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Gene's theory was in-Gene-ious. He was exactly right. I proved this by placing a make shift vent between the door and the seal up high on either side. The dishwasher runs through the complete cycle now, and nothing drips in the overflow sump. I will fashion a permanent vent soon out of a small metal tube I will epoxy in place. For my experiments, I placed the rigid plastic tube from a BIC pen inside a drinking straw. The drinking straw is too collapsible, so when you shut the door on it, there is no vent. The BIC tube is smaller and more rigid, so sandwiching it between the seal and the door does not cut-off air flow. I test by blowing through the vent after I shut the door. If the dishwasher slightly pressurizes, water will be forced in behind the bottom seal and drip down the overflow spillway later in the cycle.n Note: I never really see much (if any) vapor coming out of the vent, but it definitely works every time. I could try to fix the bottom seal, but the pressurized design absolutely stinks, so I am fine with a small vent. When I develop a permanent fix I will post a photo.
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Hello I'm having the same exact problem. I checked the connection at the box. I hook the two leads together and the cycle still just stopped as the previous person described. No diagnostic code. This is driving me crazy. If I unplug it completely for over an hour or so it's able to almost complete the fast wash cycle. Otherwise it just looses power within a few minutes. Any help would be appreciated.
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Gene, I have this same stinky dishwasher and have repaired this thing for years. I am having the exact same issue now with water dripping down the overflow spillway. If I open the door, and restart the cycle it will quit dripping...at least for a while. Did you ever fix this issue? I checked the pressure switch and it is working, I have checked the connections on the control board, and I have set the fill time to the minimum. I will probably figure it out eventually, but I would love to hear from you. The theory about the warm water expanding is interesting. The pressure sensor really only determines if the tub is empty, so it's switch point is very low. I thought perhaps that it was sensing an empty tub when it was not in fact empty, but after observing this carefully, that is not the issue. I find it interesting, but not surprising that GE does not sell this part. In my experience, appliances are designed very poorly.
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Originally Posted by: Gene  Sorry for the delay. It took a few days to search for a possible solution.
The following is a solution offered by the other GE guru (I'm not very good with this model):
"This model uses a pressure switch to control level-The switch is at Right Front and has sensor hoses going to two different parts of the tub. We found one doing similar thing (overfilling and causing the machine to fill that small channel which shuts machine down due to a suspected leak, We found the pressure switch bad causing a slight overfill but anything blocking the sensor ports or hoses or even tiny holes in hoses may cause the same problem. Once we took out the Pressure switch we blew into the sensor hole and realized we couldn't hear it making contact. Replacing the switch cleared the problem but be sure to check all sensor paths to be clear.
Good Luck"
Let us know if it helped.
Gene. Hi Gene ... its been a while ... no, the pressure switch didn't help. I bought a new one, tried it, and it got worse. I also checked all of the tubes going to it for blockage and they were fine. So now I have a new pressure switch which I paid good money for available to anyone who wants it (for a reasonable offer). I have given up and bought a new Kitchenaid which has been absolutely great. I kept thinking about what was causing the overflow to constantly trickle. The only reason I could come up with was the fact that there was no vent on the unit, like most other dishwashers have (which have it on the door near the top). My theory goes like this: as the hot water is jetted around, it will give off some steam (kind of like when you turn on the hot water tap and it comes at full temp - you see a bit of steam rise from the faucet). Also the heating element will increase the temperature of the water. These factors will contribute to an increase in internal pressure in the unit - the only avenue for the pressure release is the overfill hole, but it is submersed, so out comes water. Another thing that reinforces this theory is that when I open the door in mid cycle, the overfill trickle stops immediately, AND when I restart, it does NOT resume the overfill trickle immediately (there is a delay before it starts to trickle again). That's all I could come up with. If one had this unit with this problem, I guess an easy way to test this is to drill a decent sized hole (let's say 3/4" NPT) and pipe it with a tube to a ball valve - then run the unit and wait for the overfill trickle to occur - once it starts, open the ball valve. If the overfill issue stops, there's our answer. I suggested 3/4" since it will allow for quicker pressure stabilization, and a length of tube only to prevent wash water from spraying outside the unit (simliar to a snorkel intake on an off-roading vehicle, if you know what I mean). Oh well - all of that is history now! Thanks for your guidance anyway. Tom.
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Sorry for the delay. It took a few days to search for a possible solution.
The following is a solution offered by the other GE guru (I'm not very good with this model):
"This model uses a pressure switch to control level-The switch is at Right Front and has sensor hoses going to two different parts of the tub. We found one doing similar thing (overfilling and causing the machine to fill that small channel which shuts machine down due to a suspected leak, We found the pressure switch bad causing a slight overfill but anything blocking the sensor ports or hoses or even tiny holes in hoses may cause the same problem. Once we took out the Pressure switch we blew into the sensor hole and realized we couldn't hear it making contact. Replacing the switch cleared the problem but be sure to check all sensor paths to be clear.
Good Luck"
Let us know if it helped.
Gene.
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Hi Gene.
Thanks for the reply and thanks for taking your time to show me this but I already have this doc. This is like taking an aspirin for a 5 year long headache - it doesn't explain the core issue at hand.
I am asking why on God's green earth, does the water go through the spillway, into the overfill tray, EVEN after I have:
1. forced the dishwasher to tilt ever so slightly back by about 1/4"
2. I have the fill time set to the absolute lowest
3. and my water level is below the lowest allowed fill level (according to the service documents) as evidenced by the fill line on the sprayer.
Why does this stupid machine do this?
I wish I could get a video of the trickling but I don't have the camera with me for now - I mean seriously, you can see a trickle, not dripping, a trickle of water running from the spillway into the overfill. It doesn't start right away when the machine cycle starts, and it also doesn't do it if I open the door in mid cycle and close it - it starts to happen when the machine has been running for about 2 minutes - first a couple drips then the trickle.
I am losing my mind with this $1400+ piece of junk and I don't know what I can do about getting GE to come up with a viable solution. I am seriously considering adding my own makeshift overfill inside the basin. and then having someone weld up some stainless sheet metal to the spillway port.
Have you ever had one of these apart, Gene? If not, it may be hard to picture what it looks like, however if you have, then you know what I am talking about. Also, it could very well be that the seal at the bottom of the door inner liner is crap and so it doesn't seal up well any more - but it doesn't explain why this overflow doesn't happen on shorter cycles. Also, from the spare parts diagrams, there is no indication of the lower door seal being available as a seperate piece - it may come molded to the inner liner!!!
Just frustrating ....
Looking forward to a response .... anybody ...... if you have any ideas I would LOVE to hear them ....
Thanks for your time, guys!
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Originally Posted by: Gene What is the complete model number of the dishwasher?
Gene. It is ZBD5900
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Originally Posted by: tomislavj I have this dishwasher and I found the solder joints to break on the transformer to that is soldered to the control board. Stupid design, really - the solder joints are the only thing holding the transformer to the board, and of course with all the opening and closing of the door, it, over time, breaks the joints (in fact all 4 of them were poor). Once that was resolved, I had gotten rid of the 'ghost' behaviour in the machine.
But now I have a new one - the unit constantly wants to send water down into the overfill tray - I have it set to the shortest fill time, and in fact have too little water in the unit. The common theme here is that more water is lost the longer I the cycle I run!!!! So if I run a short cycle, odds are very good that I will never have water exiting the overfill, but once I get into the longer cycles, you can see the water running down the overfill 'trough' into the overfill tray. I had disconnected the overfill signal wire to get to the bottom of this overfill problem, and I could not believe my eyes when I saw it running down!!! And of course, I also had a kitchen floor with water over it the first time I did the test :p .
Any ideas on THIS one???? What is the complete model number of the dishwasher? Gene.
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Originally Posted by: abadfish66 You can't adjust the strike plate on the door, but you can adjust the one on the frame of the dishwasher. There is a screw under the top frame in the middle, if you loosen that you can move it forward and back, also if you need you can bend it up and down. Sometimes they just need a bit of adjustment. I have this dishwasher and I found the solder joints to break on the transformer to that is soldered to the control board. Stupid design, really - the solder joints are the only thing holding the transformer to the board, and of course with all the opening and closing of the door, it, over time, breaks the joints (in fact all 4 of them were poor). Once that was resolved, I had gotten rid of the 'ghost' behaviour in the machine. But now I have a new one - the unit constantly wants to send water down into the overfill tray - I have it set to the shortest fill time, and in fact have too little water in the unit. The common theme here is that more water is lost the longer I the cycle I run!!!! So if I run a short cycle, odds are very good that I will never have water exiting the overfill, but once I get into the longer cycles, you can see the water running down the overfill 'trough' into the overfill tray. I had disconnected the overfill signal wire to get to the bottom of this overfill problem, and I could not believe my eyes when I saw it running down!!! And of course, I also had a kitchen floor with water over it the first time I did the test :p . Any ideas on THIS one????
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