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Hometech: The Dishwasher Princes
Tue, 15 Aug 2006

Theres a number of things I'd like to go on about; the Butterfly Conservatory, the Beer Fest, the Baby-stuff. For now indulge me while I prattle a bit about the dishwasher - the under-rated workhorse of the modern household.

Everyone who marries knows the toll -- you get married, and for the next year or more the dishes get washed by hand. Later, for the lucky, when you can afford it (or in my case when a wonderful brother-in-law comes to the rescue :) a dishwasher appears and life is good again. It started making funny noises yesterday -- you know, a house gets to be 5 or more years old and everything in it must begin to fail. You see.. the companies who produce such staples need to sell, and sell, and sell again, so every machine has a lifeclock. The Maytag Princes count themselves among friends when supping with lawyers and tax collectors, I'd bet ;)

Anyway, I bore you with such a mundane posting today simply because I wish to record one small factoid for later use. You can clean a dishwasher, and you can take some small piece of it apart without too much work.. but theres a trick which I always forget about.

Cleaning the Dishwasher

Inside the cavern, on the top and bottom, are the spinner-things that spray water hither and yon. You can't open those, but you can get them off and run water from the tap through them or stick a screwdriver tip into their holes to get out the accumulated gunk from the recycled water that flows about during each run. If I recall right, the top one comes off pretty easily, but the bottom one, at least in ours, is a right pig to get off. You can't just force it (you could, but that would be .. unproductive.) but there is a trick -- on top of the bottom spinner is a ring that is disguised to seem as one with the spinner.. but in fact can be twisted off. Once off you can pop off numerous pieces so as to be able to clean the thing, and scrub off the 'grinder' (that crunches up seeds or little bits of gunk from your dinnerware.) Look for that little ring, unscrew it, and you've saved yourself a call to the appliance guys every few years.

The Bastards Within

I had an appliance guy come by yesterday for something else however -- the machine started making a horrendous noise when firing up for a load. Ever since our lightning issue from way back I've been cautious -- when something makes crunchy noises from within a motor, call for help. I could bugger with it, but do I really need that much water spraying out across the floor? I'm a little handy, but not a lot handy... for $30 the guy would inspect it and report.

Says he, the older machines had multiple modules (motors) -- a pump motor and a spinner motor, and happy little tubes between. Should something go wrong one or t'other could be replaced, but more often than not the tubes could be emptied and various parts inspected. Nowadays, says he, there is but one aggregate module - a single motor with multiple phases of operation. No tubes and no fuss for the manufacturer -- it cannot be easily repaired, so should it ever fail (gasp!), then you just call up the manufacturer for a replacement at the meagre cost of 80% the price of a new machine. Joy!

I imagine the repair guys have it tough, with companies trying to squeeze them out all the time. At any rate, he took his $30 CDN and told me my impeller was likely shot or something, so spinning crooked or mucking about in there, making a big old noise. He notes that I or they could try opening up the module, but that in 99% of the cases it then leaks all over. The manuf makes them water-sealed for good reason, and won't touch them if the seal has been messed with. The good news is he recommends ignoring the noise -- that it could work for years more, but that eventually when it does fail.. you can just buy a new machine, or a new module for 80% the price. Great :(

Its a loud noise. I'll fire it up when my wife is around and if she can't watch the tube while its operating.. we'll have to get serious. Maybe a second opinion even, but damnit.. I'd hate to have to fork over hundreds of bucks after only a half dozen years.

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