E18 fault
Hi
I've been plagued with the dreaded E18 fault on and off for a while on my Bosch. I drain it down and pull the filter out and sometimes theres slivers of loose limescale in there and removing them fixes it. Other times I've just turned it off and back onto a short cycle and it has drained OK. This time I had a really good look with the filter out and there was a load of hair behind the spinny thing in there so got all that out with needlenose pliers. Thinking that this time I'd cracked it and given my machine a new lease of life, especially after the first wash drained away without any problems, wash no.2 brought up the same error code. I drained it and must have been 10 litres came out - I don't remember having that much left in there in the past. There's no blockages in the waste plumbing. Does it sound like I need to replace the drain pump? Is that a common fault? Reckon we've had the machine well over 5 years now. Pump doesn't seem to be expensive but is there anything else I should check first? Should the spinny thing spin freely? Mine needs a bit of pressure and feels lumpy to push round.
Would appreciate any wisdom!
Solution Summary
AI-generated from this discussion
This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
Bosch washing machine intermittent E18 traced to sticking drain pump
- The problem
- A Bosch washing machine was showing intermittent E18 drain faults. The owner had previously cleared small bits of limescale and hair from the filter area, and sometimes restarting the machine allowed it to drain, but the fault returned. On the latest failure, a large amount of water remained in the drum and a rinse and spin would not clear it.
- Likely cause
- Most strongly supported diagnosis is an intermittent or sticking drain pump. The accepted reply says the pump needing a knock to start points towards pump failure. Other possible causes mentioned were a moving blockage before or after the pump, or an electrical fault, but these were not confirmed.
- What fixed it
- Recommended action was to replace the drain pump. The accepted reply advised this was reasonable because the pump appeared to be trying to run but only started after being struck. The exact repair was not confirmed in the thread.
- Checks to try
- Filter removed and cleaned
- Hair cleared from behind the pump impeller with needle-nose pliers
- Waste plumbing checked for blockages
- Machine switched to drain and pump heard trying to operate
- Pump started after being given a whack
- Impeller movement checked and found to have some resistance/lumpy feel
- Parts or tools mentioned
- Drain pump
- Needle-nose pliers
Safety: Further diagnosis should be carried out by a suitably qualified appliance engineer.
3 Answers
Hi. If the pump wasn't running until you gave it a whack it would seem like it needs replacing. The impeller normally has some resistance but not too much. It's not meant to be totally free, it passes through a magnet.
If something is wrapped around the impeller it can cause it to run slow and inefficient but you wouldn't expect a knock to free it off.
People usually attach too much importance to small bits of stuff inside the filter. A washing machine can only detect and produce an error code if the filter or pump is blocked enough to properly restrict or stop the amount of water being pumped away.
So it was more likely coincidence when you cleaned odd bits. More likely to have just been stopping the machine and trying later, which is in line with an intermittent fault on the pump.
There are other possible explanations like moving blockage somewhere before or after the pump or electrical fault. But if it was struggling to run and a knock started it up its reasonable to replace pump.
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Quick update... last night with the machine still full of clothes and water after a rinse and spin failed to fix my E18 problem, I turned it to 'drain' and could hear faintly that the pump was trying to do something, so gave it a whack and it started working. So it seems that the pump is getting stuck sometimes and not other times hence the sporadic issue. Is it new-pump time or should I run it with a limescale remover... or something else I can try?
Thanks Andy, I'll do that.
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