anatomy of a dishwasher

I was planning a knitting post (with a free pattern) but the weather stinks (grey & drizzly) for picture taking so that'll just have to wait for another day. I'll just talk about something a little more interesting (yeah, right) like my dishwasher. I am amazed at how a dishwasher can go from working to sounding like it's going to cough up cutlery in less than 10 seconds. The dishwasher sounded a little rough at the beginning of the cycle but by the time it was draining, I really thought something large was being ground up. We turned the breaker off, unloaded, and washed the dishes by hand and saved the disassembly for this morning.

It takes 45 mins to disconnect two hoses, mop up the ensuing flood, disconnect the electrical, and figure out how the clamp thingy disengages so that you can yank the pump & motor out leaving the inside of your dishwasher looking pretty empty.


At this point, I should mention that we had already made a trip to the parts store for a new gasket. All that black stuff is yuck leaking out the bottom of the dishwasher via the elderly (10 yo) gasket. I am actually grateful that it broke when it did because I would've been cursing if I'd put the whole thing back together to have it die the following week necessitating another disassembly. It's a tight squeeze under there and my arms are scratched & bleeding.

Call us crazy - we took the whole pump apart (if you're squeamish, don't look).


Don't ask me how it all goes back together. Thank goodness, there are pictures on the interwebs.


And here's the busted part:


It's the upper impeller (the important part that shoves the water out the spray arm) and it shouldn't be in two pieces. It's Sunday and the parts store is closed so I'll be washing dishes by hand tonite and probably tomorrow. Oh joy :(