Of all appliances, the humble dishwasher is the most misunderstood. In the course of servicing and repairing all types of appliances for our customers, I’ve heard more crazy myths about dishwashers than any other appliance. This article will shine the light of truth on some of the more common dishwasher myths I’ve heard.

Myth #1: You can clean your dishes better by hand.

Truth: Dishwasher wash dishes and utensils at 140ºF, which kills many bacteria. Try doing that by hand.

Myth #2: For best performance, you should rinse your dishes clean before loading them in the dishwasher.

Truth: Removing all food soils from the dishes and utensils prior to loading increases the alkaline concentration of the dishwashing detergent and increases the possibility of etching your glassware. Etching is a permanent pitting or eroding of the glassware surface. Initially, etching appears as shades of blue, purple, brown, or pink when the glassware is held at an angle to the light. In more advanced stages, the glassware appears cloudy or frosted. To avoid etching, you should only scrape the food chunks off the your dishes and load them into the dishwasher with the remaining food residue still on them.

Myth #3: If your metal utensils are showing signs of pitting after washing in the dishwasher, it means you have "corrosive water."

Truth: When two different metals (such as silver and stainless steel) contact each other in the hot, wet dishwasher environment, electrolysis can occur and cause pitting. This is not caused by "corrosive water." To prevent the problem, load silver and stainless steel in the silverware basket so they do not touch each other.

Myth #4: If your dishwasher isn’t washing the dishes very well, it means the pump is bad.

Truth: The most common causes for poor cleaning in a dishwasher are:

• using old detergent that doesn’t dissolve all the way;
• water temperature too low to dissolve detergent or remove soils;
• debris caught in the spray arm holes, impairing proper spray action of the spray arm;
• insufficient water fill in the basin from a variety of causes;
• improperly loading the dishes into your dishwasher.

While a defective pump would certainly prevent proper cleaning in the dishwasher, it is a far less common causative factor than the aforementioned list. Even if the pump really is defective, they can usually be rebuilt for much less cost than buying and installing a whole new dishwasher.

To learn more about your dishwasher, or to order parts, click here.

This indeed is a sorrowful story to tell, grasshoppers. Y’all go grab yerselves a brewski and settle in for one gawd-awful sorry tale.

It was a stormy afternoon when the call came in. The wind was kickin’ up somethin’ fierce and the trees were a-bowin’ and a-bendin’. The sky was black with angry clouds just itchin’ to unleash their besotted fury on the fair New Hampshire landscape beneath. We barely heard the phone ring over the howling of the wind outside; I shoulda never put down my Old Milkwaukee to answer that phone. But, I am the Samurai–if I hear it ring and I’m sober enough, I always answer the phone.

This customer was calling with an emergency of the highest order: a dead dishwasher. C’mon people, it’s 2004–no one washes dishes by hand anymore! She frantically explained that the dishes were piling up in the sink even as we spoke and begged me to please hurry over and fix her dishwasher. So I let out a big ol’ beer belch (but I let it rumble quietly through my nose, so’s not to offend her delicate sensibilities–I’m mannerly thata way) and assured her that I’d be over there as soon as I finished my 40-ounce Old Milwaukee. I realized as soon as I mentioned the fohty that I’d made what them Frogs call a faux pas, which is French for…I dunno, something like puttin’ your foot in your mouth. But I cleverly recovered by assuring her that it was only my third one since lunch. See, to be good at this bidness, you gotsta know how the fix the appliance and the customer.

So I tapped a kidney and staggered, er, I mean, walked with complete balance and control to my service van and drove to the customer’s house, with perfect lane control and observing the speed limit the entire way (just in case any of New Hampshire’s Finest are reading this, heh heh.)

When I arrived, I verified the customer’s complaint: dead dishwasher. Nice one, too. One of them Kitchenaids. Always wanted me one o’ them. Wonder how much…anyway, I had to stay focused on the problem at hand. Well, my laser-like, albeit slightly fermented, mind zeroed in on checking the power supply first thang. So I pulled the kickplates and opened the power junction box to measure the voltage, fully expecting the find no voltage. But my meter showed a full 120v at the power wires.

Hey, I done see’d this before: prob’ly a bad door switch or a blowed thermal fuse on the control board. They’s alots of ’em go bad thata way. So, I removed the control panel to check them thangs out but they were both good. In fact, I was getting 120v clear up to the control board. So, I put my awesome powers of deduction to work and figgered that if I was getting good voltage past the thermal cutoff, clear up to the control and the board wasn’t doin’ it’s dance, then it’s a bad electronic control board, slam-dunk, case-closed.

Well, I didn’t have one of them electronical boards on my van so I had to order one. I advised my customer to buy paper plates so as to avoid piling up dirty dishes and attracting ants and vermin and such ’cause it was gonna be a week before the part came in.

So a week goes by and, sho ’nuff, Donny, my UPS man, brung me a brand new board. I love how he brangs me parts. And he always brangs treats for my dawg, Bubba, too. Bubba likes that. Yeah.

Anyway, to make a short story long, I diddy-bopped on over to my customer’s house and popped in that new control board. Then I prepared to receive gushing accolades of praise as I closed the door and pushed the start button…’cept nothing happened. No lights, nuttin’.

Well, I stood up blushing and scratched myself (but stoically resisted the temptation to sniff my fingers). I stammered and hammered something about a bad touch panel ’cause that’s the only other thang it could be. Then I got outta there as quick as I could. When I got back to the office, I called my supplier and had ’em overnight a touch panel to me.

Next day, I went back out and installed that touch panel, relieved that this job was coming to an end…but nooooo! Still nothing! Now my face had turned a rare shade of deep crimson and I began sweating profusely; not entirely out of embarassment, but more from straining to hold back some powerful flatulence that I tend to get when I’m tense and nervous. But the power of the spicy buffalo wings I had for lunch proved to be too much to withstand and a tiny but pungent squeaker broke free. As the essence de fecal filled the kitchen and her eyes teared up with olfactory recognition, the situation became, well, unbearable. I was, how shall I say, in the horns of an enema.

Then, like a poacher’s lamp at midnight, inspiration cut through the sweat and stench and did shine its light on the swirling muck ‘twixt my ears: “What if,” I could hear an angelic voice saying, “the neutral wire in the circuit breaker box is not connected?” Of course! Without a neutral connected, you’d still read 120v on the hot wire but there’s no return path for the current to flow so nothing would run. It takes electrical current to make things happen–voltage just creates the potential for current to flow. No path, no flow.

So I went down to the breaker box and took off the cover panel. Sho nuff, bigger n’ life, the neutral wire on the dishwasher circuit was disconnected from the neutral bus strip. Turns out she’d had some electrical work done and the electricians musta been gettin’ close to Miller time ’cause they got sloppy with their work. I re-connected the neutral wire to the neutral bus and that Kitchenaid is still running to this day.

Now, this same problem with an open neutral can happen in all kinds of other ways besides sloppy electricians: broken wires, corroded connections, mice, to name but a few.

This problem has befuddled many a fine appliance repair man; this one took real kidneys to catch. Moral of the story: checking voltage is good, but checking current is supreme.

This is a classic case of what we professionals call Drain Portus Gooktivitis. That’s a little Latin lingo. Oh yeah, we professional Appliantologists know how to throw around lots of fancy words like that while on the job so we can impress the customer with our vast and esoteric wisdom. But, hey, that’s why we make the Big Money.

There’s a saying among us professional Appliantologists, “Asko? Oh, no!” Even the Samurai cringes when he gets a service call for an Asko. Their dishwashers are famous in the repairing community as electrical nightmares–their defining characteristic is spontaneous combustion.

Asko, Bosch…why do people buy these freakin’ furrin’ brands? Is it an image thang? Well, for that image you pay twice as much for a dishwasher that breaks down twice as often, takes twice as long to get parts for, and costs twice as much to repair.

I don’t know what part melted on your Asko-oh no dishwasher, but my recommendation would be the same no matter what it is: junk it and go buy a Whirlpool or Kitchenaid dishwasher. A really, really good and quiet one will run you about $500. If you want the stainless steel interior (though, I don’t see the point of this for a residential dishwasher) it’ll run you a few hundred more.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

Check the simple stuff first: make sure your dishwasher racks aren’t interfering with the detergent door. This will happen if the rack is put in backwards or isn’t seated properly. Also, if the silverware rack has fallen off recently and you re-attached it, make sure you didn’t position it right in front of the detergent dispenser.

Ok, with the simple stuff out of the way, let’s get into the gory techie stuff. Start by checking the wax motors with your ohm meter, should get 600-1800 ohms. If you do, then the wax motors are good and the problem is that you’re losing voltage to them. Key components to check are the thermal cutoff (normally closed) and the electronic control. Easiest to do a live test and trace the voltage back until you find it. You’ll need the wiring diagram/tech sheet for this. The wiring diagram is either in the kickplate (on bottom) or in the control console but you can borrow my copy in case you can’t find yours–just be sure to return it!

Referring to the wiring diagram, if you measure 120v on P8 of the electronic control but it’s not making it out P9, then the electronic control is bad. Conversely, if you do measure 120v on P2-3 or P2-4 of the electronic control, then the electronic control is bad. The tech sheet also shows how to initiate the rapid advance service feature and diagnostic cycles. This can greatly facilitate troubleshooting by advancing the dishwasher to only run at the part of the cycle where the detergent door opens.

audio post powered by audblog

Link: Freeing a Stuck Motor on a GE Dishwasher

GE dishwasher,
motor hums but will not start.
Turn motor by hand.

Bask in the joy of the Master’s voice.

Ahh, the mysterious dishwasher door leak. Yes, grasshopper, the Samurai has the information you seek in this Appliance Tip of the Day.

All hail Hirohito!

When diagnosing water leaking from you dishwasher door, you need to determine if the water is coming from inside the door liner, from underneath the door, or out the door gasket. Here a few things to check before pulling out your tool box.

• Dishwasher Installation is Critical!
  The dishwasher has to be level, with all four legs firmly on the ground, and square. Check the level front to back and side to side. Level is especially critical if your dishwasher has a plastic tub because these can be warped by cruddy installation jobs.
• Oversudsing
  Gawd, I can’t even count how many service calls I’ve been on leaking dishwashers only to find that the problem was either 1) using too much soap or 2) someone (usually hubby) put in liquid dishwashing soap instead of dishwashing detergent. In either case, the dishwasher will whip up more suds than an overcharged keg in a brewpub and you’ll end up with soapy water all over your floor.
• Water Overfill
  The water level should come up to the bottom edge of the heating element. To check this, open the door after the dishwasher fills with water and starts spraying. If the dishwasher is not level front to back and is pitched forward, the water level will be above the heating element in front but below the element in back.
• Door Alignment
  The door liner needs to be centered in the door gasket. If it ain’t…you guessed it, LEAK!
• Door Gasket
  Cracks, tears, and shrinkage can all cause a door gasket to leak. Sometimes, on older dishwashers, the gasket can look ok, but the rubber has become age-hardened and so doesn’t make a good seal with the cabinet anymore. This is especially true with Kitchenaids.
• Lid Latch Grommet
  This is the little gasket that seals the latch on the soap door. A common source of leaks with Maytag dishwashers is that this grommet will tear and cause leaks. Easy $2 fix.
• Wash Arm
  Lots of times, plastic wash arms will split at the seams. This pushes high pressure water directly at the door and out through the gasket. To check the spray arm for splits, run the dishwasher to heat the arm then grab both ends and gently twist, looking for splits.
• Front Tub Flange
  Sometimes the front tub flange on plastic basins can warp and pucker outward, causing leaks. Use a heat gun or warm up the plastic and bend it back into place.

Still confoosed, grasshopper? For more pearls of wisdom about your dishwasher, click here.

I can’t believe someone would recommend trashing your whole dishwasher just because one stinking little part, the water inlet valve, may be clogged and need to be replaced! Well, that’s why he’s just a numb-nutz “fix-it” man and I’m Samurai Appliance Repair Man.

If you’re getting the “not enough water, check water supply” error message on this dishwasher, it usually means that the fill level in the basin is insufficient for proper cleaning. This almost always results from sediment and/or pipe scale accumulating on the protective screen of the water inlet valve. In this case, you can simply replace the valve, and dishwasher nirvana shall be restored.

Replacing the water inlet valve is no more difficult in your part of the country than it would be elsewhere. You can easily access the valve by simply removing the kickplates from the front of the dishwasher. You can buy the replacement water inlet valve here. Replacing the water inlet valve is simply a matter of turning off the water supply and then disconnecting and reconnecting a couple of water and electrical connections. It’s plug and chug, any bonehead can do this.

Still thinking about buying a new dishwasher? Read this first!

Excellent question, and the short answer is an emphatic “oui, oui!”

Two methods are commonly used to winterize wet appliances: the dry method and the wet method. Briefly, the dry method involves draining every last bit of water from the appliances using compressed air and requires more technical expertise. In the wet method, you run a nontoxic, potable antifreeze (propylene glycol or “the pink stuff”) through the working parts of the appliance. For home appliances in most parts of the sub-arctic northern latitudes, including my beloved home state of New Hampshire, the wet method provides adequate protection (and it’s a whole lot less hassle). So, that’s what I’ll describe.

The first step for winterizing your dishwasher (and generally all wet appliances) is to make sure that the dishwasher is as empty of water as it can get after a normal wash cycle. If residual water remains in the basin, sop it up with a sponge. Then, turn off the household water supply, open every single faucet in the house and leave them that way. Pour about half a gallon of PINK antifreeze–not the green or blue stuff, just the pink stuff–into the basin of the dishwasher. Run the dishwasher so it pumps the antifreeze around for a few seconds and then turn it off. You’re done.

Have a good winter. See you next summer!

I went out on a service call for this dishwasher yesterday. The complaint was that the door latch was broken and the child lock light was lit. I temporarily rigged the latch to work until the replacement part came in but that left me with the problem of the child lock still engaged. The mini-manual for this dishwasher is located behind the kick plate. The mini-manual revealed that the child lock (called a control lock in the manual) can be disengaged by pressing and holding the air dry button for four seconds. So now the customer can run the dishwasher with the rigged door latch until I can properly repair it later this week.

This applies mainly to Kenmore Dishwashers with the model number 665.15835791 but also to any Whirlpool or Kenmore dishwasher with an electronic display. There are several possible trouble makers on this dishwasher that can cause this problem and we’ll go through the most common ones that I’ve found in the course of performing my ceremonial duties as Samurai Appliance Repair Man.

Ichiban Troublemaker: Bad Door Latch Switches

These little suckers cause more problems than any other single component on this dishwasher. To check ’em, first cut the circuit breaker to the dishwasher ’cause the wires that attach to the switches are hot and if’n you touch ’em, they’ll shock the bejeezus outchyo ace. Yeah, uh huh.

Anyway, you’ll have to take the door apart to the get to ’em. Once you do, look up top and they’re located here. When you pull out the whole door latch assembly, it all looks like this here.

Now, if one of these door switches are bad, you’ll usually be able to see a burnt wire and one of the switches will be obviously AFU ’cause it won’t click when actuated. ‘Course, it’s always a good idea to verify with your ohm meter. If one of the switches are fried, don’t be a bonehead and just change the bad switch. Save yourself some trouble down the road (and avoid an unpleasant dishwasher fire) by changing both switches and the wire harness. You can buy the whole replacement kit here.

Next Most Common Troublemaker: Blown Thermal Fuse

The thermal fuse is located in the control panel, called out as item #18 in this picture. You can check it with a simple continuity test. Or you can jumper it out to see if the dishwasher will start running normally. If it’s bad, you can order your replacement thermal fuse here.

The Worst Case: Blown or Oversensitive Electronic Control Board

Control board problems can stem from crap and noise in the dishwasher’s electrical supply which make the electronics on the control board go flakey. This problem has been documented by Whirlpool in a tech memo (if your Kenmore model number begins with 665 then, yes, Whirlpool made your dishwasher). Or, it could just be a bad control board, plain n’ simple.

More good discussion on problems with these dishwashers here and here.

To learn more about your dishwasher, or to order parts, click here.