How to Wash The Dishes
We now have a working dishwasher again. Over the last few weeks, we’d noticed is just wasn’t cleaning, and the usual remedied (cleaning the filter and using a hard water remedy) didn’t help. Over the weekend, if simply didn’t work at all.
But, a dishwasher only has a few parts, principally inlet valve, float switch, pump, and controller. The controller seemed to be working, the the inlet valve is by far the most frequent part to fail. There are technical ways to test it–but realistically, the easiest thing is to turn on the machine and give is a few minutes to see if the tub filled. It didn’t—and seemed to hum more loudly than it ought to—and manually filling the tub causes the float switch to float and “clickity click” its indication of health. Closing the door and pressing start caused the machine to run normally–so the controller and pump are good. Obviously, a bad inlet valve.
So….call the repairman, right? Wrong. A quick search found a Youtube video showing how to replace the valve:
1. Kill the power and water.
2. Remove the front kick plate.
3. Remove a screw securing the valve from the front of the washer base.
4. Remove the electrical connection.
5. Release a spring clamp and inlet hose.
6. Remove the supply hose (just like those for the sink).
7. Reverse steps 1-6 to install a replacement.
The old valve might be defective of just blocked with scale, but a new one cost $21 on Amazon and was delivered in two days. So when I got home tonight, I spent half and hour on steps 1-6 and 6-1 and washed a load of dished. Easy peasy.
And may your every repair go as smoothly. This Internet thing’s a keeper don’t ya think? Have you repaired anything lately?
