Power and door · 11 of 21
Lights On, Will Not Start
The buttons light and beep, the cycle shows on the display, but nothing ever runs.
| What you can see | What it usually is | Whose job |
|---|---|---|
| Buttons respond and the cycle counts down, but no water comes in | The control has started and is holding at the first step, because the door switch is not reading as closed | Ours |
| It only begins if you push the door hard and keep pushing | The latch reaches the switch but no longer travels far enough to hold it, usually because the opening has gone out of square | Ours |
| Nothing at all happens when the start key is pressed | Some Viking dishwashers want the door shut immediately after start is pressed, and a pause between the two leaves the machine sitting there | Yours to try first, then ours |
| It runs with the racks out and refuses once they are loaded | Something on a rack is standing proud and holding the door a fraction open every time it is pushed to | Yours to look at |
Every light working is good news: the board is awake and the circuit behind it is fine. What is missing is permission to run, and the door is what grants that, through a latch whose job is to close a switch and not merely to hold the door. Viking Repair Denver sorts out which on (303) 729-0972.
A door has two separate jobs to do before a wash can begin. It has to seal, which you can see, and it has to tell the control that it is shut, which you cannot.
Where the signal goes missing
The second job belongs to a switch that the latch closes as it engages. None of it is visible from the kitchen: the door looks closed, the seal looks compressed, the lights stay on, and still nothing moves. A worn latch, or a door sitting a little low in its opening, gets close enough to look right and stops short of the point where the switch makes contact.
A full rack can do the same on one run and not the next, which is why this fault reads as intermittent when it is really mechanical.
What we look at, and in what order
The panel first, for a delayed start somebody set and forgot about, and for the order the buttons want. Then the fit: how the door sits in the opening, whether the strike lines up with the latch, how much travel is left before the door bottoms out. The switch itself is measured last, and it is changed only when it still fails with the door held closed by hand.
What to try before anyone drives over
- Press the door shut with the flat of your hand right at the latch and start the cycle again. If it runs that way and not otherwise, the latch is not the broken part — the way the door sits in its opening is.
- Look along the top rack for a tall glass or a handle standing above the rail. One item in the way of the door is a common reason a machine simply refuses to begin.
- Press the start key and shut the door straight afterwards, with no pause in between. Some Viking dishwashers will not begin at all if the door is left open for a moment after start, and a delayed start counting down quietly looks much the same.
That is as far as it goes without tools. If it is still wrong, call Viking Repair Denver on (303) 729-0972 and say whether it runs when you hold the door shut with your hand — it is usually enough to know which part is coming on the van.
Every symptom, grouped by what you can see Water in, water out, cleaning, power and the door — the whole library on one page.
Clifford Nakamura
- Written
- On the van
- Service technician — controls and intermittent faults
- Years at it
- 22 years in the trade