Dishwasher leak

[John Richards]

My 15 + year old built-in Kenmore dishwasher has started leaking. Several years ago (at least) we noticed that when the washer was running, the water pipes would start hammering. Turning on a faucett anywhere in the house would stop the hammering. At the time I thought it was a valve that might be closing too fast but never did anything about it. The last two times we ran the washer, we noticed water on the floor which looks like it came from under the washer. We also realized at about the same time that there was no water pipe hammering. My suspicion is a bad water inlet valve which was probably responsible for the hammering and now the leak (the door gasket appears to be fine). A new valve is available locally for $25 so I thought I would take a shot at fixing it myself.

Would anyone care to comment on my diagnosis? Is it a fairly easy project to replace the valve as far as getting to it (I haven't pulled the dishwasher out yet so don't know exactly where the valve is) and are there any special tools required?

Thanks John

[Curmudgeon]

[John Richards]

That sounds reasonable, but I thought it too much of a coincidence that (assuming my pipes were hammering because of a chattering inlet valve) the hammering stopped at the same time the dishwasher started leaking. I am open to any other ideas.

Thanks for your help John

[jeff]

Hi,

That leak could be from anywhere, time to remove the lower access panals and have a peek with a flash light. The banging pipes may be a bad fill valve, but the fill valves rarely leak. No special tools required to change the fill valve. Turn the water tap off first, it is a fairly easy job :)

*Some* common leaks.

to remove -some- access panals.

jeff. Appliance Repair Aid