Or dishwasher stopped working, rather suddenly. It seems like not enough water is entering it to power the blades, or even to dissolve the detergent.
Maybe it can be fixed?
Any advice on fixing it would be greatly appreciated.
Barring that, I’m also looking for advice on new dishwashers. I suspect I’m out of luck, as the thing that bothers me most about my last two dishwashers is how freaking long the cycle is, and i think that’s gotten even worse. But i guess “does a good job cleaning, easy to load dishes into, not too noisy” are all features I’d value.
Oh, and doesn’t need to have the filter manually cleaned all the time. I think some can grind the residue, and some can’t, maybe? At any rate, that seems to be a difference, and i can’t stand reaching into the bowels of the dishwasher to remove nasty gunk.
I’d love to have a dishwasher that advertises that it has been run and everything is clean inside.
My current one just opens the door slightly, which is about the same default as when it has dirty stuff inside.
We have a crude magnet instead, which is sometimes updated and mostly not.
Dishwashers are used mostly for sanitizing, so pre-wash is best. It’s not a garbage disposal.
Or, is it?
We have a magnet, too, and I’m happy with it. Or satisfied, at least. I do want to be able to tell whether it’s run if I look closely at the dishwasher, but that being obvious is low on the list.
I haven’t ever bought a dishwasher… always just taken the one that came with the house. But I know one of mine had a “quick wash” cycle, and my current washing machine has the same feature.
I think with both, the reason for the long cycles is that it uses less electricity to just let the clothes / dishes soak a bit here & there and only agitate / spray them between soaking. But if you’re in a hurry you can opt for the more energy intensive traditional cycle.
Probably 98% of the time I don’t mind a long dishwasher cycle. I’m probably running it when I’m on my way out the door to go to work/church or after dinner / before bed. In either case I won’t be emptying it for hours after it’s done. But if I’m hosting a party or a big family dinner where one load is insufficient then it would come in handy to have a quick cycle.
I use it more often for laundry on the washing machine.
I do recall Consumer Reports reporting to their consumers that this is due to dishwashers trying to use less water & electricity & such…or what twig93 said.
How often have you moved? I’ve had to replace my dishwasher more than any other appliance. In fact, the dishwasher and the hot water heater are the only two appliances I’ve replaced more than once, and a lot of the ones I replaced I did so to upgrade, not because they failed.
I’d appreciate the option. I agree that 90% of the time, “overnight” is fine. But it’s not that uncommon for me to want to run the dishwasher “before dinner”. And if I ever feel comfortable entertaining again, I used to do a couple of loads during parties, back when cycles were shorter.
My old DW, a Kenmore Elite, lasted 16 years, but limped through the last year.
I replaced it with a Whirlpool 47dba top control DW with a third rack. I am pretty happy with it - dishes come out clean and I can barely hear it run. The standard cycles is nearly 3 hours, but it has a quick cycle that is 1:04. I usually run the standard cycle at night and turn off the dry cycle.
It’s not quite a year old yet, so I can’t comment on longevity. It probably runs about 5x a week on average.
There should be a ‘float’ that determines how much water enters the machine. It’s likely that either the float is damaged, or the ‘float switch,’ leading the machine to think it has more water than it actually has.
Neither should cost a ton to fix.
It could be something else but that seems like the most likely thing. IANAAR.
Yeah, I think in both the 8 year and the 6 year place the dishwashers were less than a year old when I moved in. Maybe 2 years old for the 8 year place, but new-ish.
This is a great place to start. It’s a cheap simple repair. If it doesn’t fix the problem, there are a few other places to look - but I’d start with the float. All you typically need is a very stubby screwdriver. Any and every thing thing can repaired on a dishwasher, as long as you haven’t cracked the shell. There aren’t that many parts behind the scene (or underneath the shell).
Some dishwashers do have a chopper that will mince up food particles. Ever since phosphates were removed from dishwashing detergent, the cycles have to run longer and the food particles are more of an issue. You can probably still buy some detergent with phosphates online.
So… having called a local repair place, and gotten an appointment for mid-November (no kidding) any advice on how to do this myself would be deeply appreciated. Where do I look for this float?
For DIY washing machine, clothes dryer and dishwasher repair, the website www.partselect.com is a good place to start. The site has enough informaiton to help you diagnose a problem, you can order the parts from them and Steve has a lot of simple easy to follow videos making the repairs.
And if you can’t find a video of Steve working on your make and model, you can learn enough watching him there working on other makes and models and then also go search YouTube.
usually the float is bottom front left of a dishwasher.
Our current house came with a double drawer dishwasher. That’s a nice setup for a small household: run one drawer for regular use, but you have the option of running both washers when you have a lot of dishes to do. I think I’d replace this dishwasher with a similar model if/when it dies.
First, how old is it? If it is over 10 years old, I would not bother investing into a repair. If it 7 or fewer, then I would more strongly consider a repair.
Google the exact model of dishwasher and a basic description. Then you can find out what other people have found out about this problem. It’s free advice for 10 minutes of googleing.
Most new dishwashers use a low amount of water for environmental sake, but they run longer to get the same cleanliness off less water. I just get used to the idea of running it when I go to bed.
As for the noisiness and ease of filter cleaning, you will have to shop for those. I bought a new DW with the last 12 months, and there’s no assurance that the features today match the features of last year’s models.
I suspect that “i do dishes by hand because the $#&+ dishwasher won’t finish a cycle before i need clean dishes” totally undoes any water savings from the really long cycle. And we are already doing dishes by hand from time to time because of that.
Also, i see that a lot of newer dishwashers have a faster cycle option these days, so i suspect I’m not alone. If we get a new one, it will have a faster cycle option.
