Miele Prestige Plus washing machine: 'Check Inlet' light flashing.

I have now located and removed the pressure chamber, which appears to be immaculate inside and out.

There's no sign of gunge (or anything else) when I look down at the large opening and when I blow into it the air escapes from the narrow end exactly as I'd expect it would if it were completely free from obstruction.

I also filled it with water and blew down the large end and the water squirts out of the little end exactly as I would expect if the chamber were completely free from obstruction.

I then filled it with water and blew down the little end that connects to the rubber tube, and the water shoots out of the large end without a problem.

I have removed the rubber hose from the machine and blown down it. Although it does take a little effort, it's not much more difficult than blowing through a standard drinking straw. I have also squirted water down the tube with a syringe from either end and there's no sign of a blockage.

As for the water inlet problem, the valve coming from the mains pipe is fully open, the filter at that end of the hose is perfectly clean, the hose itself appears completely free from obstruction inside, and the filter where the hose connects to the back of the machine is also perfectly clean. There are no kinks in the hose.

With the check inlet, just ensure there's no kinked fill hose or tap not turned on properly.

Hi. If there is a blockage in the pressure system it's gunge. Blowing down the small pressure tubing will often only clear the blockage temporarily and even then not properly. Sometimes the blockage will reoccur virtually straight away as soon as water goes in and it all sloshes about. This is because the blockage is like a thick soft sludge.

The proper fix is to remove and clean the plastic pressure chamber bottle at the other end of the small tube. It may or may not be easily accessible or even detachable depending on design.

Pressure chamber blockages can cause the pressure switch to jam on, or off. When jammed on the washing machine will not take in water because it thinks it's already full of water and when jammed off it will overfill because it doesn't get the signal that water is inside the drum.

Thanks, Andy. I've located the pressure switch and detached the rubber tube and blown into it. It requires some effort to blow into it so, although it is not completely blocked and I am able to blow into it, something is restricting the flow of air.

After doing this experiment and replacing the rubber tube on the switch, I immediately began getting a flashing light on the front of the machine next to "soak/pre-wash'. Google tells me it means there's something wrong with the pressure system.

While doing all this, I also replaced the drain pump and now the machine will drain perfectly – so, obviously, the original drain pump had failed completely.

If I now start to do a normal wash cycle, everything proceeds normally for a very short while and then "check inlet" begins flashing and the machine keeps filling with water until it reaches the bottom of the door. Is that water level normal on an ordinary wash cycle? At that point I always abandon the experiment and drain the water away.