dishwasher repair - an article for the DIY folks

Over the weekend I turned the dishwasher on and within only a minute or so there was a light burning smell. It went away just as quickly as it came and I wondered if I imagined it or it was someone cooking next door. I went to the computer and the vague smell of dishwasher soap wafted into the room. I walked into the kitchen to find suds floating across the floor.

My wife and I turned off the dishwasher and quickly cleaned up the mess. There didn't appear to be any damage, but of course I now had a project on my hands. I had recently cleaned out a cabinet and found an old bottle of dishwasher gel that I figured I should use up, so I'd dropped it in the dishwasher that morning. This had me mistakenly thinking it was that the gel had separated and the glob that came out was condensed. After running the washer a couple times and bailing out the interior I reluctantly admitted it was something worse.

I found a good article on repair and common issues that pointed me to the strainer, which might be blocked and not allow draining (it wasn't the motor which I could hear running). We have a simple model with one motor and strainer unlike the one pictured in the article. The top of the strainer was pretty ugly with black gunk, but it was obvious there was no blockage.

Looking under the dishwasher for a place where a block might occur I noticed that there's a solenoid that opens the door to let the water drain out. It seemed rigid but I figured maybe there's some locking mechanism. I spun the dial around through the cycles and the thing never budged (be ready to bail water if you try this at home -- a non-draining dishwasher fills up fast). So I took it apart and it definitely was jammed. It also had that same burnt odor that I'd smelt briefly when I'd turned on the dishwasher earlier.

Luckily our old dishwasher is still in the basement and it's a similar model. So I pulled off the solenoid and was sure I had the problem because this one moved freely. In a couple minutes I had the new solenoid installed. A spin of the cycle button poped the solenoid up and down, so I knew I had a good fix.

Now here's the vaguely interesting part and most of the reason I'm writing the article. The odd thing is that the solenoid that burnt out was stamped 9/15/02 and the solenoid I pulled from the old dishwasher was stamped 9/16/02. Hopefully it lasts more than a day longer than the old one :)


The old burnt solenoid


The good as new solenoid