Dishwasher destruction...

[Ron Lowe]

Wife's sister and unruly offspring are visiting for the week.

I load and run the dishwasher as usual, and she comes through and announces in an accusing manner that the dishwasher is leaking all over the floor. Is is assumed, of course, that water leakages are my problem, and probably my fault.

Inspection reveals that the door of the dishwasher is closed properly at the top left, but a good 2 cm away from being closed at the top right. The door is clearly not square with the chassis, and not close to sealing.

'Oh, I know how that happened' she says, in a tone that suggests it's my fault. I emptied it earlier, and left it open to dry. Then the 2-year-old used the open door as a step-up to see what's on the worktop. And bounced on it a bit for good measure.

Grrrrrr.

Now I can't determine if the door itself is twisted, or the hinge out-of-alignment, or the chassis mounting points bent. Probably a mixture of all 3. If I can't bash it into square, it's going to be a write-off.

And she is quite oblivious to the fact she's in any way to blame for it.

[Si]

In message , Ron Lowe writes

I sympathise - immensely and with feeling. :-/

[Mary Fisher]

If washing up is a problem and the dishwasher won't work tell her that she'll have to use the sink.

Mary

[Lobster]

I'd be inclined to grab hold of the open door at the corners and try to just apply some force (bending, not bashing) to twist it in the direction it needs to go. Hopefully that will reverse whatever the little darling did to it, whether that's hinges, chassis, or door.

But wait and see if anyone else has any better ideas, as the above is probably a last-ditch all-or-nothing attempt before scrapping it...

David

[Ron Lowe]

Oh, that was the first thing I did. Repeatedly, and with increasing force.

I've reduced the offset to under 1cm, and the free play when closed and applying hand pressure is much reduced. I've got a second load in right now, and I'm waiting to see what happens.

These same darlings decided to re-align the stylus on my Linn Asak cartridge last visit, as well as push the Sondek's suspension all out of sorts. ( Vinyl turntable parts ). I re-aligned the suspension, but the cartridge still needs a bit of attention :-(

[jkn]

Ouch! having an Asak myself, I definitely sympathise ...

J^n

[Andy Hall]

Forget it. Time for at least a new door and mounts. By the time that that is priced, it will be less expensive to get a new dishwasher.

Make a claim on the household insurance. List out the excess and ask the insurance company how much it will affect your no claims discount if you have one.

Present the reckoning to the SIL, pointing out that there is a cost to being careless. One can't really blame the 2 year old, but the adult is certainly to blame. I'd ban her from visiting

[EricP]

Dishwasher door hinges are very low tech and the brute force approach you have already embarked upon is not as daft as it appears.

With mine in similar circumstances I took the inside door panel off which allowed me to remove the door and *speak* to the strips of steel that comprise the door hinge supports with a large hammer. They had been bent out and down. This meant they looked ok but were in fact hopelessly out of line. After satisfying work with the electricians screwdriver, they don't look too bad and it fits.

[Jenkem]

Ain't just 'Appliance Issues' here, start looking for cheap lawyers.

[Lobster]

Ok, it has to be arsenic then.

[Ron Lowe]

And, And....

A year ago, they were here. A loud 'crash' from our bedroom upstairs ( nominally out-of-bounds for the little ones ), followed by a howl.

My 6" reflector telescope, on an equatorial mount and substantial tripod, is on it's side.

Apparently, 'Maisy Mouse' had wanted to look down the barrel of the telescope. But had fallen down inside it, and was now lying on the mirror. Little one reached up and pulled on the open end of the telescope, with all his might and weight. This forced all the gears in the equatorial mount to run in reverse. Unfortunately, the motor drive was still engaged ( but switched off ), which stripped the plastic teeth on the motor drive. With a 2-year old now dangling on the end of the thing, the whole thing crashed over. The counterbalance weight bent where it attached to the equatorial mount, the eyepiece lens flew across the floor, and the child was lying in a heap.

The child then took advantage of the telescope being at ground-level, and was grasping up inside the tube with greasy little paws in the general direction of the mirror when I arrived. Fortunately, his arm was much shorter than the tube, so he couldn't reach the mirror.

Maisey was retrieved, and the telescope re-aligned. I was afraid the mirror may have been knocked off alignment, but it had not. That would have been a whole new DIY project.

[Ron Lowe]

Well, that would be my wife :-) ( But not cheap, obviously... )

[Skipweasel]

That worked for me when a neighbour had the same problem - though in her case she'd fallen on the open door.

[Ron Lowe]

Hope the cutlery tray didn't have any pointy knives pointing up the way...

[The Medway Handyman]

Anti freese is the new arsenic...

[Appin]

The message from Andy Hall contains these words:

Don't even think about claiming off insurance -- even if it's a top-of-the-range model. You'll go on that list of claimants mentioned on another thread. It really has to be several thousand pounds' worth before it's worth even CONSIDERING claiming.

[Appin]

The message from "Ron Lowe" contains these words:

No coachbuilder friends?

To take the twist out of a door a coachbuilder will stick a bit of 2x4 timber into the door at the appropriate place and force it shut -- or that direction -- until it's straight.

A small hydraulic jack works wonders in straightening mountings but anchoring the machine while you use it to apply pressure can be tricky.

For the last 30 years I've had a couple of sets of cramp ends mounted on

2m long wooden bars drilled every 50mm or so. The ends can be turned around to provide pressure either inwards or outwards. They'd straighten mountings nicely in this instance.

[chris French]

In message , The Medway Handyman writes

But don't tell the neighbours.....

[geoff]

In message , chris French writes

or the austrian authorities

[Si]

In message , Andy Hall writes

Ron, have you & your wife not had children of your own? When ours was young everything that could possibly be damaged by being climbed on, pulled down, chewed, taken apart, spilt on etc. would always be out of reach, behind a closed door or firmly shut closed. 2 year olds are by their very nature excited about life and eternally curious. They won't see a d/w door as something delicate, functional and that needs to kept carefully in alignment but as a useful step to whatever is above it. That it's bouncy when stepped on means that (from their point of view) it's going to be great to jump on. Repeatedly.

Whilst I'd agree that the SiL should accept (most of) the blame for allowing her toddler to act in this way in *your* home I think you could do a lot to protect yourself by ensuring that anything liable to damage is placed well out of reach or protected. Our home now generally doesn't have toddlers coming to visit but if/when it does again I'll be doing a lot of reorganising upwards.