i have had a service man to look at my dishwasher and he says something is staying open at the bottom of the dishwasher stopping it from starting.no lights are on and the overflow pump runs all the time.i have a wonderfull father in law who is a qualified electrician and fork truck engineer who i am sure could change the part if i knew which one it is.the service man said it would cost around £150 to repair but in this current climate there are far more important things to spend money on with 3 young children can you help me find out what i need many thanks for your help

sam, February 2012

It appears that the anti-flood system has reacted.

The anti-flood system is a float switch in the machine's base pan. Any water will cause the float switch to rise. This will activate the drain pump and deactivate all other functions.

But the drain pump is not connected with the base pan, it can only remove water from the main machine's compartment.

On the Internet there are advices to tilt the machine, this will allow water to come out on the floor and allow the float switch to come back down.

A.R.S., December 2012