Kenwood dishwasher fun (KDW12ST3A): door lock latch replacement

Well, it's been a few months since I last had my dishwasher apart. And then last week the door lock/latch began playing up. More precisely, after pulling the door open the mechanism in the door would re-lock itself. This meant the door couldn't be locked shut and the dishwasher wouldn't run.

The temporary solution was to remove the inner door skin, remove the lock/latch mechanism and reset it manually (using a screwdriver). To put that another way, I've managed to keep using the dishwasher but not without some faffing about. I therefore investigated a new lock/latch mechanism. If, like me, you're in the UK, a search for the part on Google will first bring up ebay and espares:

On ebay, a new mechanism is £22

Espares do them for £10 plus £6.99 P&P

On Amazon the part is a truly astonishing £30

Bearing in mind the nature of the part, my view was that even £17 is way over-priced. The P&P charges at espares are also ridiculous. And the sellers on ebay and Amazon were obviously just taking the piss. So I wondered whether I could get anything else to fit. After a few minutes research I happened upon this:

It's the door lock/latch mechanism for various Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda dishwashers (part number C00195887). Typical price is about £10 delivered however at Bartyspares on Amazon, the price was £5.48 delivered. Even though the overall shape of the part is different, the mechanism itself and the screw holes seemed to match the Kenwood part. The microswitch is also on the opposite side but I was confident that I could do something about that if I needed to. I ordered the part and it arrived today.

So, will it fit? First, the original lock/latch in situ:

Door skins separated. The lock/latch is held in place with two self-tapping screws. Two spade connectors to the micro switch need to be disconnected:

Here are the two parts for comparison purposes. They look significantly different but it is the placement of the screw holes that is important. They're the same!

New part goes on with no trouble. The only "modification" I had to do was to detach the two wires to the switch from the existing loom (by cutting the cable ties). There was then enough length in the wires to reach round to the micro switch which is now on the right-hand side. Here it is, job done :)

All working fine. The new mechanism comes with a new micro switch. For the record, here is a picture of the micro switch from the Kenwood part:

More soon, no doubt....

D

Update 12 October 2020: well, the replacement latch failed yesterday. I can't really complain so I just bought another. Bartyspares seems to have gone from Amazon so the new latch came from a different seller and cost me £10.65. Just fitted it now and all is well again. D.