Me, the Handywoman

-
You: What did you do today?
Me: The usual,... Got up, got the kids to school, went to institute, took apart the dishwasher, ate lunch...
You: You took apart your dishwasher?
Me: Yeah.
You: Why on earth would you do that?????

Well, it's like this. Our clothes dryer isn't the only appliance in the house that we've had issues with. A couple weeks ago we had a friend in our ward come over and look at our hot water heater to figure out why we've only been getting about 1 1/2 showers worth of hot water lately. He replaced a pipe, and it's working great now, but he also said something like the heater had a six year warranty and it's about twelve years old now, so we'll probably need to think about replacing it some time soon.

This was how the dishes looked AFTER the wash cycle!
The dishwasher has also had issues. It's only about three years old (how I know), but I go back and forth between washing things in the dishwasher because it's easier, and then washing everything by hand for a few days because the things in the dishwasher didn't seem to get clean. This morning I opened the dishwasher to unload it only to discover that nothing on the top rack looked like it was any cleaner than it had been when it went in! After some experimenting, I realized that when the dishwasher was running, it sounded like water was "dribbling" rather than spraying, and further, items on the top rack were steamy, but not actually getting wet at all. Hence the desire to take apart the dishwasher - to figure out what was going on.

Eeeew! Gross!!!!!
I have to say I'm very grateful for the internet. Without it, I don't know if I'd even be able to take out the top rack, let alone figure out how to do other things. I managed to disassemble it enough that I could clean the spray bars, make sure the water supply tube was clear, and even clear much of the gunk out of the drain (including four or five twist ties... I wonder how they got in there?) Then I put everything back together and let it run again.

Did all this help anything? Besides pulling all the gunk from the drain, I didn't uncover any major blockages. I still have no idea why the water hadn't seemed to be getting to the top rack, so I don't know for sure yet, but I have high hopes. The good news is that it is running, and water isn't spilling out all over the floor... (Yay! I didn't break anything!) Water does seem to be hitting the top rack again. It even seems to be draining properly. I'll have to see what it does with a full load of dirty dishes. If it gets them clean, Yay! I fixed it. If not, I guess I'll have to go back to washing dishes by hand.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Talk about Gratitude

-
I recently told my bishop that I enjoyed giving talks in Sacrament Meeting, and it is true. I didn't expect, however, that I would get an email from a bishopric member on Thursday last week to say that his talks for Sunday had to leave town, and would I be willing to speak? Here is the talk that I gave on Sunday, May 27th, 2012: For my topic today, I was given a talk which was given by President Monson in 1992, entitled “An Attitude of Gratitude”. In his talk President Monson begins by telling the story of the 10 lepers. I would like to share it with you. In Luke 17 we read: And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And when he saw them, he said unto them, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” And it came to pass, that, as they went, ...
Read more

How Clean is Clean Enough?

-
Image
How clean is "clean enough"? I realize this question is loaded and the answers are very individual, so for a moment, think about yourself and your home and consider, for you, how clean is "clean enough"? What is the difference between a "quick clean", a "daily clean" and a "deep clean"? At what point do you consider your home "clean enough"? Does "clean enough" mean having a clear path from the front door to the other rooms in the house? Is it having the clutter picked up and the floors vacuumed? Must it be dusted every week, every month, or at all? Is it a quick swipe on the surface to remove the dust or crumbs? Is it a scrub with disinfectant? Is it clearing tables and desks, or delving into cupboards and drawers, purging and organizing?    Does it depend on the day of the week? Is "clean enough" on a weekday the same as "clean enough" on a weekend? If not, is it more clean, or less? Is there a...
Read more

School closing, Josh adventures, Back pain relief...

-
On Wednesday school was cancelled all over the Denver area because there was a credible threat that an 18 year old woman with a fixation on the Columbine shooting would attack a school. Apparently she arrived in Denver and bought a gun and then vanished, so they shut down everything just in case. (They found her body later that day... She committed suicide. More info here .) John was frustrated that school was cancelled because one acts are coming up (they are this week!) and he needed the rehearsal time. Instead, John took advantage of the free day to go to School of Mines to check out the campus and talk to someone about getting his admission deferred. I got a ride to my book club, and both of us were home again before Josh and Peter rolled out of bed. Early in the afternoon I took Josh to Children's Hospital to see a cardiologist about his seizures . They did an EKG, but the results were normal. He doesn't have a heart murmur or anything else they could identify. I still thi...
Read more