Dishwasher problem

[KD]

OK, so I had a handyman at my place the other day to install my new kitchen faucet, among other things.

Works great, looks great (aside from the fact that now my sink looks like crap next to the shiny new faucet). I went out, my husband decided to start the dishwasher.

I came home maybe 15 minutes after he started it, and it sounded funny to me. I opened it, and there was no water in it. I've tried a few times since then, and the darned thing won't fill.

I suspect that it ran a bit with the water shutoff under the sink in the closed position. But if it's open now, it should work right? Unless a) running it while water was shut off did something terrible to the dishwasher we just bought in January, or b) running it while water was shut off caused an airlock of some kind in the line which simply needs to be cleared.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

KD

[hallerb]

shouldnt of caused damage, try powering it off, pull plug or reset breaker or fuse.

new dishwashers are computer controlled and this one might need rebooted

[trader4]

Are you sure the valve under the sink is turned on? I guess another possibility is the faucet repair process dislodged some debris that has clogged the water valve of the dishwasher.

But no way running it without water would result in any permanent damage resulting in this "no fill" behavior.

[gigster]

Obviously if everything was working fine previously then the handyman caused this malfunction and should be called back to diagnose the problem. Check this site:

see if there is a reset button on your unit. If anything running it without water may have triggered the valve to shut off. Fill the washer with water by hand and set it to the drain cycle and see if the water gets pumped out. Without the make and model it's very hard to diagnose it here.

[KD]

I did try unplugging the unit to see if that would help, and I am going to call back handyman guy to fix it if I can't get it going. The machine still does make noise when turned on, so that would suggest that the fuse is not blown, n'est pas? I have an older fuse box with plug fuses.

It wasn't immediately apparent to me which setting was OFF for the water (yes, insert *duh* here). So I tried running it both ways, neither will fill it.

Meanwhile, I'll give putting water into it manually a go, see if that will help. The dishwasher is a Whirlpool, model GU2300XTSQ.

Good to know that it's unlikely WE did anything to kill it by simply running it. Hopefully it's not a serious problem! Thanks for the suggestions.

KD

[noname87]

Try this.

Inside the dishwasher, there is a float device which shuts the water off when the water reaches a set hieght. It is usually in one of the corners. Check (by gently lifting) that it is free to move and not stuck in the up position. In a new machine this is unlikely to be the problem but it is a easy thing to check.

[KD]

Just checked, floaty thing does still move, not stuck.

Handy guy is coming over later to investigate the problem. He's perplexed by it, can't imagine what it could be till he looks at it.

KD

[DerbyDad03]

re: It wasn't immediately apparent to me which setting was OFF for the water

Unless you have something out of the ordinary, figuring out Off vs On for your shutoffs should be fairly simple:

If you have a straight flat handle, then: If it is in-line with (parallel to) the pipe the water would be On. If it is at a right angle (perpendicular) to the pipe the water would be Off.

If you have a round or oval handle that turns in a circle, the standard rule of righty-tighty, lefty-loosey applies. Turned fully to the right, while facing the handle is Off, turned fully to the left is On.

One note: You should never turn that type of valve to the fully on, hard up against the stop position. Turn it fully on and then back it off about an eighth of a turn. You want a little room to move the valve in case it gets frozen from non-use. If it gets frozen in the fully-on position, you might not be able to turn the water off in an emergency situation. With a little wiggle room in both directions, you're more likely to be able to free it up.

[KD]

Thanks for the info. After trying it both ways yesterday, I crawled in a little closer with my flashlight and saw on the flat handle that there were arrows for OPEN and CLOSE. So it is indeed in the OPEN position, parallell to the pipe. Good to know not to turn it fully on though.

Anyhow, still no water in it. Will see what handyman guy tells me.

KD

[DerbyDad03]

You missed my point! The type that you do not turn fully are the round or oval handle types. The ball-valves with the straight handles do not have this problem and can be set fully in-line with the pipe.

BTW...check the valve for your main - if it is not a ball valve, you might want to see if it is fully on and if so, back it off just in case. You *really* want that valve to work in an emergency just in case you can't get some other valve in the house turned off.

[KD]

g

Oh, sorry, didn't read that right.

Handyman guy was just here, took a quick look and has deemed it coincidental that the dishwasher failed at the same time of the faucet replacement. I'm not sure what to think of that, seems VERY coincidental Anyhow, the dishwasher is still under warranty and I have fortunately found the receipt. Whirlpool technician is coming on Thursday.

KD

[Jeff Wisnia]

>>>>>....and see if there is a reset button on your unit. If anything

Let us know what the tech finds. My curious mind wants to know.

Jeff

[Red Green]

KD wrote in news: [e-mail]:

LOL! Is it ever any other way?!

Oh this outta be good. Both will be pointing the finger at each other.

KD, be sure to follow up on this after the Whirlpool tech comes by.

[KD]

g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

*sigh* Yes, pointing their fingers at each other is what I'm afraid of, because if no one will take responsibility, only one party will be on the hook to pay - and it won't be either one of them. :(

[KD]

@8g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

OK, Whirlpool guy just left. He says it's a water supply problem! My response to that is *duh* - I know that there's no water. But he tried replacing a valve in the dishwasher but that did not fix the problem, tech says there's nothing wrong with the dishwasher.

My husband is the one that's home looking after this. Next step is to call the handyman back, see what (if anything) he can do about the apparent plumbing issue!

Some other details:

When handyman was putting in the new faucet, he could not get the hot water valve to turn off the water all the way. I did not want to take the time and money to repair that at this time, so I told him to just turn off the water main to do the work, which we did.

Since having this problem, handyman says that the work he did couldn=92t be the problem, as the dishwasher hot water tap is below the water turnoff for the sink, which in theory means that the dishwasher gets water supply first. The sink still does produce hot water.

Handyman also says in feeling the copper pipe on the other side of the dishwasher supply valve, it=92s hot, so water is still going into it. I don=92t think it=92s THAT hot, maybe the valve could be toast?

I was SO wanting to get my dishwasher on the go again today! *whine*

KD

[Jeff]

Is the hot water feed to the dishwasher copper all the way? For me the dishwasher has a rubber hose that clamps onto the water pipe under the sink. It would be quite easy to disconnect the hose and tell for certain if water was flowing through the copper pipe or not.

OK, Whirlpool guy just left. He says it's a water supply problem! My response to that is *duh* - I know that there's no water. But he tried replacing a valve in the dishwasher but that did not fix the problem, tech says there's nothing wrong with the dishwasher.

My husband is the one that's home looking after this. Next step is to call the handyman back, see what (if anything) he can do about the apparent plumbing issue!

Some other details:

When handyman was putting in the new faucet, he could not get the hot water valve to turn off the water all the way. I did not want to take the time and money to repair that at this time, so I told him to just turn off the water main to do the work, which we did.

Since having this problem, handyman says that the work he did couldn?t be the problem, as the dishwasher hot water tap is below the water turnoff for the sink, which in theory means that the dishwasher gets water supply first. The sink still does produce hot water.

Handyman also says in feeling the copper pipe on the other side of the dishwasher supply valve, it?s hot, so water is still going into it. I don?t think it?s THAT hot, maybe the valve could be toast?

I was SO wanting to get my dishwasher on the go again today! *whine*

KD

[trader4]

:

It's unbelievable how a tech can have such poor diagnostic skills.. With a reported problem like this, after checking the obvious, like supply valve under the sink open, float in dishwasher not stuck, I'd disconnect the water supply line at the dishwasher and see if water will flow into a pan. If it didn't, I'd show it to the customer demonstrating that it's not the dishwasher that's the problem. Why the moron would waste time changing the dishwasher water valve is beyond me.

[KD]

om:

I'm less than impressed myself at this point, although I have to say that I was not home at the time. My husband reported this to me, and did not mention if the tech did anything like this, maybe he did for all I know. I'm thinking not though.

I was also unimpressed with their service scheduling. While I did get an appointment fairly quickly, the time they provided for the tech to arrive was between 8 and 4. Of course that meant that either my husband or myself had to take a full day off work to ensure that we were there when he arrived.

KD

[KD]

om:

To make a short story short....*Grrrr*

We had our handyman back tonight to check things out - primarily, to check the very important thing that the tech did NOT check, which was the water supply. Handyman disconnected the hose, lots of water comes out! He has concluded that it is NOT a water problem, which I concur with - although it's still very strange that this should happen immediately after the installation of the faucet.

But Whirlpool refuses to give less than an eight hour window for a technician to come AGAIN. And after my husband wasting an entire vacation day today for these people, we are understandably not in a hurry for one of us to do so again (although thank God we HAVE vacation days to use). We're going to try calling again during the day to see if we can get someone a bit higher up than the poor call centre bloke who was dealing with us, see if they can arrange for someone competent to either come in the evening or to provide a shorter window so we don't burn a whole day off.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I will NEVER buy a Whirlpool appliance again, based entirely on their lack of customer service. The dishwasher is five bloody months old and hardly the cheapest appliance on the floor. We should not have to put up with this!

KD

[Red Green]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Maybe he was a handyman before he advanced his career.