All I get is the noise as if its its trying to start the cycle but just sits there with a flashing green led on the cycle lights, its the one at the left the first light that comes on at the beginning of a cycle.
Was working last evening, no changes hasn't been moved or anything,called Ariston they couldn't tell me what the flashing led meant(assuming so i need to pay their £149 repair charge), in the booklet it just sasy its an error message.Any ideas anyone ?????

Michael T, July 2006

Followed the answers above for my ariston 370 - tipped it to one side nothing happened only lots of water came out - tipped it to the other side and it started to make a different noise so as I lowered it back down I let it drop and bang on the floor - louder noise so I tilted it slightly and let it drop again then whoooosh! It burst into life!!!!! - fingered crossed I'm letting run through a cycle before I stop it - thanks everyone!!!

Jonathan R., February 2014

My 'helpful' 6 year old opened my Ariston AFA350 after it had been on a few minutes to put in one missed spoon.
Then I got the same symptoms as above.
As has already been posted, I tipped it to one side and once I'd mopped up the large puddle of water that leaked out, it worked well again.
Thanks.

Bekx, November 2012

Thanks Nikki! I too followed Nikki's advice, with an Ariston AFA 250 which had stopped, showing the two left-most lights blinking. After draining (a soggy process - have towels/mop ready, and don't forget to unplug first) the machine still would not start, although the machine was empty inside. I noticed the filter cavity was still full, however, and after baling the water out of that with a cup the machine started fine. Be advised that we're about to replace this machine anyway, and I don't know the underlying cause, or how serious it is, so I'm not claiming to have fixed the machine for good.

Chris, July 2010

I had this problem. Tilting the machine did indeed produce water!! I took off the plastic inspection covers at the front and set the machine wash. Sure enough there was a small pipe that was broken that led up the machine and back down to some sort of pressure switch. Assuming it was a pressure switch I just shortened the pipe by about 30mm and reconnected it. All seems fine but the safety feature did indeed save me lots of water all under the wood flooring. So before assuming it is just a stuck water level switch do consider it might actually be saving you a lot of cleaning up too.

K marshall, July 2007

I have an ariston AFA 370, this [ nikki's answer] worked brilliantly took about 30 seconds, even though machine under warranty, far better than waiting days/weeks for a repair man.

lam, February 2007

I had this same problem with my AFA350 - the engineer has just fixed it. I got this info from him - hope it helps someone else to avoid the sickening £100 call out charge!

The first light on the left flashing indicates the anti flood system has been activated. This happens when the bottom of the dishwasher (inside the mechanism, so not visible) gets filled up with water, which causes a float to activate the drainage pump to safeguard against flooding your kitchen.(which is the humming sound you will have heard when the light was flashing.)

You can fix this by tilting the dishwasher sideways about 10-15 degrees (to either side but NOT forwards or backwards) and water should drain out the side. Once all the water has drained out the dishwasher should work normally again.

The water gets into this area by a few different ways:

1. if (like me) you opened the dishwasher midway through the cycle to put something else in - this causes a pressure difference which forces some of the water down into the bottom of the machine (funny how in the handbook they said that it was OK to do that!)

2. One or more of the fittings inside the dishwasher (the thingy that sprays the water, the salt dispenser etc.) has come a little loose allowing water to get through a gap - the engineer checked these were tight with a spanner.

3. You've got a genuine leak somewhere in the system. I was told that if this is the case, then having tilted the diswasher it will work normally for perhaps a few days before getting the same fault again - in which case you will need to call out the engineer to take a look at the cause of the leak.

Hope this helps someone, somewhere!

nikki, August 2006