Hi Antony, You say that your dishwasher "fuses" the house, I suspect that the house is protected by an RCD which detects when current is leaking to earth and trips all the circuits protected by it. This would most likely indicate that the heating element in the dishwaher has an earth fault on it. If this is the case, the only remedy is to replace the heater. This is a fairly common problem.
pilot-pete, July 2009
