Integrated changes the sum, not the fault
An AEG dishwasher and a budget freestanding dishwasher can fail in identical ways. What differs is what happens next.
The freestanding machine gets wheeled out and a new one gets wheeled in. The integrated one is screwed to the cabinetry, fitted with a custom door panel matched to the rest of the kitchen, and sitting under a benchtop that somebody paid a lot for. Replacing it means finding a unit that fits the same aperture, sourcing or re-hanging the door panel, and getting it in and out without marking a stone top or a soft-close runner.
That is why the repair-or-replace line sits in a different place on this brand. The appliance is only one line of the invoice you are comparing against, and on a kitchen through Shell Cove or Calderwood it is frequently the smaller line.
Steam is what kills the panel
The most common AEG dishwasher fault we attend is a touch control panel that has gone unresponsive, or responds to presses nobody made.
The cause is almost always steam rather than age. Steam finds its way up out of the cabinet and into the underside of the fascia, and electronics do not enjoy that. What matters is that the steam is usually escaping because a door seal stopped sealing some months earlier — long enough ago that nobody connects the two events.
The practical upshot: fitting a new panel without dealing with the seal buys you time rather than a fix. When we quote a panel we look at what let the steam out, and if the seal is the reason we will tell you it needs doing too. That is not upselling, it is the difference between one visit and two.
Doors that stay locked after a clean cycle
Pyrolytic ovens run their self-clean at a temperature high enough that the door has to lock, and it stays locked until the cavity has cooled to a safe point. Occasionally the release doesn't happen when it should.
Before you assume something has broken: switch the oven off at the wall, leave it a good twenty minutes, and try again. A cooling cycle interrupted by a power blip or a confused controller will often let go once the whole thing has settled. It is worth trying, and it costs nothing.
If it is still locked after that, it needs a technician rather than force. There is a mechanism in there and it is easier to break than to persuade.
Drains, before pumps
A recurring one on AEG dishwashers is a fault that reports a drainage problem. The reflex is to assume the pump.
In practice the pump is the last thing we get to. Ahead of it sit the filter stack in the floor of the machine, the impeller beneath it, and the run of hose behind the cabinet — and behind an integrated machine that hose has been pushed around during installation more than anyone would like. Kinks acquired during a kitchen fit-out surface months later as a machine that drains slowly, then not at all.
If your dishwasher has been out for any reason recently and started complaining afterwards, mention it. It reorders where we look.
What a visit involves
The $125 assessment buys the visit and a proper diagnosis. On an integrated appliance a fair slice of that time goes on access alone, which is why we ask up front how the machine is fixed in — to the cabinetry or to the benchtop. It decides what comes out of the van.
The repair is quoted before any work starts, and what we repair carries our warranty.