What is most likely happening
A dishwasher that trips the breaker or smells hot is reporting a leak of current to earth, and the two usual sources are the heating element and water that has reached a connection it should never touch. On a Avanti dishwasher the order below is what makes this page worth reading — the causes are ranked for this kind of machine, not listed alphabetically.
The symptoms, and the near misses
- The breaker or earth-leakage device trips during the cycle — The timing within the cycle matters: a trip at the heat step is an element signature.
- A hot-plastic smell near the door or the base — Overheated wiring or a connection breaking down, often at the door hinge loom.
- Water visible under the machine along with the trip — Water plus a trip is the same fault seen twice — find the leak and you have found the electrical cause.
- A tingle from the door handle or the worktop — Take it out of service immediately. That is current where it should not be.
- NEAR MISS — the machine is dead with no other symptom — A simple no-power complaint is a supply question rather than a safety one.
Causes in order of likelihood
- Heating element or flow-through heater failing to earth — First. The heater is immersed in the wash water by design, so when its insulation degrades the fault path goes straight to earth — and it only shows up when the heater is energised, which is why the trip lands at the same point every cycle.
- A leak reaching a connection, pump or board — Second, and it is the reason a dishwasher leak is never purely a plumbing problem. Water travels along the base to the lowest point, which is where the wiring and the pump live.
- Door hinge wiring loom chafed — Third. The loom through the door flexes every time the door opens, and after years the insulation wears through against the metal edge.
- Supply cord or outlet damage — Fourth: an appliance pushed back into a tight cabinet crushes its cord against a pipe or a bracket, and the damage is on the side nobody sees.
Where to start, and why there
- Note the cycle point at which the trip happens — Fill, heat, wash or dry. A trip at heat is an element; a trip at any point suggests water or a loom.
- Check the base of the machine for water — Slide a sheet of paper under the front. Wet means the fault is a leak before it is anything else.
- Test whether other appliances trip the same circuit — This separates a house wiring problem from an appliance fault without opening anything.
The owner-side checks
- Stop using the machine and isolate it — Switch the spur off. A wet appliance with an earth fault is not something to keep testing.
About 5 min
- Check for water under and behind the machine — Pull it forward carefully if the plumbing allows, and look for standing water in the base tray.
Tools: flashlight, towelsAbout 20 min
- Inspect the cord where it passes behind the cabinet — Look for crushing against the waste pipe or the cabinet frame, which is where it usually happens.
Tools: flashlightAbout 15 min
- Record when the trip occurs and what else is on the circuit — Evidence is the useful owner contribution here, and it shortens the visit.
About 10 min
- STOP — do not open the cabinet or the door skin — Every component in this fault class is mains-wired inside a wet machine.
Before you open anything
Safety
Disconnect the power at the breaker and close the inlet tap before you open anything. Expect standing water in the sump and put towels down first; a wet floor around a powered machine is the real hazard here, not the repair itself. The door lock stays connected exactly as the factory wired it.
When to call a technician
Call immediately and leave the machine isolated. Resetting the breaker to finish a load re-energises a fault in an appliance that is standing in water, and the protective device is the only thing standing between that fault and the person unloading the machine. If there is a tingle from the door or the worktop, treat it as urgent and have the outlet earth checked as well as the appliance.
Other faults on this appliance
How specific this page is
Treat this as the generalized Avanti dishwasher page. It is written to be true across the platform, which means it stops short of the details that only hold for one family — connector pinouts, specific board revisions, the order the cabinet comes apart in. Those live on the family- and model-level pages linked here, and where one exists for your unit, that page outranks this one.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
