Samsung dishwasher has drain pump too small to work properly

[Ed Pawlowski]

Seems you may have other issued if you went through at least 5 different machines in 25 years. In three houses over 57 years I'm on the 4th one. Of the four, 2 were working when we left.

[Dean Hoffman]

Do you have an air gap device?

[Dean Hoffman]

I replaced my first one after 35 years. I'm not sure why anymore. It was probably because I didn't want it to fail due to age. I'm too busy being retired to wash dishes by hand.

[DManzaluni]

Yes, I cant remember why the earlier ones were replaced though one elderly was replaced when my neighbor put all-new matching devices in her pied-a-terrre and I caught her throwing away a few-years-old, practically unused Profile. The Maytag was OK but it used to get too hot inside for it's blue internal fitments which all started to crack and fall to bits, leaving splines flopping all over the place. It was either replace the dishwasher o r invest in a 3d printer.

One thing which thus far hasn't been mentioned is this question of backflow. Nothing flows back INTO this DW. There is an inspection valve in the half inch pipe for looking at what is happening with that flow. Nothing untoward shows in it (including gunge).

I can't help but think the problem is with the strength of the drain pump.

[Dean Hoffman]

I wonder what size the pump discharge is. Ace hardware should have some reducers/increasers to let the OP put on a larger hose if he wants. A few feet of low pressure hose wouldn't be that expensive.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I was wondering the same. Just looked at mine. Plastic hose from DW to the garbage disposal is 3/4" OD so not much more than 1/2" ID.

Seems like he as going a longer distance too.

[Dean Hoffman]

I should've realized Amazon had something.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Mine looks like 1" ID.

[DManzaluni]

I did a search on something called google and it assured me that the industry standard is half inch. They listed a large number of dishwasher drain hoses, all of which were half inch along with a number of people calling themselves Master Plumbers saying they always use the industry standard half inch.

Meanwhile back on the farm, on Friday I noticed a low rumbling coming from inside the dishwasher while turned off, - along with vibration on the door so I called Samsung who said it is th drain pump trying to drain. It didn't succeed in draining ANY water. Today, the rumbling while the unit is turned off has become a loud grinding noise and the 4-light draining procedure now consists of the HEAVY light flashing all the time, sometimes along with a bell.

Samsung say they will come to inspect on Wednesday. Presumably to see if they can blame it on me (so that they dont have to replace under warranty)! It is a company called Service Quick, who seem quite good if their first Yelp review is anything to go by!

[DManzaluni]

That was what struck me, though I didnt know where it was. This dishwasher doesn't seem to have an impeller masticating the small pieces, which then get stuck in the outer holes in the arms. They may even be getting past the filter and blocking the pipe. But I don't know if the impeller is designed to force everything into the drain pipe or to masticate it up so that it doesnt get stuck in those holes

[DManzaluni]

Yes, that was what I found in my initial searches, though they all described the size as being a half inch.

[trader_4]

That's what I thought too, dishwashers don't have a large discharge hose,

1/2" ID sounds about right. They also have to be routed around, a larger hose would be more difficult.

[DManzaluni]

I'M afraid you just hit the nail on a thumb! Samsung just came, - only to inspect.

There's a minor backstory here. Samsung first came here last august. Some loony came and started to take pics of a BUG INFESTATION! which we dont have. Just so they could deny the warranty.

FF to now, after the retailer had been sending out inept repairers who sometimes managed to get the unit working again for a few months. Finally they stopped coming when they told me to change all that plumbing.

So i called Samsung to identify the correct size, (It is half inch). But they noticed that my new unit has a draining problem! So while spelling my name wrongly they offered to send someone out to see if it was the pump . Long story short, he took photos but was completely baffled by the pretence of a bug infestation which there obviously isn't! He said the pump has obviously gone but there is a problem first with the retailer's installer not installing an up-hose. (what you correctly call routing)

So the installer is coming to install the up-hose, then Samsung will install a new pump. THEN everyone will try to figure out why it isn't draining!

[Dean Hoffman]

Would it do any good to suggest Samsung take the whole machine back so they can inspect the whole thing? You'd get a brand new one, of course.

[DManzaluni]

Not after this unit has exhibited such astounding lack of reliability! They have been out a half dozen times already. And one particularly lousy technician explained that with this model, you have to meticulously clean (meaning scrub) off all dishes before putting them in the dishwasher! Nothing gets caught in the filter, in fact the only place it does get caught is in the outer holes in the spray arms, every time we try to use it!

In addition the cutlery is constantly falling out of the basket, jamming the arms AND basket roller wheels and nothing fits properly in is assigned spaces, meaning it holds about a half of what it should under any normal conditions. That technician lying about a bug infestation purely so that Samsung could deny the warranty would have been the last straw.

If it hadnt been the first straw!

Inspect, you say? I think the whole problem is that they couldn't care less.I'll report back if I am wrong but we have now had stinking water stagnating in our kitchen for nearly a week with no real end in sight. To me, it looks like the unit is pushing gunge PAST the filter into the drain pipes. To which the technicians say"We aren't plumbers: Get a plumber"

[Ed Pawlowski]

Hmm, most tell you to leave them dirty and the bits of food act like a sand blaster and help loosen others during the wash cycle.

At this point, I'd consider cutting my losses and buy a KitchenAid.

[DManzaluni]

Yes, the salesman told us to start an RA on it but that was when Samsung started taking a bit more of an interest in figuring out what has gone wrong with this unit. They CAN'T correct the basket problem m because they dont have a proper working basket. Let's see how thy deal with the not-draining (or filter not filtering) problem.

[z38.310]

It would take me about 15 minutes to pull my dishwasher out from under the counter, wheel it out on the deck, connect to power and water, and then run a few cycles so I could see what is happening.

[trader_4]

The "up hose" or lack thereof is unlikely to be the source of the problem. You're supposed to have a high loop to prevent water from going backwards from the sink to the dishwasher if the sink drain backs up and water rises up. It would just increase the amount of lift that the pump needs. I guess it might benefit in drawing the last of the water out of the hose, preventing the last cup or so from flowing back to the dishwasher when the pump stops, but it doesn't sound like that's your problem.

[DManzaluni]

That was what I said to the bloke and he agreed. Especially when in conjunction with a blown drain pump! Same as complaining about the pipe being only a half inch.

These are the sorts of things you complain about when you can't figure out what the real problem is.