---
title: "Dishwasher will not start"
description: "Bosch dishwasher will not start — a machine that does nothing, starts and stops, or lights up and never fills."
url: "https://boschmiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-wont-start/"
date_modified: "2026-08-18"
Appliance type: "Dishwashers"
---


# Bosch dishwasher will not start

### The fastest diagnosis is the code

A dishwasher that will not start is very often a dishwasher that does not believe its door is shut. There is a switch the latch operates, and if it does not close the machine will not begin — which is deliberate, given that the door is what keeps the water inside.

### Door, then power, then the board

Those three, in that order, explain nearly all of these. The door has to latch and a switch has to confirm it before the machine will do anything, which is sensible in an appliance that fills with water. Power includes the outlet under the sink that shares a switch with the disposal — an outlet a great many people do not know is switched at all.

### The voltage code

These machines publish a code for a supply that is too low, which is a genuinely useful thing to be told. It means the problem is upstream of the dishwasher, and no part inside it will improve matters. In older buildings and on long runs it is a real finding rather than a curiosity.

The door is not latching

Press it firmly shut and listen for the click. A rack pushed out slightly, or a tall handle, stops the latch engaging fully.

The door switch

The latch closes but the switch behind it does not report it. This has its own published code and it is a modest repair.

The breaker, or the outlet under the sink that shares a switch with the disposal. A dead machine with no lights at all is power until proven otherwise.

Low supply voltage

The machine publishes a code for it. It is about the building or the circuit rather than the dishwasher, and replacing parts will not help.

Child lock or a delay timer

Both are easy to set by accident and both look exactly like a broken machine.

Close the door properly

Firmly, and listen for the click. Then check the lower rack is pushed fully in and no handle is fouling the door.

Check the breaker and the outlet

Including the switch by the sink that people forget controls the outlet under it.

Cut power for five minutes

At the breaker, genuinely off rather than standby. A surprising number of machines come back after this, particularly after a power cut.

Check for a delay or a lock

A delay-start set by accident, or the child lock. Both are in the manual and both are free to clear.

Often the door, not the machine

What it usually means

No lights at all

Lights on but nothing happens

Starts, then stops within a minute

The fastest diagnosis is the code

A dishwasher that will not start is very often a dishwasher that does not believe its door is shut. There is a switch the latch operates, and if it does not close the machine will not begin — which is deliberate, given that the door is what keeps the water inside.

Door, then power, then the board

Those three, in that order, explain nearly all of these. The door has to latch and a switch has to confirm it before the machine will do anything, which is sensible in an appliance that fills with water. Power includes the outlet under the sink that shares a switch with the disposal — an outlet a great many people do not know is switched at all.

The voltage code

These machines publish a code for a supply that is too low, which is a genuinely useful thing to be told. It means the problem is upstream of the dishwasher, and no part inside it will improve matters. In older buildings and on long runs it is a real finding rather than a curiosity.

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