BOSCH WVG30461GB WASHER/DRYER NOT DRYING

[Whitegoodshelp]

Strange. We've had them before. Did you select share url on YouTube and paste the link in the post?

[Nicknamed]

Just now, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

Strange. We've had them before. Did you select share url on YouTube and paste the link in the post?

https://youtu.be/ASHjWsdVTCs

 

[Whitegoodshelp]

That worked. That video doesn't show opening up the machine at all. 

[Nicknamed]

4 minutes ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

That worked. That video doesn't show opening up the machine at all. 

No I meant this seems to let you enter the service mode.  Is there a similar way of resetting the machine from that ?

[Whitegoodshelp]

Aye that's the service mode for engineers. It's not much use if you aren't an engineer and don't have all the instructions on what to do with it. There isn't normally a reset. If there's a fault, a washing machine usually shows an error code. The only way to clear the error code is to fix the fault. 

If no error code is displayed, then the fault will cause symptoms. But they can't clear until the fault is fixed either. 

[endorfin]

I've got the Bosch model WVG30461GB washer dryer.

The problem with the unit seems to be it's adding water on the dry cycles. Coming out wetter than they went in. 

I've followed the procedure to clean the fan, just a little adjustment on the directions that avoids the need to angle grind the metal bit off. Underneath the sticker on the fan there's a little circ-clip, if you pop this off, and undo the 3 screws, taking out the assembly then undo the 5 screws from the main fan cover, plus the 2 screws from the back securing the fan housing to the washer, there's now enough give for the whole impeller to lift out so you can clean it and the sensor inside the housing as well.

Anyway, I fitted it all back together and tried drying again. The fan spins and it gets hot, but comes out soaking wet, and hot. You can see a trickle of water inside the drum as if it's adding water in a drying cycle. 

Any ideas on this one? 

[Whitegoodshelp]

Hi there. That's normal, well the adding water bit. It uses this water to condense the steam created through drying back into water. This water then runs down into the condenser chamber and then the drum, and is pumped out. If everything is working OK, but it's not getting rid of the water, there may be a blockage in the plastic condenser chamber and/or at the bottom where the water runs into the drum.

Check my article on it here - Laundry comes out of washer dryer hot & steamy

[endorfin]

11 minutes ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

Hi there. That's normal, well the adding water bit. It uses this water to condense the steam created through drying back into water. This water then runs down into the condenser chamber and then the drum, and is pumped out. If everything is working OK, but it's not getting rid of the water, there may be a blockage in the plastic condenser chamber and/or at the bottom where the water runs into the drum.

Check my article on it here - Laundry comes out of washer dryer hot & steamy

Thanks for the reply.

Where is the condenser chamber on this machine? Is it the plastic chamber where the fan sits on? 

[Whitegoodshelp]

It should be on the back of the drum. Essentially it's the path for the water that's trickled in during the drying cycle to get inside the main drum. 

[endorfin]

8 minutes ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

It should be on the back of the drum. Essentially it's the path for the water that's trickled in during the drying cycle to get inside the main drum. 

Is it visible in this picture?

[Whitegoodshelp]

No its on the back of the drum. That's the top of the drum 🙂

[endorfin]

56 minutes ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

No its on the back of the drum. That's the top of the drum 🙂

OK, so the long white bit leading to the drum in the picture?

I've undid the clips and there was some debris, as pictured. I've cleared this out, I don't feel it's enough to cause a blockage but going to see how it goes with a dry cycles now. 

[Whitegoodshelp]

That's it. Looks promising. Just make sure it doesn't leak from where you removed and refitted it. 

[endorfin]

1 hour ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

That's it. Looks promising. Just make sure it doesn't leak from where you removed and refitted it. 

Unfortunately it didn't solve the issue.

Clothes come out hot and absolutely soaking, wetter than they went in. 

What else could it be? 

[Whitegoodshelp]

I would guess there's more stuff blocking it that you didn't find. If its heating up, and fan is running, and water is trickling in - then it has to be fan airflow restricted by blockage or water gettiing trapped in condenser chamber through blockage. 

[endorfin]

On 03/11/2022 at 19:08, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

I would guess there's more stuff blocking it that you didn't find. If its heating up, and fan is running, and water is trickling in - then it has to be fan airflow restricted by blockage or water gettiing trapped in condenser chamber through blockage. 

You were absolutely spot on!

I removed the fan again, and tied a cloth to a piece of string and pulled it through the condenser pipe and got more debris out. 

Now drying fine. Better than it has been for ages!

You know your stuff, many thanks. 

[endorfin]

On 17/11/2022 at 19:03, endorfin said:

You were absolutely spot on!

I removed the fan again, and tied a cloth to a piece of string and pulled it through the condenser pipe and got more debris out. 

Now drying fine. Better than it has been for ages!

You know your stuff, many thanks. 

It's me again!

The problem is back. Not drying, clothes wetter than before.

I've checked condenser again. No blockage, very clear. Fan works, and it gets hot. 

Only thing I found was plastic bit on top of condenser (see photo circled in red) had a bit of fluff debris in it, I've cleared that out (as far as I can see) but don't see how that would affect it anyway? 

I've ordered an endoscope which should arrive tomorrow, so I can have a proper look. 

[Whitegoodshelp]

On 06/01/2023 at 16:22, endorfin said:

I've ordered an endoscope which should arrive tomorrow, so I can have a proper look. 

Wow, wouldn't it have been cheaper to get a repairman in 🙂

A partial blockage anywhere in the system could potentially cause problems. The black hose looks like it supplies water, but I'm not sure about the plastic hose. However, with it being connected to the same spigot as the water inlet I would guess it may be some sort of steam vent. Does the other end of that plastic hose fit to vent on the casing?

[endorfin]

1 hour ago, Whitegoodshelp (Andy) said:

Wow, wouldn't it have been cheaper to get a repairman in 🙂

A partial blockage anywhere in the system could potentially cause problems. The black hose looks like it supplies water, but I'm not sure about the plastic hose. However, with it being connected to the same spigot as the water inlet I would guess it may be some sort of steam vent. Does the other end of that plastic hose fit to vent on the casing?

 

The endoscope was a dual camera model with display and was only £59 delivered next day with Amazon. Worth the money imo as I can use it for other things (I work with cars so it will come in useful) 

I daresay a washing machine engineer would have been more expensive.

I removed that black plastic hose (arrowed in photo) and put the camera down there and could see a blockage. I removed the fan and had a look at the other end and it exited with a blue pipe with a sort of termination at the end with 2 gaps at the side and fluff was hanging out of it. 

Close by there was a build up of fluff as well, something I wouldn't have been able to see or access without the help of the endoscope. With some bendy wire and an amateur contortionist act I managed to clear it out as best as I could. 

Using the endoscope I looked down the condenser and there were lumps of wet fluff nestled in the corners. Nothing that looked like it would be impeding flow though, but cleared it out with the bendy wire. 

Put back together and it was drying again! Unsure whether it was the bits in the condenser or the blockage lending from the black pipe.

But disaster! There was water leaking all over the kitchen floor! 

Opened it back up again, bottom of machine was swimming in water, and dripping from the bottom of the condenser. My fault, I'd not secured the clip properly. 

Quick mop up and assembly. 

So far, so good. It's drying well. 

[Chris M]

My Bosch Washer Dryer had also stopped drying clothes.  Model number is:  WVH28360GB.  Thank you to all that have contributed to this thread.  Following others advise I have been able to repair it myself.  Initially the clothes were still wet at the end of a wash dry programme.  The top of the machine felt stone cold throughout the drying phase of the programme where in the past it always was fairly warm.  Running an additional drying programme made no difference.  Despite this fault the machine did not display a fault code on the display.  After reading the thread I found that the cut out switch closest to the front of the machine had tripped.  After the resetting this operation briefly returned to normal, but when running a complete wash dry programme the cut out tripped again.  After reading this thread I released the dryer Motor from its housing to find the fan was completely clogged with fluff.  I spent a good hour with an industrial vacuum cleaner and a small scraper cleaning the fan and removing the fluff.  Since this process it has functioned properly.  
I find it mystifying that Bosch do not make the fan more accessible for cleaning as this is an item prone to contamination.  I did read a suggestion that removing a circlip under the sticker on the motor may make this cleaning operation easier.  I will try this next time.  As a motor vehicle technician with over forty years experience I am used to fiddly repairs, but feel Bosch has made this cleaning procedure unnecessary complicated.

I have to be honest and acknowledge that I had never run the fluff clearing programme on the machine before.  I was not even aware it had one!  Machine is now about twelve years old.  Perhaps running this programme regularly before a problem occurs could prevent problems?  However, running the fluff programme once the fault occurs does nothing to repair the fault.

The only other faults I have encountered since having the machine were a cracked water heater element that tripped my RCB on my home as soon as machine was switched on.  We have very hard water and lime scale had damaged element.

I also replaced drive motor earlier this year as brushes had burnt out.  Perhaps a new set of brushes would have repaired this but I replaced the complete motor.

Thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread.

 

[Whitegoodshelp]

On 01/08/2023 at 11:03, Chris M said:

I have to be honest and acknowledge that I had never run the fluff clearing programme on the machine before.  I was not even aware it had one!

Hi Chris. I would like to know exactly what this cycle does. I'm struggling to imagine how any special cycle could possibly prevent a buildup of fluff inside the motor. It would be useful if you tried it and reported back what it appears to do. The only thing I can think of is if it just sets the dryer going for long enough to heat up all of the insides of the dryer fan, motor and pipework? If this was the case then it may well dry it all out and allow lint and fluff to drop away and be removed.

During normal dryer operation all of the internal section of the drying system get pretty hot, humid and damp and this allows a lot of the link and fluff to stick.

[Chris M]

Hello Andy.  According to the washer instructions the Fluff Clean programme is listed for drum hygiene or fluff removal.  Temperature can be selected for this cycle:

90 degrees = antibacterial programme do not use detergent 

40 degrees = antibacterial programme special drum cleaning detergent can be used

cold = fluff rinsing programme, to remove fluff accumulated in the tub during drying cycles

Before I detected the root cause of the blocked cooling fan I ran all of the listed programmes several times but did not detect any improvement.  I suspect the fluff programmes are designed as a means of prevention rather than a solution to fluff build up.  Perhaps structured fluff cleaning maintenance followed from new may have prevented my fan becoming clogged with fluff.  Having said that it has taken twelve years of use before a problem arose with the drying cycle.

Image shows the cut out switch that kept tripping prior to dryer fan cleaning.

[Whitegoodshelp]

Hi Chris. It sounds like the programme is only designed to flush out fluff from inside the drum, and is of little or most likely no use in preventing the buildup of fluff and lint inside the heating element, fan chamber etc. I'm not even aware that there is any problem with a buildup of fluff and lint inside the drum because this area is amply flushed with water during all of the constant wash and rinse cycles.

I think that my idea of putting the dryer onto a drying cycle for half an hour, with no laundry inside, is a much better possible maintenance cycle. Doing this would cause all of the drying parts to get hot, and then cool down slowly on the last 10 minutes of the cool down at the end of the drying cycle. This should ensure that everything inside the drying section would be dry, instead of damp, And dryer lint and fluff is more likely to get sucked or blown into the main part of the drum where it can be pumped away during the wash and rinse cycle.

However, it's possible that nothing will make any difference. Maybe it's just something that will always happen due to the design. In a normal tumble dryer, all of the fluff and lint is trapped and collected by proper filters inside the drum. These are totally absent on a washer dryer.

 

 

[moreteavicar]

Thanks, very useful thread here. Aftter pressing the two TOC s back in and have them trip each time, I fouond I too suffered with a blocked hot air plenum, but not for the same reasons as everyone else. I hadn't used the drying unit for about 4 years, preferring instead to hang outside or on airer indoors. Machine has only just reached 5 years when deceided to use the drier once more (due to broken leg) and discovered I had this fault - the alumium plenum and fan casing had corroded so much that it created enough fuzzy powder blocking both units. Afer sucking most of it out with a hoover and scraping off remainder (into hoover again), it finally worked. Ditto to the stupid placement of the fan casing / metal strut, which made cleaning the fan area difficult. Will definitely resort to angle grinder to cut that bit out next time I have a blocked plenum! 

Edited September 19, 2023 by moreteavicar
Improved grammar

[Jose Moura]

Hi, 

This topic was very handy but I found something useful for anyone with same issue (Bosch wash dry 7/4 not drying the clothes) 

like many of you said it’s due to the fluff stuff accumulated inside the motor and around the sensors. 
 

I have found an easier way to open the motor chamber (see pictures) in red is the screws in the back of the washing machine that we need to remove and then at green is bracket that we need to push inside and then down to lower the motor just enough to pull the motor out. 

after that just need to clean all the inside parts and around the sensors.

 

very important don’t forget to reset the switches. Just press this buttons. 

Hope this helps someone. I don’t advice just to reset and close the machine because if they trip is for a reason, always clean the machine before resetting them. 
 

Cheers,

Jose