What Door Open Means
WHAT THIS PAGE IS ABOUT: the indication an Asko dishwasher gives when it has decided the door is not shut, on the machines where that indication is not a numbered fault code. It is the most common thing any of these machines reports and the least serious, and it earns a page of its own for one reason: what appears on the display looks like a fault code and is not one.
US LED-WINDOW MACHINES - TWO BARS, OR THREE DASHED LINES: on the D1700 and D1900 dishwashers and on the numeric-series machines built with a small LED window, the window shows a row of horizontal bars where a code would normally be. Asko's quick start guides for the D1776 and the D1876 print a two-bar glyph and explain it in a single line - "This simply means the door isn't closed completely." The guide for the D1976 says the same thing about a longer version of it: "When the LED displays three dashed lines, this simply means the door isn't closed completely." Those bars are neither a letter nor a number, which is exactly why searching for them finds nothing.
THE SAME MACHINES, REPORTING IT THROUGH THE LAMPS INSTEAD: the same guides add that "If the lights flash in an alternating pattern after you have started a program, this usually means the dishwasher door is not closed securely. Push the door closed until you hear it click shut." Every display-less Asko dishwasher does something of that kind, and the individual patterns are collected on the flashing-lights page rather than repeated here.
DW90 AND DW OUTDOOR MACHINES - A SENTENCE INSTEAD OF A CODE: the DW90 service manual lists, in the same fault table as F:10 and F:40, a plain-text display message with no number attached: "The door is open", with the action given as "Close the door". The same manual notes that an audible signal sounds when a fault is indicated on the display, so on these machines the message usually arrives with a tone rather than silently.
DW20 MACHINES - LED L7 ON ITS OWN: the DW20 service manual writes its fault list in both forms, explaining that "L" denotes LED and "F" denotes fault code on the display. L7 is listed there as "Door open" and "Close door", and unlike every other row in that list it carries no F-number at all. So on a lamp-only DW20 the seventh lamp on its own is the door, and it is the single entry in that table that is not a fault.
WHY A DISHWASHER IS SO PARTICULAR ABOUT THIS: the door switch is what tells the control it is allowed to run the circulation pump and the heating element with several litres of hot water in an open-topped tub. A door that is closed but not latched, or a latch that has worn, reads to the control exactly like a door standing open. The machine refuses to start rather than guess, and that refusal is the feature working.
CLASSIFICATION: normal behaviour in almost every case. The machine is doing what it was designed to do, and the thing that needs adjusting is usually the loading or the way the door is being closed.
Common Causes of Door Open
- Door pushed to but not latched, which is by a long way the most common reason
- Item standing proud in the upper basket, or a basket not pushed fully home, holding the door off the latch
- Hardened detergent or debris in the latch tongue or the striker slot
- Door seal displaced, curled or hardened so the door cannot close the last few millimetres
- Custom cabinet panel dropped on its fixings, or the machine standing out of level, so the door no longer lines up with the striker
- Door switch or its wiring faulty, so the control never sees the door close at all
🔧 One Safe Check You Can Try
Begin by closing the door properly rather than by investigating anything: push it until you hear and feel it click, not until it looks shut. On a built-in machine carrying a heavy cabinet panel that takes noticeably more of a push than people expect, and a door that has been closed gently for years will often start latching again the first time it is closed firmly. If the indication is still there, look at what is in the way before looking at the machine. A tall item standing in the upper basket, a baking tray on edge, a handle turned outward or a basket that has not been pushed fully home will each hold the door a few millimetres off the latch. Take the upper basket out altogether, close the door on an empty machine and see whether the indication clears. That one test separates a loading problem from a machine problem in about ten seconds and costs nothing. Then look at the latch itself, with the dishwasher switched off at the outlet or the breaker first. The tongue on the door and the slot it enters should be clean, undamaged and free of hardened detergent, and the door seal should be soft and sitting in its groove rather than curled out of it or displaced at a corner. Wipe both with a damp cloth. Check at the same time that the machine is standing level and that a custom cabinet panel has not dropped on its fixings, because a panel that has sagged even slightly pulls the whole door out of line with the striker. If the door closes firmly, nothing is fouling it, the latch and seal are clean and the indication remains, then the door switch or its wiring is the remaining explanation, and that is a service call rather than a further check. The switch sits inside the door or in the frame beside it, its wiring joins the machine's mains loom, and reaching it means taking a panel off a built-in appliance rather than cleaning something in the tub. Do not force the door or lean on it to make the indication go away: a bent latch tongue turns a machine that was merely complaining into one that will not start at all.
⚠ Why You Shouldn't Go Further Than That
- The door switch and its wiring sit inside the door or the frame and run into the machine mains loom, so reaching them means isolating the appliance at the outlet or the breaker and removing a panel from a built-in machine.
- Adjusting hinges or door spring tension on a door carrying a heavy cabinet panel changes how that panel hangs and how the weight is supported, and it is done with the appliance isolated and the panel held rather than by feel.
- Forcing a door shut to make the indication go away bends the latch tongue, after which the machine stops starting at all and a simple loading problem has become a parts repair.
Opening a panel to inspect or repair something yourself doesn't automatically cancel your manufacturer's warranty — but it can risk accidental damage, and some manufacturers do have specific service conditions. Check your product's warranty terms, or ask us, before deciding.