The short answer
A dishwasher that will not start is usually stopped by the door latch, the water supply or a delay state rather than by a failed control. The latch is a switch as well as a catch, and until it reports closed the machine is not permitted to do anything at all. Check the door, the supply and the settings before suspecting anything inside the cabinet.
What you are seeing
- No lights and no sound at all — Means: no supply, or the door circuit is open.
- The panel lights but the cycle never begins — Means: the machine has power and is waiting on a condition.
- It hums and then stops — Means: a fill or drain condition failing immediately.
- It starts only when the door is pressed hard — Means: the latch is making intermittently.
- A delay indication that was not selected deliberately — Means: a delay start left active from a previous cycle.
- Text: Observations that place the fault, and the near misses that mean a different one. A machine that starts and then stops with water inside belongs on the cycle page. A machine that runs a full cycle and cleans badly is a wash-performance problem.
Ranked causes on this platform
- Door latch or its switch not reporting closed — Why: The latch is operated on every cycle, it doubles as the safety switch, and a worn catch produces exactly this complaint.
- No supply, a tripped breaker or a switched spur turned off — Why: A built-in dishwasher is often fed from a switched socket or a spur behind a cupboard that gets turned off by accident.
- The machine being asked to work beyond its designed capacity — Why: Specific to compact appliances and easy to miss because nothing has failed: a load, a room or a duty cycle that a full-size machine would handle without comment is at the limit here, and the machine reports it as a performance complaint.
- Delay start, child-lock or a paused cycle — Why: Free to clear and responsible for a large share of these calls.
- Water supply closed or the inlet screen blocked — Why: A machine that cannot fill sits at the start of the cycle with the timer apparently running.
- Flood-protection float raised in the base tray — Why: On machines with a base tray float, any water in the tray latches the machine off entirely — and it looks like a dead machine.
- Control board or selector failure — Why: By exclusion, after everything cheaper has been ruled out.
- An installation shortcut carried over from a previous home — Why: Specific to appliances that move with their owner: a hose routed to suit the last kitchen, a faucet adapter reused, or a machine standing on a surface that flexes will all produce faults that look like component failures.
- Text: This is a compact dishwasher, and compact machines fail differently from full-size ones. Capacity comes first: the drum, the pump, the fan and the water path are all smaller, so the machine is far more sensitive to being asked for a full-size result than it is to any component defect. Restriction and load causes therefore rank above component failure throughout this list, and installation — clearance, levelling and hose routing — is part of the fault picture rather than a preliminary to it. One practical point shapes the order here: an apartment-scale appliance is usually installed by whoever lives with it, so the installation is recent, was done without a fitter, and is a live variable in a way it never is on a machine that was plumbed in once and left.
What to check, in order
- Check the installation and the clearance around the machine first — Why: Compact appliances are put where they fit rather than where they work best, so a blocked intake or an unlevel worktop is a live cause on this platform rather than a background condition.
- Confirm the machine has power at its supply point — Why: A switched spur or an isolator behind a cupboard is the commonest hidden cause and takes a minute to check.
- Close the door slowly and firmly and listen for the latch — Why: The latch ranks first among failures, so testing it early either finds the fault or clears the leading suspect.
- Cancel any delay and release the child-lock — Why: high in the ranking and free.
- Check the supply tap and the inlet screen — Why: Placed after the electrical checks because a fill fault produces a machine that begins and waits rather than one that is dead.
- Tilt the machine gently forward and listen for water in the base — Why: Last of the free checks and the one that explains a completely dead machine with a good supply.
- Ask when and by whom the machine was last installed — Why: On an apartment-scale appliance the answer is usually recently and by the owner, which moves the installation to the top of the list rather than the bottom.
- Text: Each step either finds the fault or removes the next most likely cause from the list above.
Step by step
- Measure the clearance around the machine against the manual and confirm nothing blocks its intake or exhaust, then check it stands level on a firm surface. — Tools: a tape measure, a spirit level
About 15 min
- Find the supply point — a switched socket, a spur or an isolator in the adjacent cupboard — and confirm it is on. Test it with a lamp if it is a socket. — Tools: a lamp, a torch
About 10 min
- Switch the machine off at its supply for a full minute and back on to clear a latched control state. — Tools: none
About 3 min
- Close the door slowly, watching the catch enter the strike, and listen for the latch click. Press the door firmly while starting a cycle. — Tools: none
About 5 min
- Cancel any delay start, release the child-lock, and select the shortest programme. — Tools: none
About 5 min
- Check the supply tap under the sink is fully open; close it, disconnect the inlet hose at the machine end and clean the mesh screen. — Tools: pliers, a brush, a bowl
About 20 min
- Tilt the machine gently backward a few degrees and listen for water sloshing in the base tray, which indicates a raised flood float. — Tools: none
About 5 min
- Check every connection made at installation — the supply, the drain, any faucet adapter and the levelling feet — before you accept that a component has failed. — Tools: a spirit level, a spanner
About 20 min
- Text: Checks a homeowner can safely make. Stop at the first step that would need a meter on live terminals.
Safety first
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel or reaching into the base. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. A dishwasher combines mains voltage with standing water, so isolate it at the spur or the breaker rather than relying on the door switch. Never bypass or tape the door latch to make the machine run with the door open — the latch is what stops hot water spraying into the room.
When to call a technician
Call a technician when the supply is proven live, the latch clicks, no delay or lock is set, the tap is open and the screen is clear, and the machine still does nothing — or when water is heard in the base tray. Supply, latch, settings and screens are owner checks; the flood float, the control and the wiring are not. On a compact machine most of the boundary sits in the installation and the load rather than inside the cabinet, so work through both fully before booking a call.
Sources — No warehouse fact rows exist for Equator at this address, so this page prints no frequency, share or reliability figure. Every number above is a safety constant from the authoring allowlist, cited here with its publisher.
General guidance- 29 CFR 1910.147 — The control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) — US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, fetched 2026-09-06
Nearby pages
What this page does not cover
Common Equator Dishwasher Problems — Slug: equator-dishwasher-problems — Relation: the routing page for this brand and appliance
This page is generalized information. It covers Equator dishwashers as a class: it carries no model numbers, no family-specific error-code table and no wiring detail, because no fact rows for those exist behind it. Compact platforms share filters, inlet valves and drain pumps across the segment; the part is matched by its physical fitting rather than by a brand catalogue number. Portable and slim models are frequently moved and re-connected, so the install itself — hose height, levelling, the faucet adapter — is part of the fault picture rather than a preliminary. The more specific pages listed below sit beneath this one, and where one of them differs from anything general said here, it takes precedence.
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