Bosch Heat Pump Tumble Dryer - WTF?

[dr_gn]

Had this thing delivered and fitted on Wednesday - heat pump tumble dryer):



Apart from having to basically re-fit it myself to correct kinked pipes, it works Ok-ish (washing always seems to be not quite dry)

I fitted an additional spur to the adjacent sink drain, so I wouldn’t have to empty the drawer every time. The drain works - I temporarily fed it into a bucket to check, but the drawer still gets a load of water in it:



I phoned Bosch twice today - first time they said the black plug (just visible in the top recess) needed to be fitted to a drain on the underside, so I did that - no difference. Read the manual again, and that says to remove it (logical); did that - no difference, still loads of water in the tray after a run, and in the bucket.

The drawer itself bears little similarity to the manual image, plus it’s got a kind of valve lever on one side which appears to do nothing in terms of draining the water. The tray appears to be some kind of labyrinth, where you have to tilt it to allow the water to drain. Trouble is there’s always a bit left, which ends up on your foot:



So now Bosch are sending someone round next week. In the meantime has anyone else got one of these apparently rather poorly documented machines? If so, any idea what’s going one with mine Thanks.

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un1eash said:

You usually have to disconnect a hose on the back bottom that feeds up into the tray. Where you disconnect the tray feed you connect your hose that runs to a drain. If this is done you shouldn't be able to get water in the tray at all.

Yeah that is done, the orginal pipe is in its stored position on the blind spigot - I checked (even though it must be right because water flows out of the drain pipe that goes to the sink drain.

The only other way water can get in the tray is either through the hole in the top where the filter is, or up through the tiny drain hole.

It's a mystery.

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tendown said:

Our beko drier does this. I connected it up as per the supplied instructions which include a tee piece, so the pumped water can go to either the tank or the drain. The connection to the drain isn't much lower than the tank so we get water going to both locations.

I've since found a different instruction from beko online which doesn't use the tee piece, so water can't go to the tank. I guess the downside of this is that if the drain gets blocked, it just leaks out somewhere rather than going to the tank and triggering the "tank full" error.

I plan to lower the drain connection one day to hopefully solve the issue.

How high is your drain connection in relation to the tank? Maybe yours has the tee connection internally.

That’s a good call. The drain is about the same height as the tray, but reading the instructions, it says to use a hose guide (the n shaped thing) between 80 and 100 mm high, and loop the drain over it, then to the sink drain. This hasn’t been done.

I wonder if it forms a syphon to drain all the water, and without it, the excess goes into the tray?

[dr_gn]

Well, I've instaled the n bend and there's a load drying at the moment, so we will see.

It doesn't say in the manual that water will collect in the tray, and Bosch service told me on the phone (in no uncertain terms) that the tray should remain completely dry when the external drain is fitted.

[dr_gn]

Still doing it after everything present and correct in the plumbing department.

I assume “they all do that”, but after spending £600+ they can send someone out to tell me face-to-face AFAIC

[dr_gn]

I didn't even know there was a flap at the bottom of the machine

And the blue filter storage thing?? My filter is in place in the tray - why is it stored there?

The filter just inside the door collects fluff quite rapidly, but so did out old dryer. No problem to empty it, and it's always bone dry anyway.

According to the Bosch service engineer who came round on Tuesday, the tray should contain water after each run in order to keep some filter or other purged. That water gets replaced during the next cycle. So if your tray is dry with a plumbed in system, something is wrong.

[dr_gn]

We must be talking about different machines:

1) On mine the instructions say that the blue filter must be in place during normal use. It’s self-cleaning (hence the need for water in the tray that reverse-flushes it somehow). Instructions say nothing about ever removing it even for cleaning.

2) Nowhere in the instructions does it mention water remaining in the tray (even though it should)

3) No mention of a lower hatch for anything. Appears to be permanently attached.

4) the clam-shell lint filter behind the door only needs emptying when a warning light comes on.

It’s all stupidly complex and confusing to me for something that just needs to dry a few clothes, and seems doomed to a lifetime of finnicky maintenance and minor issues. Despite the relative inefficiency, I’d have the old one back any day.

[dr_gn]

Bosch engineer eventually came around, said it’s normal for some water to collect in the tray even though it’s plumbed-into the drain.

Other day came home to find the floor partially covered in water, and the tray completely full.

Ran a load of wet towels with the drain into a bucket, and again the tank got full and nothing in the bucket.

Called John Lewis, wh said if I’d have called two days ago they’d have exchanged it with no question, now I need another Bosch engineer visit to see what’s wrong.

I honestly don’t think anyone from either John Lewis or Bosch service know how these things are supposed to work. I’ve had almost as many versions as the the number of people I’ve spoken to.

My opinion of Bosch has gone from “brilliant” to “st” in 30 days. Never again.

[dr_gn]

Today’s post drying flood…what an absolute P.O.S.

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dobly said:

Can re-read the pages of your manual that show how to switch from “collect in tank to be emptied manually” to “pump out to an external drain”.
I would guess that you have interpreted one of the steps in a different way to that intended by the engineers at Bosch.

You disconnect one pipe and fit a drain instead. Remove a plug, and that’s it according to the instructions (and verified all was well by a Bosch engineer when he came round to see what was wrong).

Then again, the instructions don’t even tell you how to manually empty the tank in the way that applies to this machine, so I don’t necessarily think they’re very accurate.

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g40steve said:

Have got a blockage?
Friends new hp overflowed, he blew down the drain pipe & has been fine since.
He thought it could be some packaging from underneath when unpacking new machine.
Service engineer visit confirmed all good & whatever was causing the overflow was no longer an issue.

The drain did empty at one point, now nothing goes through the pipe, so unlikely to be packaging causing a blockage.

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Joe M said:

In the second picture near your thumb, there is a hole. There should be a plug you remove on the bottom of the tray that you move to that hole.
Also, one pipe disconnect from the right position on the back, move it on to the stub at the left that will hold it. Take your extra drain pipe, plug it into the right, then other end to the drain.

The plug is there, in its storage hole.

Bosch initially told me it should be in the bottom of the tray (which I thought would solve the issue), but obviously they were wrong.

The pipes at the back are in their correct positions. It's pretty difficult to get that wrong.

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GCCP said:

had this, in summary

the tray always fills with water, then once full it activates a micro switch that pumps out the water. You need to remove the bung, and then link the pipe at the back of the dryer.

I did the same and tested it into a bucket to see, as the mrs and I were also confused. The bottom filter still gets a bit wet, it states this in the manual.

the mistake i made was when connecting the drain outlet up i never actualy checked the connection in the u-bend, when i checked there was acutally a little bung blocking the connection flange on the ubend. Removed that bung and all is good (for obvious reasons!)

The drain pipe is clear. Initially it did drain into a "test bucket", but it's now stopped doing that.

Mine doesn't have a bottom filter that gets wet - it always dry. I think you have a different machine.

Also, on ours, to drain the tray you (assuming no drain is fitted), you hold it horizontally over a sink and operate a lever on the side. There is no mention of this lever at all in the instructions.

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number2 said:

I'm posting this expecting a "don't you think I know that!" response. However, sometimes it's the things we think we know that are the problem.

If all else fails - and there's no problem with the machine - it's the bleeding obvious usually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EffLceEMdyQ&t=...

Thanks for that - I've already seen it!

I think it's a slightly different model, but it does have the emptying lever on the side of the tray, like mine.

The only different thing he's done, is remove and store the blue filter. My instructions make no mention of that step at all, so mine is still in place in the tray (confirmed as correct by the Bosch engineer who came around).