Bosch Dishwasher model : SHV...

I have a SHV. My sink drain backed up, and the water accumulating in the sink then migrated to the dishwasher, through the drain pipe, causing the dishwasher to fill up and, it turned out, overflow a little. When I turned on the dishwasher, the water drained, but no new, clean water came through the hot water pipe. The drain just kept running, but nothing else happened.

Here's what happened. Under the main chamber of the dishwasher, by three inches or more, is a white plastic tray. It sits almost at the floor, and it may not be obvious that it's a tray capable of holding water. The overflow water spilled into that tray, which in turn caused a float in the far left side of the tray to lift (the way a toilet float lifts when the water fills in a toilet tank) and shut off the water intake valve (like the toilet float shuts off the toilet water flow). So long as that valve is closed, your machine will not run.

STOP: disconnect power supply at this point for safety.

To see the white plastic tray and thereby fix the problem, you'll need to take off the BLACK TOE-KICK (attached on my unit by two star-head screws at its bottom) and, possibly , the OUTER PANEL OF THE DISHWASHER DOOR (in my case, a custom wood panel (attached by a few screws through the inner side of the door, two screws that are accessed by popping off little--smaller than a dime size--covers on the sides of the doors, and then the door panel lifts up and out). (I took the outer panel off, but I can't remember if I would have had to reach into the white tray without doing so.)

Once you do that, you can see the white plastic tray. It doesn't come out--at least not without removing the entire machine--so try this. You can take your fingers and feel over and into the tray. You'll probably feel the water--I did. Look at the far left of the tray with a flashlight. Back there you'll see a flat, round, 3-inch diameter piece of white plastic sitting at the bottom of the tray. To its center is a generally U-shaped lever looking device, which, at its far left end, is connected to a red stick pointing up into the machine. When water goes into the tray, the float rises, causing the U-shaped lever to rise, causing the red stick to raise, which (though I couldn't see it) causes an electrical signal to run to, and shut, the valve for your water intake.

I took paper towels, and then a narrowly cut sponge, to sop up the water in the tray. I then took my shop vac and, using it as a blower, blew what little water was left right out. You might be able to use a hair dryer, but first sop out what you can or it'll take forever. Once you've done that, put everything back together and plug your dishwasher back in. My buttons are at the top panel. To reset, hold down the two buttons marked for clear drain for three seconds and release. You should be able to start up then. It took 15 seconds before the water started to run, but it did and the machine works fine again.

Interesting note: The valve that stopped the water from flowing in automatically opened once I got the water out of the tray. You don't need to reset the valve.

Good luck.

Montpelier Man

I am having a similar problem with our Dishwasher, although not the same model, they all have the same basic principals for operation. We have a Bosch SG13002GB/10 which is fitted with, what Bosch call "AquaStop"! This is a safety feature built into the base of the machine for the unlikely event of the unit developing a leak. There is a sealed chamber under the machine fitted with a float, when a leak occurs the water is channeled into this chamber where the float, when activated, cuts off the inlet water supply valve. In the event of a leak occuring during a wash cycle the drainage pump will continue to run even when the cycle has finished to ensure the machine is completely empty before any repairs are carried out. Check the operating manual for your machine to identify whether or not it is fitted with this feature.