Appliance Repair Wisdom for the Ages

Monday, October 25, 2004

Appliance Repair Revelation: Fisher & Paykel DD602 Dishdrawer: F1 code

I had the opportunity to work on a Fisher & Paykel DD602 dishdrawer a couple days ago. By the way, I'm a big fan of Fisher & Paykel equipment--if you ever have the opportunity to work on one, you'll see why. The engineering is elegant in its simplicity. Well-engineered equipment is actually much easier to work on because they've designed serviceability into the product.

Anyway, the problem with this particular dishdrawer was that the top drawer (with an 11 minute wash) was giving an F1 error code after the initial rinse, about five minutes into the cycle. The F1 code indicates an overfill condition. One of the most common causes for an overfill fault is that the dishwasher cannot pump out the dirty water due to a plugged drain hose.

So, I put the dishdrawer into diagnostic mode and tested the fill and pumpout functions--everything was peachy. I ran the top drawer in a normal wash cycle and, sho 'nuff, the drawer faulted out on F1 after the first rinse. Well, Houston, we had a problem and it was time for the Samurai to break open a can of whup-ass on this dishdrawer. First thing I did was pull the front panel off the drawer, like ahso:

Fisher Paykel DD602 dishdrawer with the front panel removed.

With that front panel off, I pulled the wire harness connectors off the main control board (lower right-hand side) to inspect for gookus. None found--my quest continued.

The next step to remove the botton drawer from the unit so I could inspect the flood switch. In order to do this, I had to remove the wire harness cover on the underside of the drawer. This is what the underside of the dishdrawer looks like with the botton cover panel removed:

Fisher Paykel DD602 dishdrawer, looking at the underside of one of the drawers with the wire cover plate removed.

With the bottom cover off, I could unclip the wire harness, fill hose, and drain hose. Then I unclipped the linkage at the back of the drawer and lifted the drawer off the slider arms. All this to expose the flood switch, shown on the left-hand side of the bottom panel in the picture below:.

Fisher Paykel DD602 dishdrawer with the lower drawer removed. The flood switch in mounted on the base, left hand side.

After noting the positions of the wires on the flood switch and removing them, I unclipped the switch housing from the base panel. The switch housing contains one switch for each drawer. The switches are wired normally closed (NC) and each switch has three spade connections, so it's important to note where the wires went. With the switch housing out, I could ohm out both switches and both checked good. I inspected the contacts and noticed that one of them was oxidized, evidenced by discoloration.

I had a flash-back to my Navy days and heard Petty Officer (AT1) Crowe's voice in my head, "Here, take this ruby red eraser and clean off them contacts. That'll restore the current flow for that circuit. Good to go, Sailor." You gotta understand, Petty Officer Crowe was my technical guru in the Navy--he taught me many of the practical and theoretical troubleshooting skills that I still use today.

So I cleaned the contacts as instructed by Petty Officer Crowe's mental image in my brain and reassembled the dishdrawer. I ran the top drawer and...no F1 error code! I ran it several more times just to be sure.

Good to go, Sailor.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 04:21 ET.  [permalink]

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47 Comments:

Hello, how did you remove the panel in the front? I was not able to remove mine.

By  Anonymous, at April 12, 2005 11:03 AM  

You remove the front panel by removing two "pins". There is one on each side of the drawer, and they are at the bottom and circular with a recessed tab - like an inverted slotted screw.

You just pull the tabs straight out. After that you pull the front down and out.

By  Anonymous, at April 15, 2005 6:52 AM  

Samurai ARM, thanks for the dishdrawer pages.

I'll note that we've had our dd since 1999, and we just had our second F1. Both were due to water causing the float switch to trip.

The first one I don't know the cause as the unit was 3 months old, and a F&P repair dude came out and did his thing under warranty.

The second one happened last week, and it was due to a cracked drain line on the lower drawer. The crack was in a place that I could cut the line and splice it back together, which is what I did.

By  Anonymous, at April 15, 2005 7:03 AM  

These washers seem to have a bad reputation for flooding and maitenance - but I think that this washer is well designed and easy to pick through.

My younger sister flooded the washer and I had to hunt around to find a way to fix this - I work at a Apple store so I knew my way around computers and a washer (I believed) couldnt be that harder...

After much confusion over the photos, I managed to pull it all out. Then I set about to get rid of all the foamy water with a combo of towels and lighted tealight candles - my mates thought I had made a funerary shrine to the dishwasher - but it all dried out and when I put it together - surprise, surprise it worked! only an hour and a half of work too!

By  F&P user, at May 16, 2005 8:36 AM  

Fisher Paykel Repair service wanted. Can anyone refer me to a knowledgeable and fair repairman in the Los Angeles are for my 603 Dishdrawer?
Many thanks. Dreamdogs@aol.com

By  Anonymous, at May 25, 2005 8:32 PM  

Great site which helped me understand what the problem was, how it happened and how I fixed it. I got the F1 code which was caused by a tray put in the top of the draw to be washed by my son. This however allowed water to spill over the back of the draw and into the base of the unit. Well I looked at the schematic of how to pull the unit apart and thought there must be an easier way. With the lower draw open you can see into the base of the unit and with the use of a torch (flashlight) you will see water in the base of the unit which was the cause the fault in my case. To eliminate the water I used a towel placed in the base to remove the initial puddle and a hairdryer to evaporate the remaining water. It took about 15 minutes to get all the water out. I switched the machine back on and it is now working fine. So for those of you that do not have the mechanical aptitude I suggest this method but apply common sense. Switch the Dishwasher off at the wall outlet first to avoid electric shock and keep the hair dryer out of the water. You could direct a fan heater into the gap to achieve the same but it may take a little longer than the direct method. I hope this helps someone out there.
jsjones@ihug.co.nz

By  Anonymous, at June 04, 2005 7:44 AM  

we followed your insturctions and put our machine back together after drying it out, with a hair dryer and rags. but upon starting it again it came up f1 to our dismay.
any suggestions ?? could you give us a diagram of the float switch wiring?? thanksss lk

By  Anonymous, at June 23, 2005 2:13 PM  

If you cleaned the switch contacts as I said in my instructions and you're still getting the F1, then you need to replace the float switch. If you need more help, come to the Samurai School of Appliantology.

By  Samurai Appliance Repair Man, at June 23, 2005 5:20 PM  

my mother just had her F & P dishwashers replaced (both) not due to the problem she was having but because of small strip of rust on the front inside edge of the drawers. I have the same dishwashers...first generation about 5-6 years old. have you heard of the replacment program? I'd like to have mine replaced before this program runs out.

By  Anonymous, at July 14, 2005 7:39 PM  

Thank you soooo much !!

I just did the towel and hairdryer "fix" for my flood switch error and to my joy my machine is now working perfectly..............YIPEEEEE I hate washing up !!!!!!!!!

Thank you again

By  danaiglu, at September 05, 2005 10:25 PM  

I just finished using my wet/dry vacuum to remove the water from the lower pan and 15 minutes later the F1 is gone and we are up and running

By  Anonymous, at December 09, 2005 9:04 AM  

mate ur a winner. it works good as now. just followed the simple instructions and away we go. peice of cake. these dishwashers are real awesome aye, like we never had any problems with them. The reason why the F1 fault came up is that we just brought a new waste disposal unit, but didnt puncture the dishwasher whole. so it was our fault, and i guess this is just a super duper design which prevents water getting everywhere.

cheers big fella

By  Anonymous, at December 16, 2005 4:38 AM  

Thanks Samurai Repair Guy! What a great site. I wish I knew how to take the bottom drawer out so I could try an eraser on the flood switch contacts--but I don't know how. I'm waiting out an F1 on the F&P DD. It's completely dry in the pan, but one comment on the Aussie site indicated the problem could be humidity in the flood switch. It's the eve of Christmas eve, with family arriving for big dinner tomorrow. WOuld be delightful to wake up to a functional DD--no service available for a few days. It's drawers are open, with fan blowing into the works to try the trick. I'll let you know...

By  Anonymous, at December 24, 2005 12:48 AM  

the latest rev(2005), dd603 uses (i think) a resistive 'dip' off the main power board ... if you don't get to them quick and dry them out, they corrode ... game over ... F1's all the time

By  Anonymous, at December 24, 2005 2:18 AM  

From Anonymous at 04:38
Overnight drying did the trick so far--woke up to a functional pair of dish drawers. The servos on the top sound slow on startup....

By  Anonymous, at December 24, 2005 12:53 PM  

I own a Fisher Paykel DD602 dishwasher which only has one drawer working. The problem is in the LCD controller and after having (3) controllers installed the problem is still there. The background color of my original controlled is light green (chartreuse) while the background color on each of the (3) replacement controllers has been orange. We have switched controllers from the operational drawer to the inoperational one and it works fine. I am at a loss (and slowly getting fed up with Fisher Paykel). Can anyone help?

By  Anonymous, at January 26, 2006 10:46 AM  

GREAT SITE!!! Im happy to have found this site & all the tips from others as well for my dishwasher. I thought it was dead & was ready to kick it, Im going to try the shop vac now..lol mihgt be cheaper than kicking it huh..lol

thanks Darin

By  Anonymous, at March 05, 2006 7:22 PM  

Hey, mucho domos to all who posted a word-up about this site. Glad it helped!

By  Samurai Appliance Repair Man, at March 05, 2006 7:31 PM  

Can you tell me what the problem is if BOTH drawers are flashing F1? It started after I had run the top drawer and I awoke to beeping and F1's on both. I had to unplug it to stop. Help?? I can't afford to call them to fix it again. I'm so sorry I bought these. I have to call in a repair at least once a year and it's always $150.00! Help Help!

By  Anonymous, at March 14, 2006 7:43 PM  

Could you tell me how do you pull the drawers out? First I noticed that both drawers were beeping and flashing F1. With a flashlight I saw a puddle of water on the bottom around the flood switch. I removed all the moisture using a towel and a hairdryer and everything was fine again. I then did a test run on the top unit and stopped it after a minute or so and allowed the water to drain. Few seconds later, beeping and F1 flashing started again on both units. After unplugging the power, I saw somthing shocking behind the top drawer - the water supply hose was disconnected in the middle (from a joint) and flooded the panel between the top and bottom units. We've had our 603 for almost 5 years and this is the first trouble we encountered. Thanks for your help.

By  Anonymous, at March 15, 2006 3:49 AM  

To remove the drawers, you first need to remove the pins on each side, just behind the front panel, at the bottom. You'll see two circles with a raised ridge in them. Rotate the ridge vertically and pull to remove.

F1 is the flood code. You have a leak somewhere. The most common cause for F1 code in these machines is a split in the drain hose.

By  Samurai Appliance Repair Man, at March 15, 2006 8:37 AM  

The previous comment about turning the side pins to remove the drawer is NOT correct, at least not for 603! Those pins are to remove the FRONT PANEL, not the drawer. DO NOT turn the circle/pins anyway, they pull STRAIGHT OUT to remove and probably will break if turned. Drawers are removed by depressing the tab on each side (locacted BELOW the "circles") as shown in this picture and sliding the support guide back. Release tabs

By  Anonymous, at April 21, 2006 3:07 PM  

Just to clear up any disinformation, the pins are used to hold the front panel on the DD603. It is also correct that the pins do not hold the drawer to the rails on the 603 as they do on the 602. This page from the DD603 Service Manual on these topics should clear up any confusion.

By  Samurai Appliance Repair Man, at April 21, 2006 3:45 PM  

My DD603 top drawer has been leaking for sometime. We have replaced the lid, and both lid motors but still it leaks. Too much play in the lid? Is there an adjustment for the lid seal?

By  Anonymous, at April 23, 2006 1:13 PM  

Scored extra points with the inlaws with this bit of info. I opened the panel at the back, just a couple of screws and put in a couple of towells. Removed the switch and cleaned it up. Works like a bought one. Thanks

By  Mike, at April 24, 2006 6:12 AM  

I have the leak problem too. The bottom drawer leaks from the top. The seals look good. I'm assuming there must be some adjustments needed. Would love to get some advice before breaking down to buy a new one!

By  Anonymous, at April 25, 2006 6:14 PM  

I have a different problem - my top drawer - dishes come out with gray film. I filled my jet-dry - still happening.

By  fpdduser, at May 24, 2006 12:55 PM  

I have a dd603, the other night the top draw stopped during a wash cycle. The power to this draw was lost. The bottom draw wasn't on at the time and that is still working fine. I have swapped the LCD display and PCB board over to check they weren’t faulty. The bottom draw was fine again, but the top draw is still dead. I then checked the PCB board at the bottom of the unit, it looks O.K, and I wanted to swap terminal plugs over to see if it made a difference but discovered the terminal plugs aren’t interchangeable.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

By  rangi, at August 30, 2006 4:48 PM  

Hi,

I have a DD602 and need to remove the upper drawer to replace a faulty mains cable. The first post in this thread says that the last step before removing the drawer is "...I unclipped the linkage at the back of the drawer and lifted the drawer off the slider arms."

I give up! how do you reach that linkage?

Thanks very much!

Larry

By  Anonymous, at November 10, 2006 6:35 PM  

After leaky operation, I figured out we had mice chewing up the rubber seal. We took care of the mice, but now have a leaking rubber seal in the lid. One entire corner of the seal has been chewed out.

Does anyone know where I can buy a replacement rubber seal. Black electrical tape worked for a temporary fix, but need to replace the entire roughly 24" x 24" rectangular seal.

By  robert_kirby, at February 11, 2007 7:10 PM  

Thank you so much for this article! Much appreciated.

I had flooding in the base of my Fisher Paykel as well, when the top-drawer had been running. And this, after 5 years of (mostly) smooth sailing.

Taking out the top drawer and inspecting the water drips, it really looked like the water was coming out from between the top of the drawer and the rubber gasket. So, first I cleaned the gasket, removed built-up calcium deposits, and tried again, but the leaking continued.

Then, I noticed that a thick, white plastic cable had snapped. This cable ran along with the supply and drain hoses and the electrical cable to the back of the upper drawer. I surmised that possibly one end of the cable was sticking into the drawer when it was closed, so that a proper seal could not be made between the drawer and the cover.

So, using duct tape (Handyman's secret weapon), I secured the cable to the rest of the bundle, and voila! Everything is working great.

Thanks so much to Samurai Repairman for giving me the confidence and background to troubleshoot my own problem. Cheers.

By  Cycle 15, at February 26, 2007 11:33 AM  

I have a f&P dishwasher (2 draws). The other day it made a humming sound and showed F1 (spanner). I unplugged it, next day it worked however then it tripped main power source. Plus the top draw is now hard to close. Do I need to change a fuse and where do I purchase it from?
Thank you: My email is gvaiaso@hotmail.com

By  DIY, at February 27, 2007 9:34 PM  

This is a great site. I have a F&P Double DishDrawer. The top drawer is having a problem with the roof lowering. After reading this site, I realize that the problem is with a broken actuator and I have ordered a new one. They recommend that I replace both of them. Can you give me some instructions on how to replace this part?

By  Lee, at March 06, 2007 1:23 PM  

When I run the bottom drawer dirty water leaks into the top drawer. Is there a valve that may be clogged causing this internal leak. I also have a F1 fault which I think is not related to the above problem and thanks to the info on this page I am digging into right now. There is water setting in the bottom pan, I just have to determine where it is coming from. Many Thanks!

By  Mark, at May 22, 2007 8:50 AM  

Does anyone have up to date pictures of the DD605SS. I am having difficulty locating the flood switch? Does anyone have a service manual for this model F&P refuse to sell these.

By  Joe Star, at November 19, 2007 6:22 PM  

Huge THANK YOU!! My husband used liquid dish soap last night and we awoke with horror to F1 beeps from both drawers - and 50 people coming tonight for a holiday dinner party!! Found this FABULOUS website, which made me smile and gave me understanding and direction - I got out the towels and hairdryer and in half hour we were back in operation. Disaster averted!!
Happy Holidays!

By  Windyday, at December 15, 2007 3:20 PM  

I replaced the main board, but also need to replace the lcd controller in a DD603. How do I get it out?

By  Dale, at December 16, 2007 9:31 PM  

I have a single drawer DD603. During the cycle it pauses frequently and needs restarting. No fault codes are shown. Any ideas?

By  camac, at January 07, 2008 5:01 PM  

I was getting an F1 error on both draws of my DD602. Using all the great info from this site, I was able to remove the bottom draw dry up the water around the float switch and get it going again.

Unfortunately the error occurred again. After further troubleshooting, I determined the bottom draw is leaking from somewhere and causing the F1.

I'm sure where the leak is coming from in the bottom. Does anyone have any idea on how to determine where the leak is coming from?

Thank you

By  jmacinnis, at February 14, 2008 10:07 AM  

The last line of my previous comment should read

I'm NOT sure where the leak is coming from in the bottom. Does anyone have any idea on how to determine where the leak is coming from?

By  jmacinnis, at February 14, 2008 10:09 AM  

I replaced the drain hose on my 602 which had a visible crack where the arm meets the bottom of the dish drawer. It was still leaking so I checked the tube that seals it shut on the upper lid. I noticed it had a crack in it just by running my hand along it so I replaced the lid assembly which was pretty easy after you remove the draw. $100 dollars later in parts and it is fixed.

By  tanya, at April 17, 2008 5:36 PM  

Hey... I fixed it! Had a F1 error. I think I overloaded the top drawer and water got into the base an triggered the flood switch. Took the bottom drawer cover off first then took the whole drawer out and gently manuevered it to where I could get into the bottom of the unit. Tool a towel and dried up the visible water. A few paper towels to get into and under tight spaces. Took a blow dryer (as suggested in another blog) and let it run in the base for about 10 minutes. No visible signs of water so i put it back together and it worked. Now I can cancel that service repair order!

Thanks for the tips!

By  o' hartis, at May 03, 2008 5:52 AM  

Grasshopper, I need your help!!! If you help me, I will let you snatch the pearl from my palm!

My F&P DishDrawer 602 isn't draining. I found you're amazing site, and first tried to see if my drain hose was clogged by removing it at both ends and reverse flushing it blowing into the pipe end and letting it drain into a bucket at the appliance end. It's clear.

Then I put it into diagnostic mode thanks to one of the other posters here, and filled it a bit. No problems. It drained out the bottom just because it was disconnected (gravity). But when I put it to pump mode, it didn't gush out or anything, it just sort of kept draining by gravity and the pump doesn't sound right to me. Does it sound right to you? (maybe that's just how it sounds with the drawer open and the cover off??)

Have I diagnosed this correctly? Does it only leave one culprit? Should I try cleaning contacts (I didn't bother with that approach yet) or is it clear that I have a bad pump of some kind here??

Please look at this video and let me know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktzQ2BBoYZo

also, I'm posting this video as a resource to others to see how the diagnostic procedure works... wanting to give something back. If I get help from this forum and/or need to replace any part I will video that and post it as well, building the knowledge base and sharing the love. Thanks all.

By  TomL, at May 03, 2008 7:57 PM  

Great posts and great site! Our F! code came about because the garbage disposal needed to be run. Instead of taking out the drawers, I just opened the bottom drawer far enough to get a rag into the bottom pan of the dishwasher. Once I rung out the rag 10xs or so, I turned the power back on, and the F1 code was gone! The dishwasher is working great again!

By  Rkenyon, at January 01, 2009 3:38 AM  

thank you from Australia it worked for me too
chrees buddy

By  jack, at April 10, 2009 7:26 AM  

Thanks mate, you're a legend!
I just come to fix the flooding (F1) of my P&K. The P&K customer service I called yesterday told me it should cost at leat AUD 120.
MANY THANKS
SL

By  serigne, at November 05, 2009 2:58 AM  

Great advice. I followed your instructions and now it works beautifully. Thanks so much!

By  Joanna, at January 24, 2010 5:31 PM  

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