Thread Number: 49695
whats wrong with this dishwasher?
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Post# 718295   11/28/2013 at 12:34 (3,773 days old) by maytaga806 (Howell, Michigan)        

This looks to be a older Whirlpool dishwasher with the three level wash system. The bottom arm is moving but water isnt being shot up thorugh the tower for the top arm? Are both wash arms not suppose to work at the same time? Or is something wrong?

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Post# 718332 , Reply# 1   11/28/2013 at 16:59 (3,773 days old) by barcoboy (Canada)        

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Pretty sure something in the top rack is sticking down and stopping the arm from turning. Have an Inglis dishwasher with the same washing system that I don't use anymore, as I always found it left food bits all over my cereal bowls. Not sure if it due to the constant rinse arm on my KDS-58, but it cleans way better and I don't get food deposits on my bowls anymore. Looking for a KDS-18 to replace the Inglis, and then keep the 58 for parts.

Post# 718335 , Reply# 2   11/28/2013 at 17:28 (3,773 days old) by chetlaham (United States)        

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Top arm is stalled for what ever reason. I liked the other design with the tube going up the back more though.


Post# 718336 , Reply# 3   11/28/2013 at 18:38 (3,773 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey)        

yogitunes's profile picture
no brainer, he doesn't let it run long enough for the water to be filled enough to allow proper washing and movement of the wash arms....even the lower wash arm is barely moving....

these machines fill and run at the same time, purging is bound to happen until the level is sufficient for the pressure switch...


Post# 718344 , Reply# 4   11/28/2013 at 19:44 (3,773 days old) by whirlykenmore78 (Prior Lake MN (GMT-0500 CDT.))        
It may not be underfilling.

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This type of WP DW required a rubber chamber on top of the lower wash arm hub to inflate with water and seal against the bottom of the tower to produce the upper wash spray.  If this is torn or split the DW will not work properly. 

WK78


Post# 718348 , Reply# 5   11/28/2013 at 20:07 (3,773 days old) by barcoboy (Canada)        

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I agree with whirlykenmore78... I don't believe it is underfilling. You can see as the pump is priming there is water being pushed up the center post intermittently into the upper arm, which causes it to turn slightly with each pulse. Then I think once the pump is primed the water continues to be sent up and out the upper arm, but with the position of the arm and the camera, plus the splashing of the lower arm, we can't see clearly if there is water coming out of the center post or the upper arm ports. This is exactly how my Inglis behaves when it fills.

Post# 718352 , Reply# 6   11/28/2013 at 20:44 (3,773 days old) by washdaddy (Baltimore)        

The machine didn't have enough time to fill sufficiently with water. As Yogi mentioned these machines start right away and fill at the same time. Plus the fact there's something blocking the upper wash arm from spinning that's sitting on the other side of the flashlight in the upper rack.
The last place I lived had that type of set up with the tower in the lower rack and the water shot to the upper arm thru it. The only draw back to the machine is you couldn't block the tower. Once you loaded the machine and pushed the racks into it to be sure everything was all right you would reach inside the machine and give the upper arm a whirl to make sure it wasn't blocked by anything in the lower rack. Except for that one little draw back the machine performed exceptionally well. As long as those wash arms moved freely...you could stuff that machine to the gills and get good results.


Post# 718353 , Reply# 7   11/28/2013 at 20:51 (3,773 days old) by maytaga806 (Howell, Michigan)        

Yeah, I thought so. It annoys me so much when people put dishes over those towers. And they wonder why their dishes dont get clean, so they blame the dishwasher or the detergent. This wasnt my video, I just found it on YouTube.

Post# 718372 , Reply# 8   11/29/2013 at 00:55 (3,773 days old) by laundromat (Hilo, Hawaii)        

laundromat's profile picture
Looks like their water pressure in the house is low.Otherwise,it would have filled properly. Timed fill sucks.

Post# 718408 , Reply# 9   11/29/2013 at 10:46 (3,772 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)        
It does seem like low fill

philr's profile picture

But I like the idea of having a waterproof cam inside a dishwasher! It's not as messy as running it with the door open to see what happens inside (something I occasionally do!). 


Post# 718409 , Reply# 10   11/29/2013 at 10:51 (3,772 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)        
Machine Does Not Have Enought Water In It

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For one of several reasons mentioned, if this is all the more water that the machines gets when it is allowed to run normally it most likely has a bad inlet valve, bad inlet valves in as little as 5-10 years are one of the most common DW problems relating to poor performance. Because almost every DW uses a timed fill approach if the IV is not delivering the proper flow the DW will not work worth a darn.

Of course it could be a blocked fill valve inlet scree, but this is very unlikely unless you have some sort of major problem going on in your homes water supply, to start with most heavy dirt and other particles stay in the bottom of the water heater in hot water systems. But about 95% of the time the FV diaphragm is worn out, on older fill valves you can take the valve apart and replace just the rubber diaphragm if you can find the part separately.


Post# 718437 , Reply# 11   11/29/2013 at 17:11 (3,772 days old) by barcoboy (Canada)        

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Still disagree. :-)

With these dishwashers, the way the pump is designed, once they have enough water, they are able to bleed all of the air out of them very quickly and pump only water. The "surging" at the beginning of the video is the pump trying to get rid of the air... as filling continues, the interval between surges decreases until it stops completely and only water is being pumped. Unfortunately, you can't see or hear this happen in the video because the uploader fast forwards the video to the point that the upper arm stops rotating (being held back by something in the top rack) and during the fast forward the sound is muted, but when the sound returns you can hear that the surging has stopped, and also see that the lower arm is turning at a constant speed, which is the same speed my Inglis lower arm turns. I had a problem with my pump soon after I first got it... water was leaking past the "valve stem" inside the pump which was causing it to drain very slowly during the wash cycle. As soon as the water level dropped enough for some air to get into the pump, it would start surging just like it does while it is initially filling. You can read all about it at the link below (this was before I found this site).

To me, either the pump needs to be rebuilt with a new upper impeller (something else I did on my dishwasher), the top plate seal needs replacing or the top plate itself is loose, the rubber seal on top of the lower wash arm that whirlykenmore mentioned above is torn and causing too much water to leak past it, or everything is fine but the camera is not showing the full water show.


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