FP Dishwasher

Hello again! I bought and had installed a new Fisher Pykel (sp) dishwasher almost a year ago. When it was first time tested the rig was in storage so all I had was the genset for power. DW failed to start! I called a local RV tech and they came out and said some parts were defective. 3 weeks later I had the rig at the house plugged into shore power and the tech returned and completed the repair under warranty. Worked good. Sometime later we were boondocking and I loaded the washer and turned it on. Nothing!! Long story short is this washer will ONLY work on shore power. Even my new solar setup doesn't power it up. I have not contacted the company but I now believe there was nothing wrong earlier when I had it repaired. But I am wondering why it only runs on Shore Power???

Is the circuit for the dishwasher wired through the inverter? If not then it will only work on shore power or generator. If it was not working on the generator you need to make sure the ckt breakers on the generator have not been tripped.

john owens said:

Hello again! I bought and had installed a new Fisher Pykel (sp) dishwasher almost a year ago. When it was first time tested the rig was in storage so all I had was the genset for power. DW failed to start! I called a local RV tech and they came out and said some parts were defective. 3 weeks later I had the rig at the house plugged into shore power and the tech returned and completed the repair under warranty. Worked good. Sometime later we were boondocking and I loaded the washer and turned it on. Nothing!! Long story short is this washer will ONLY work on shore power. Even my new solar setup doesn't power it up. I have not contacted the company but I now believe there was nothing wrong earlier when I had it repaired. But I am wondering why it only runs on Shore Power???

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john owens
If the dishwasher works/runs on "shore power" it WILL, (and IMO, SHOULD), also work/run on "generator power"..... (If It doesn't go back to the original installer and have him install it correctly).

However your batteries, even with your new solar setup, might not run any dish washer.

In that case you'll have to wash dishes the "old fashion way"... whenever dishes need washing when your coach is NOT connected to shore power... and you choose NOT to run your generator. 

Good responses guys. The genset runs everything else in the coach. The DW plugs into a wall socket down inside the cabinet area. I guess if we had an oven that would plug in there also, if just for an oven light. When Discount Solar did my install they added another breaker panel and supposedly wired into everything, according to the RV tech that did my coach. Now you have me thinking because I tried to switch my reefer on when I had the inverter kicked on last Friday. I have a good setup...5 agm class 31 batterys and the PS Magna tech 2000 watt inverter. The fridge would not run on the inverter...just LP. Hmmm?? Did they miss a circuit??? I b bummed if they did and will go back!!!!

I think at this point you need to get Discount Solar to look everything over and explain exactly what they did. I would document the wiring additions for future troubleshooting.

OP said "The DW plugs into a wall socket down inside the cabinet area."

Do you know for a fact that there is power there when the washer won't work?  Have you plugged a light or fan in there to test it?

Same thing with the refrigerator...when it won't run have you plugged something else into the exact same socket to test it at the time it is failing?

Not all outlets are wired for the inverter output.

Had the same issue on our Redwood 5th wheel.  About a dozen of us with Onan 5500 and FP dishwasher.  Never resolved.  Looked at floating grounds, conditioned power, etc.  If you figure it out, I'm sure there are some that would like to know the resolve.

Hey Guys...No I have not tried any other sourse of appliance in the wall outlets. Can't get to them. Mile High I am stumped with this situation. Yep I have the Onan 5500 also...Wow I am not going crazy then! Somebody else has enjoyed this problem also...I have no idea what a floating ground is but next season I will go back to Discount Solar and see what we can do about this.... :'(

john owens said:

....I have no idea what a floating ground is but next season I will go back to Discount Solar and see what we can do about this....

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In house wiring, the neutral and earth ground are tied together, in RV/marine the earth ground is 'floating' or it's not bonded to anything.

120V wiring - non RV/marine

black - hot ----------------------->
white - neutral-----------|------->
green - earth ground---|

120V wiring - RV/marine

black - hot ------------------------>
white - neutral-------------------->
green - earth ground

john owens said:

Hey Guys...No I have not tried any other sourse of appliance in the wall outlets. Can't get to them. Mile High I am stumped with this situation. Yep I have the Onan 5500 also...Wow I am not going crazy then! Somebody else has enjoyed this problem also...I have no idea what a floating ground is but next season I will go back to Discount Solar and see what we can do about this.... :'(

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  The funny thing was, when others complained of it happening I went out to storage and tried mine and it worked perfect.  Just about the time I figured I had bragging rights, I was stuck trying to winterize in the storage lot and sure enough it would not work.  I had to drag it home and use a cord into my garage outlet to finish that last step. 

I don't know if changing the floating ground was a consistent fix either - I think one in our group just got lucky and it happened to work once or twice.