In short
A dishwasher that has stopped cleaning has usually lost water movement, not power. On this machine the first suspect is loading, overlap and shadowing.
What you observe
- Gritty deposits on the dishes after a full cycle — Debris is being recirculated, which points at the filter or the sump.
- A cloudy white film on glassware — Hard-water scale or too little rinse aid rather than dirt.
- Food baked onto the upper rack only — The upper spray arm is not getting water or is not turning.
- Detergent still sitting in the dispenser at the end — The dispenser did not open, or an item blocked it.
- Dishes come out wet as well as dirty — Low water temperature, which costs you both cleaning and drying.
- NEAR MISS — the machine will not run a cycle at all — Then this is the wrong page; start with the wont-start ranking.
Causes, most likely first on a Smeg dishwasher
- Loading, overlap and shadowing — Items that nest or overlap shield each other from the water, which produces dirty patches in a clean machine. Ranked first on a Smeg dishwasher: water cannot reach what is hidden, so the load pattern decides the result as much as the machine does.
- Incoming water not hot enough — Cold water will not dissolve detergent properly, so the cycle begins with the chemistry already lost.
- Filter clogged — A filter nobody has cleaned turns every cycle into a wash in dirty water.
- Spray arms blocked or not turning — The arms do the actual washing; blocked jets leave whole sections of the rack untouched.
Check in this order, and why
- Look at where the dirt is: one area, or everywhere? — Reload with nothing overlapping and run the same cycle again.
- Run the kitchen tap hot before starting a cycle and see whether the result changes — Time how long the tap takes to run hot: a long run is the cause.
- Lift the filter out of the sump and look at it — Check the fine mesh as well as the coarse cup — the mesh blocks first.
What an owner can safely check
- Reload with nothing nested or overlapping, bowls angled down, and nothing tall fouling the arms — Then run the same cycle again and compare. A clean result proves the machine and blames the load.
About 15 min
- Run the kitchen hot tap until it is properly hot, then start the cycle immediately — It fills the machine with hot water from the first moment rather than the last, and the difference is usually visible.
About 10 min
- STOP HERE if the next step needs a panel off or a meter on live terminals — That is where the owner checks end and a service call begins, whatever the ranking says.
Before you open anything
Safety
Isolate the machine at its breaker or switch before opening the sump; a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off, and sump water hides broken glass. Use a glove and a torch. Shut the supply valve before touching a hose connection. Never put weight on an open door — the hinges carry the door and the rack, and the cabinet is anchored to resist exactly that.
When to call a technician
Call once the filter, the arms, the detergent, the loading and the water temperature have all been dealt with and the dishes are still dirty, because what remains is the wash pump, the fill valve or the heater — all behind a panel. Smeg parts come through the importer and take longer than mass-market spares, so have the part identified accurately at the first visit rather than the second.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This is the generalised Smeg dishwasher page. A family- or model-specific page, where one exists, is linked above and is the more precise answer for your unit. Left out on purpose: part numbers, connector colours, the order panels come off in, and every torque figure — a generalised page cannot be right about any of them.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
