do to help keep the parts clear. With a normal dryer there are several filters to clean out but with washer dryers there isn't anything you can normally do. I think I've heard of a special maintenance cycle but I might have imagined it. If there's nothing you can do and it clogs up regularly I would say that's a design fault.

Hello Andy,

No I didn't see the link from the forum, though I did come across your site (and maybe one other very similar?) while googling for parts suppliers and noticed that apart from the top banner the sites appeared to be the same.

I can't say I'm impressed with the Bosch design - the appliance is only around 18 months old but I had noticed a deterioration in drying performance from when we first bought it. Surely Bosch can't expect customers to inspect/dismantle their machine once a year in the way that 've just had to do to keep it in decent running order? I can manage it as I consider myself reasonably handy with a set of screwdrivers, but there will no doubt be many others with the same issue who will end up paying extortionate fees for a Bosch engineers visit to do the same job. I'm a bit cheesed off that I spent £40 needlessly on a replacement sensor (obviously this could have been avoided if I'd made the effort to trace the cause of the impeded air flow earlier), but also that we'll have been using a lot more electricity to essentially 'steam' rather than dry our clothes for the past six months or more.

The problem continued so suspecting a faulty sensor I decided to order a replacement Temperature Limiter from Partsmaster for £33.29. I fitted this but after a couple of days the same problem reoccurred.

It happened again today, so while I had the lid off for the umpteenth time to reset the limiter I decided to bite the bullet and dismantle all of the hot air extraction ducting and extraction fan housing. There were a few bits of fluff in the ducting itself but the extraction fan was another story, the gaps between all of the fan blades were clogged solid with fluff/lint, it is no wonder the sensor was tripping due to overheating as the fan will have been barely drawing any air in this state. After about an hours work with a pair of tweezers I had cleaned the fan out and had collected the dish full of fluff in the photo. I expect the drying performance of the machine to improve dramatically after this clean out, and presumably the temperature limiter trip problem should now be sorted.