I went to use my dishwasher today and it didn't work. Naturally the first thing that I checked was the fuse box to ensure the circuit hadn't tripped, no. Second thing to check was the fuse in the plug. Most definitely blown, a 'marked' area at one end. Rather than just replace it I went to seek advice from my local electric appliance shop and their advice was to replace the 13amp with a 5 amp, run it for one cycle and if the 5amp didn't blow then to replace it with 13amp again.

I did this and part way into the cycle the fuse blew, at least I assume it did as the dishwasher has stopped. Now I don't know if it blew as the loading was just too high for the 5amp or whether it would have completed the cycle on the low fuse.

Advice here please but only from people who might know about these things, no guesses please.

Not unknown for a 13 amp fuse to get 'tired' and fail for no reason other than that ..but not usual. A 13 amp fuse won't usually fail without a reason. Do you know the power rating of the dishwasher? I read they are typically around 1500 watts but yours may be different. If you have the instruction book for the dishwasher, the power consumption figure should be given somewhere.

If it is 1500 watts (1.5kW), a 5 amp fuse will fail anyway because the current taken by the dishwasher works out at 6.5 amps (current = watts ÷ voltage). A 5 amp fuse might last a while but I'd expect it to fail without a fault being present. So using a fuse of that value wouldn't really be a test of whether a 1500 watt dishwasher is faulty my opinion.

However, if your dishwasher is only 1000 watts (1kW) then a 5 amp fuse would prove the point since, under normal operation, the current requirement would work out at 4.3 amps. The fuse would get tired and fail eventually but should see the dishwasher through a cycle or two. The test would hold up for a dishwasher of that rating. So it does all depend on the normal power consumption of the dishwasher.

The colour of the failed 13 amp fuse may not be relevant. The ends can become discoloured after a while. Difficult to say without seeing it. You could show this post to your electrician for an opinion. I can't recommend anything for safety reasons but he may advise trying a 10 amp fuse or even another 13 amp one. The 13 amp fuse is there to blow if something goes wrong and it seems it did do its job (if a fault is present). You are also covered by the house cut-out.

My advice would be to give the electrician another call, preferably stating the power rating of the dishwasher. If it is more than a 1000 watts ask if the 5 amp fuse test would prove the presence of a fault. If a 13 amp one blew, I'd say there's a 75% chance that there is a fault ..but I could be wrong.

Also, consider taking the fuse to the electrician and get him to measure continuity through it. It might just be OK. What can happen sometimes is that the mains lead becomes intermittent internally where it goes into the plug, especially if the plug is plugged in and out of the wall socket a lot.

The guy in the shop said that it is possible that water caused the type of damage to the fuse. I hadn't read your message before going out today so had called the engineers already to come and check it out. £47.50 by credit card before they come or else a cheque in the same sum to the man on arrival before they look at it! Fair enough, I know they will arrive and are reputable, they came and mended my 30 year old cooker hob last year, no time wasting, arrived, fixed it and went all within the callout fee and the charges for the two new elements was very reasonable.

The men have just been and checked it out. He said in his opinion the fuse had been subjected to heat. He put in another 13 amp fuse then started the cycle. After a few minutes the cable became very warm. The man said that in his opinion due to the age of the machine (getting on for twenty) that the insulation was breaking down and said if I use it not to leave it on and go out or to bed! I will be going to look for a new one later, I can't be doing with washing upo by hand!

Only 20 years old! I dunno ..things just aren't made to last these day are they?

Now I am beginning to wonder about my 20 year old telly which is to be converted to digital! Mind you it hasn't been used many hours in its life (not been used since first Gulf war!} although if the rubber in the wires perishes with age - well, does it?

No. Mains wires are PVC, which doesn't perish. Any other internal wires are often not insulated at all but the layout or design ensures they don't touch or join up with each other unless they are intended to. Coils of wire have a thin coating of shellac on them that can break down and and cause the windings to short out. That or many other possible faults will be the ultimate cause of TV death. It won't be worth mending when this happens. That could be years away or tomorrow. Just no telling.

A friend of mine has a Panasonic TV of about that age. He really wants to get a new LCD TV but is loathe to get one until the Panasonic goes wrong. I told him to go and get the new TV now because he might wait forever for the Panasonic to expire.

I've got one the same as him that is still working OK. Like yours Sue, it is rarely used. Some old TVs just keep going and going.

Mine is a Pye.

Now there's a name from the past.