Putting your dishes away, you may notice that some of them look dirtier than when you put them in your dishwasher. Don’t panic, this is a common malaise.
Dishwashers are just like computers, subject to viruses, worms, Trojans, spybots and the like. The illnesses just go by different names. Usually, all that’s needed is to keep that sort of thing cleaned out of the software or softwater system, as the case may be.
But once in a while, the hardware does break. In dishwashers, you get the equivalent of a hard-disk crash, which doesn’t orphan you by eliminating your family genealogy, it just means you have to wash the dishes by hand. And who does that anymore? That’s what computers are for.
Here are a few of the things that can go on the fritz on a dishwasher (the water-pumping kind, not the blood-pumping kind) and some of the things you can do to force it to do your bidding once again.
Nothing happens. Remedy: Turn it on. Most dishwashers have their own circuit breaker. Pop the breaker back into place. That or check the door latch to make sure it’s locked.
Motor sings the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” but nothing else happens. Unjam the motor or unjam the pump. More on this later.
No water or too little water: Check door latch. Check float assembly. Check inlet valve. Ditto.
Dirty water doesn’t drain: Check drain hose, motor, pump, drain valve.
Leaks: Check for overfilling. Make sure no one used detergent meant for washing dishes by hand. Big mistake. It suds too much.
Noisy: Check spray arm for damage. Check inlet filter screens. Check motor and mounts.
Lousy cleaning: Check everything.
Does not complete cycle: Call the repair shop.
So how are such checks done?
A dishwasher is basically a little tub that fills with hot water and soap, then sprays it all over your gunky dishes. To check the water level, as soon as you hear the splatter of water stop, open the door. The water level should be just below the float, the gizmo protruding up from the bottom. Too low, check the inlet valve; too low, check the float switch.
The pump assembly tucked away under the dishwasher shoves the water through the spray arms, causing them to whee around like kids on a merry-go-round. Look over the top and bottom sprayer arms for cracks or balancing problems. The bottom one in supposed to wobble a little. Good for dishwashers, bad for kids on a merry-go-round.
Lift the center spray riser, the Eiffel tower that emerges from the middle of the spray arm to slop water out. Pull it up, let it drop. Repeat. It should pop back into place smoothly. Unscrew the tower by hand to check it out, then uncinch the bolt or whatever fastener holds down the spray arm. Poke into all the little holes to dislodge crud.
The water inlet valve is usually at the front of the dishwasher just inside the bottom access panel, which either unscrews or is the snap-on, fall-off variety. The inlet valve is the one, predictably enough, with hoses connected to it. Look for hose kinks and other obvious problems such as a logjam in the valve that restricts the water flow.
If everything looks like a normal day in the Northwest, hazed over, the interior of the dishwasher may just need a good cleaning. Use oxalic acid, available at hardware stores and minimarts that carry car batteries and boat sponges and life’s other necessities. Oxalic acid is what you eat every day in rhubarb, spinach and tea. Innocent enough, but too much of it is isn’t. Wear gloves. Heed the mixing instructions so you don’t die while using it. This would not solve your dishwasher problem.
Once you’ve done everything humanly possible to fix the dishwasher and it still doesn’t work right, throw it out and get another one – often cheaper than calling a repairman.
Or spend $3.98 on some new detergent. Many dishwasher compounds start to loose their efficacy in as little as 30 days. This would obviously be the first thing to try, but then you would have missed all the fun of trying to fix something that wasn’t broke in the first place.
If you fall in love with all of the above, run “dishwasher repair” through your online search engine for more, more, more.
Jim Kjeldsen is a former assistant news editor at The Herald who now owns and operates La Conner Hardware Store in La Conner.
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