The short answer
On Aviva ADBI the pattern of what comes out dirty is the diagnosis. A whole rack dirty points at water supply or temperature; one zone dirty points at a spray arm or the loading; a white film on everything points at detergent and water chemistry rather than at the machine.
What you observe on these models
- Grit redeposited on everything — The machine is recirculating what it took off.
- One zone of the rack clean, another dirty — A spray arm that is blocked or cannot turn, or an item blocking it.
- A white film on glassware — Chemistry rather than mechanics: detergent, rinse aid or water hardness, and the machine may be working perfectly.
- Tablets or powder still in the dispenser at the end — The dispenser did not open, or a tall item blocked it.
- NEAR MISS — dishes are clean but soaking wet — That is a drying and rinse-aid question rather than a cleaning one.
Causes, most likely first on ADBI
- The filter in the sump — A blocked filter recirculates dirty water over clean dishes. It is first because it is the most common cause of poor results by a wide margin and it needs no tools. Ranked first on Aviva ADBI because a narrow cabinet packs the tub, the pump and the hose run close together, so a restriction in that path shows up in almost every other symptom as well.
- The spray arms — Blocked jets or an arm that cannot turn leave whole zones of the rack unwashed, and the pattern of what came out dirty tells you which arm.
- How the rack is loaded — Items nested together or a large tray blocking the arm shield each other from the water. The machine cannot wash what it cannot reach.
- Incoming water temperature — A machine fed cold water cannot dissolve detergent properly, and the result is a film on everything rather than dirt in one place.
- Detergent, rinse aid and hardness — The wrong amount, an old tablet or a dispenser blocked by a tall item produces bad results with nothing mechanically wrong. Last on this list, and the item that every cause above it can imitate exactly.
Check in this order, and why that order
- Start in the sump — Lift the filter out of the sump and look at it before forming any theory at all. Rinse it under a tap, look at the sump underneath, and run the machine again before doing anything else.
- Spin both spray arms by hand — They should turn freely. Hold each up to the light and check the jets for blockage; a pin clears most of them.
- Run the hot tap at the sink before starting a cycle — If the machine is fed hot and the pipe run is long, the first fill can be cold water, which changes the result of the whole cycle.
- Re-load the machine deliberately and repeat — Nothing nested, nothing overhanging the arm, nothing blocking the dispenser. If the result improves, the loading was the fault.
Before you open anything
Safety
Switch off the machine at its breaker before removing the kick panel, and close the supply tap under the sink. Water and mains wiring share that bay, so nothing is touched with the circuit live. Do not put hand dish soap into the machine at any dilution — it foams in a way the machine cannot clear and the foam will leave through the door.
Models this page covers — the ADBI family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| ADBI245SS | aviva:dishwasher:adbi |
When to call a technician
Call when the filter is clean, both arms turn and spray freely, the water arrives hot and the loading is correct, and results are still poor — at that point the wash pump or the fill valve is the remaining candidate and the kick panel has to come off. On Aviva ADBI the filter and the arms between them explain most complaints, and a technician's first move is exactly the one described above. Before ordering anything, match the plate against the ADBI variant table above. The family is a built-in dishwasher, and parts that look alike across a brand's other lines often do not fit it.
Other problems covered for the ADBI family
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
