Read an Asko dishwasher service manual and one phrase keeps returning: only indicated in service menu. For a specific set of faults the control notices the problem, records it, drops the affected step and keeps going. The cycle ends, the door beeps, and the owner has no reason to suspect anything. That design choice is deliberate, and it is also the reason so many Asko complaints are about wash quality rather than about a machine that has stopped.
The Faults That Behave This Way
Asko's own wording, grouped by what the owner actually experiences. The code characters differ by platform, so both are given:
- Temperature stop (F1 on DW20 and the DW70.5 panel, F:41 on DW90). The condition is a temperature rise of less than 5°C in ten minutes. The program exits the heating stage and continues. Checks listed are the element, thermistor, water level, circulation pump, control unit and wiring.
- Thermistor fault (F3, or F:42 on DW90). An interruption, or a reading above 80°C. Again the program leaves the heating stage and carries on.
- Pressure sensor fault (F6, or F:43). Output signal above 4.8 V. The program continues.
- Turbidity sensor fault (FA, or F:44). The program continues, and the machine assumes high turbidity when the automatic program has to choose a route.
- Spray arm diverter fault (FB, or F:45, called Diverter fault on current machines). The position switch is stuck open or closed. The program continues.
- Circulation fault (F9, on the DW20 platform only). Pressure too low, for example no water in the machine, or too high, for example a defective circulation pump. Heating stage dropped, program continues.
What Each One Feels Like in the Kitchen
A temperature stop or a thermistor fault produces a cycle of normal length that leaves plastics wet, glass filmed and greasy items greasy, because the hot part of the wash quietly did not happen. A turbidity sensor fault makes automatic programs behave oddly: with the sensor unavailable the machine defaults to assuming a dirty load, so the auto cycle runs long and hard on a light load. A diverter fault means water may be fed to one spray arm when it should be going to the other, so one rack comes out clean and the other does not. None of these will ever appear as a headline on the display.
How They Are Retrieved
On current machines the answer is the settings menu item Failure readout, which needs nothing more than the normal controls. On the older platforms the codes sit behind a service sequence that Asko documents in its service manual: on DW20 and DW70.1 machines, switching the main power switch off, waiting at least five seconds, holding the Program and Start buttons, switching the power back on and releasing both, after which the most recent faults are shown. The DW70.3 service menu stores the three most recent distinct faults. It is worth knowing this exists, but the menu that follows also runs a component test that energises the inlet valve, the detergent dispenser, the heating element and both pumps in turn. That is a technician exercise on a machine plumbed into a cabinet, not an evening experiment.
Why It Matters for a Diagnosis
If your Asko finishes every cycle and simply does not clean or dry the way it used to, the useful question is not what is broken visibly. It is what the machine has been quietly logging. Ask for the stored faults to be read as part of an Asko dishwasher repair visit, and mention which rack or which kind of item comes out worst, because that detail points at the diverter and the spray arms rather than at the heater.