Dishwasher

The dishwasher stopped suddenly on Thursday night. Well, it didn’t stop, but it wouldn’t drain. I tried to start it again to force it to drain, but luck wasn’t with us. In fact, I think Luck must have taken an early weekend, because the problem wasn’t a clogged drain or a kinked hose or anything simple. By Saturday morning, the motor seems to have died.

Both Michelle and I hate the dishwasher, but it’s such an unimportant thing to consider when it’s working that we just went with it. Sure, it frequently left detritus on the glasses and bowls, but it should be sanitized. We hope it was sanitized.

Anyway, it was clear that the old box was dead, so I pulled it out then went to work on my thesis while Michelle shopped around for replacements. After taking it out, we also learned that apparently there were some dampness issues because the subfloor had some mold on it. By 2pm, Michelle had found a washer and I was tired of working on my thesis so we got back to work on the washer. The old one was a bit of a tank, partly because it was made of steel, and partly because it still had some undrained water in the sysem, but most of that leaked out while evicting it with a hand truck.

The new one was light enough to pick up and carry myself, which was great for carrying, but makes me a tad nervous. I opened the box, took out the instructions and noticed on the second page that the required cabinet height was 34″. We had a 32″ opening. Crap. It wasn’t listed anywhere on the outside of the box, so we had to open it up to find out. We quickly checked the internet for several other models and manufacturers and it seems that 34″ was the minimum cabinet opening across the board. Crap.

At some point in the past, one of the previous owners had remodeled the kitchen by adding an additional crap-board subfloor and non-adhering vinyl tiles. To make the opening work, I removed the subfloor inside the cabinet and removed some of the extra trim around the cabinet and viola, 34″.

Next, I had to prepare the utilties. Electrical and the drain were simple enough, but the previous owners had a section of iron pipe (like gas line) in between the water line and the dishwasher, so there was this nasty section of rusty gunk that had to be removed. The dishwasher did not come with the necessary 90 degree elbow for connecting the supply line, so we had to make another trip to the big box store. Since we use pex for plumbing, I was tempted to just run out to Parkrose Hardware (awesome) since I knew they would have the appropriate parts, but my dad brought over a sharkbite fitting that spared me a trip all that way and instead we were able to get the parts at Lowes with just one complete redesign based on inventory.

Finally, 5:00 pm, hooking up utilities. I managed to wedge the washer into the cabinet and feed the utilities to the front. Hooking up the drain was a cinch, electrical not too bad, but connecting the water was a pain, and by that point, my arms were starting to loose initiative. I was on the opposite side of the connection, so I was trying to attach something and tighten it in reverse in a space with not enough room to turn a wrench to tighten it. Still, persistence paid off and all the connections were in place. With the water and power back on, there were not sparks or leaks, so we started a load of dishes.

It worked.