I, The Handywoman, Fix the Dishwasher

Washing dishes has never been one of my favorite things to do. As I child, I would procrastinate and play for ever because I didn't want to do it. I hated the scalding hot water. I hated that I never seemed to be able to get the dishes clean enough, so I would spend forever scrubbing at them only to have them come back... not clean enough. It was incredibly frustrating. I was grateful when our family moved to a house with a dishwasher when I was twelve. It was still a pain to have to load the dishwasher, but at least I wasn't responsible for how clean they got. Dishwashers are wonderful things - when they work.

Our dishwasher now is almost five years old. (See here for how I know.) A few months or so ago, I realized that it wasn't getting the dishes very clean. The dishes on the top rack especially came out dirty. I wondered if the water was reaching the top sprayer. The door of the dishwasher began to get spots on it that wouldn't disappear in the wash cycle. The detergent cup wouldn't get enough water to dissolve the little packet that detergent comes in these days. I tried switching to a liquid detergent, wondering if that would help. It didn't.

The dishwasher served as a drying rack.

Last month, in frustration at having to rewash the majority of the dishes by hand each morning, I started just washing everything by hand. With age and maturity, I've learned how to wash dishes properly so I can do it more efficiently than I did as a child, but it still isn't my favorite thing to do. I kept that up for a few weeks, and even occasionally enlisted the help of the kids and husband. But I'm just too lazy to continue washing dishes by hand for the rest of my life.

Yesterday, I did an internet search for dishwasher repairs and came across this wonderful site: http://www.partselect.com/Instant-Repairman.htm. I entered in the model number of my dishwasher (the site told me where to find it.) and clicked on the symptom my dishwasher was showing (not cleaning dishes properly) and saw a list of parts that are frequently to blame for that problem. I clicked on the first one (the chopper assembly, which they said fixes the problem 47% of the time) and was brought to a page that explains what the piece does (chops food to prevent clogging the pump) and also a video on how to replace it.

By following the step-by-step video, I was able to dismantle my dishwasher enough to get down to the food chopper. This was not quite as easy for me as it was for the guy in the video since his dishwasher was pristine while mine was encrusted with hard mineral deposits and there was a lot of dirty water in the bottom not to mention the LEGO and the plastic bead that were in there too. I eventually managed to get down to the food chopper and remove it and unwind the tangle of hair and scrub off the clump of gunk that was on the shaft. I scrubbed the crust off the mesh part so it looked a lot more functional, then began the process of putting the entire thing back together, cleaning each part before I put it back in.  I went ahead and ordered a new chopper assembly from the site. While the one in there still appears to be functional (without the hairs and stuff that were keeping it from spinning before), I figure it wouldn't hurt to have another on hand for next time this happens.

Finally, it was put back together. I ran a rinse cycle just as a test to make sure it wasn't leaking or anything, and it wasn't. I could hear the spray, and those dried on spots on the door were washed away. Last night I loaded the dishwasher as I normally would, put a detergent packet in the cup and crossed my fingers as I pressed the start button. This morning the dishes were clean! Yay!!!!!

Clean dishes this morning!