Aquastop hose for dishwasher - check and replacement

Aquastop hose for dishwasher Aquastop system or Aquastop hose - these phrases can often be heard in a household appliance store in relation to a dishwasher or washing machine. But what these phrases mean is not fully understood even by dishwasher salesmen, who insert euphonious expressions into their eulogies for the sake of making a nice statement. In this article, we decided to talk about hoses with the Aquastop system, we will discuss why such hoses are needed, how they are designed and how to install, replace or check them.

What is Aquastop and what are its functions?

The Aquastop hose for a dishwasher is a regular hose, enclosed in a protective casing and equipped with a special device that shuts off the water entering the dishwasher during an accident. The system is triggered in the event of a leak or rupture of the hose, protecting your home and the homes of your neighbors below from imminent flooding.

For your information! The pressure in the water supply system is quite high and water hammers often occur; you simply cannot do without a system that will protect the hose.

Aquastop hose for dishwasher Modern dishwashers, for the most part, are completely protected from leaks. Manufacturers install an Aquastop inlet hose on them, and along with it they supply the machine body with a special tray with an electromechanical device. The device works according to the following scheme:

There is a leak inside the dishwasher;
the pan begins to fill with water;
the float inside the dishwasher tray floats up, raising the lever;
the lever closes the electrical circuit, the electric valve is activated and shuts off the water.

It turns out that the hose is protected by the external Aquastop system, and the dishwasher is protected from the inside by the internal Aquastop system. Experts note that the Aquastop system of electromechanical and absorbent type protects the dishwasher and washing machine by 99%; only in 8 cases out of 1000 the system does not work properly, and a leak still occurs. For mechanical Aquastop valves, the statistics are worse: out of 1000 cases of operation, 147 leaks, which results in approximately 85% success. Let's talk about the types of Aquastop systems for inlet hoses and their design in more detail.

How does this system work?

You already guessed that the Aquastop system, which protects the dishwasher hose, can have different designs. It is on dishwashers that manufacturers install: Aquastop hose for dishwasher

simple mechanical Aquastop;
absorbent mechanical Aquastop;
electromagnetic Aquastop.

A simple mechanical Aquastop for a hose is now becoming increasingly rare, but it can still be found on some budget Bosch dishwashers. The basis of the system is a special spring and valve. The spring is designed for a certain water pressure and if the pressure does not change, then the hose works as usual. If the hose is damaged, a rupture or a water hammer occurs, the water pressure changes sharply and at the same second the spring is activated, tightly clogging the valve.

Important! Mechanical Aquastop for a dishwasher does not recognize small leaks (fistulas, drips), but meanwhile they can also cause a lot of trouble.

A simple mechanical Aquastop valve is not able to completely protect the machine hose from leakage, but what about the rest.Absorbent mechanical Aquastop is more reliable. The mechanism is based on a plunger with a valve, a spring and a special absorbent in the reservoir. The system works like this:

if even a minimal leak occurs, moisture from the hose enters the protective casing;
the absorbent quickly gets wet and expands;
this triggers the spring with the plunger and closes the valve.

The main disadvantage of absorbent Aquastop is that its protective valve is disposable. As soon as the absorbent inside the housing gets wet and expands, it hardens and locks the valve and can no longer be reused, as well as the entire hose.

Note! There are mechanisms in the world for absorbent Aquastops with only a plunger or only with a spring, but these are subtleties.

The Aquastop electromagnetic system of the Bosch machine is based on the operating principle of a solenoid valve. Either one or two valves are installed in the device body at the base of the hose. As soon as water enters the protective casing of the hose, it begins to flow into the pan of the Bosch machine, and there is an electromechanical device (the operating principle is described in paragraph 1). The device works and completely shuts off the water flowing into the Bosch dishwasher (or another).

How to install/replace with your own hands?

Now let's figure out how to check whether the Aquastop hose has worked or not. Well, firstly, the most important sign that the hose did work is that the dishwasher “doesn’t want to pump water into anything”, it simply won’t be able to do it. Secondly, the Bosch dishwasher will give a system error. Error code E15 for a Bosch dishwasher This just means that the Aquastop system has worked; once you decipher it, everything will immediately become clear. Aquastop hose for dishwasher

But it happens that the Bosch dishwasher never generated an error code, and water still does not flow into the dishwasher. What to do?

We need to turn off the water.
Unscrew the Aquastop hose.
Look inside the hose; you should be able to see the valve right behind the nut.
If the valve is pressed tightly to the nut and there is no gap between it and the rib, it means that water will not pass through such a hose - Aquastop has worked.

Next, you can further verify that the Aquastop of the Bosch dishwasher is working. You need to unscrew the bottom front panel of the dishwasher and look into the tray with a flashlight. If there is water there, then the protection has definitely worked and the hose needs to be replaced with a new one.

Remember! There is no need to change a simple mechanical Aquastop; just compress the spring again until it clicks and it can be used again.

Installing/replacing the Aquastop hose is not difficult. It is enough to turn off the water, unscrew the old hose, and screw a new one in its place. If we are talking about an electromagnetic system, then you will also have to connect a wire with a plug to the leak detection sensor. This is not difficult, since the wiring comes directly from the base of the Aquastop device, and the entrance is located at the fill valve outside the Bosch dishwasher.

In conclusion, we note a hose equipped with the Aquastop system is designed to protect your dishwasher and you from troubles associated with flooding. The system works quite efficiently, so experts advise everyone to install it. It is not difficult to check and install the system; even a person who does not have any technical knowledge can do it; the whole job will take 10-15 minutes. Good luck!