Thread Number: 79171
/ Tag: Vintage Dishwashers
KDS-18 fire |
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Post# 1030903   4/26/2019 at 18:14 (1,797 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)   |   | |
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One of my friends got a scary surprise with his KItchen Aid dishwasher. He went to look at what smelled bad and it started throwing fire through a hole in the door just over my friend's head while my he was bent to smell underneath!
It looks like the detergent dispenser or the wire that goes to it failed badly! I guess I'll have a parts donor that I'll exchange him with a used Bosch that's now just old enough to be posted in this forum (it's from 1998!). |
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Post# 1030908 , Reply# 1   4/26/2019 at 18:51 (1,797 days old) by Brisnat81 (Brisbane Australia)   |   | |
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He might need to also check his wiring is ok, the ground is intact and the circuit breaker works. If his wiring was working correctly an arc that bad shouldve tripped a circuit breaker when it shorted to the door panel. |
Post# 1030911 , Reply# 2   4/26/2019 at 19:43 (1,797 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)   |   | |
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We have seen this many times on KD17-21 DWs, the shaft can leak and the detergent laden water is conductive and since a live bi-metal is below the leaking dispenser shaft it can short and start burning.
The owner of this DW may have a bad circuit breaker or not, You can easily get enough heat out of a 20 amp circuit to cause this type of damage, I even saw one that actually caught fire and burned the entire dispenser up, that DW was totaled.
When WP bought KA they looked over the history of their new product line and saw how many of these DWs had this problem and immediately turned the dispenser upside-down so if the dispenser leaked it would not leak on live parts.
John L. |
Post# 1030927 , Reply# 3   4/26/2019 at 22:04 (1,797 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)   |   | |
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Post# 1030952 , Reply# 4   4/27/2019 at 09:19 (1,797 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT)   |   | |
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Post# 1030959 , Reply# 5   4/27/2019 at 09:58 (1,797 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)   |   | |
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Post# 1031037 , Reply# 6   4/27/2019 at 21:02 (1,796 days old) by chetlaham (United States)   |   | |
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Post# 1031038 , Reply# 7   4/27/2019 at 21:06 (1,796 days old) by chetlaham (United States)   |   | |
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Post# 1040685 , Reply# 9   8/4/2019 at 16:45 (1,697 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)   |   | |
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This is the one that I gave to my parents.
The detergent dispenser also had leaky seals and I acted before they did the same. I couldn't find the exact replacement seals for them, are they available? Anyway, what I did stopped the leak and I also reversed it to make sure that an eventual leak doesn't get water on the no-metals and their connectors. Here are the before and after pics and some pictures of the timer chart and another sticker inside the door. |
Post# 1041641 , Reply# 12   8/13/2019 at 19:58 (1,688 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)   |   | |
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Post# 1041651 , Reply# 13   8/13/2019 at 20:49 (1,688 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)   |   | |
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Post# 1041659 , Reply# 14   8/13/2019 at 21:43 (1,688 days old) by qsd-dan (West)   |   | |
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The soap cup dispensers use a common seal (o-ring, if I remember correctly) that rides on the pivoting shaft. Upon testing, I found that the new seals were a bit tighter than the originals and the doors wouldn't fully open which required another round of disassembly and a coat of Vaseline.
There's two ways to replace the seals. If you have to do it by yourself, it's best remove the entire dispenser from the door. If you have an extra hand, you can have someone hold the spring loaded detergent doors in place while lining up and re-inserting the pin during the assembly phase. The pin is jammed tightly into the pivoting shaft. The trick I found for removal was using angle cutters and getting a good grip on the pin (but not tight enough to shear it), then take a hammer to smack the cutters upwards to get it out. The soap doors are spring loaded so once the pin is removed, they'll shoot into the tub. |
Post# 1041707 , Reply# 15   8/14/2019 at 10:45 (1,688 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)   |   | |
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Post# 1041933 , Reply# 16   8/16/2019 at 21:13 (1,685 days old) by barcoboy (Canada)   |   | |
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Phil, I posted back in 2013 a procedure on how I changed the o-rings in the detergent dispenser of my KDS-58C. In fact, YOU replied to it and said, "I should do that on a friend's KDS 18 as one of the dispensers leaks a bit..." Is this the same friend?
Link is below, and includes the correct size o-rings that you need. CLICK HERE TO GO TO barcoboy's LINK |
Post# 1041950 , Reply# 17   8/17/2019 at 02:05 (1,685 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)   |   | |
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Post# 1042156 , Reply# 19   8/18/2019 at 22:55 (1,683 days old) by barcoboy (Canada)   |   | |
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Phil, yes and yes. I brought the old ones with me, and asked someone working in the department to match them. She showed me that on the back of all the boxes of different sizes, there is an actual scaled circle of the size o-ring contained in the box (I believe they come two per package if I remember), so it was easy to match them up. The size she ended up selecting for me was 1/4" inside diameter x 3.8" outside diameter x 1/16" thickness. I don't use my KDS-58C as often as I did before I got my KUDS23, but I still run it every now and then. The next time I do a load in the 58, I will take off the front panel to see if any drips have returned. At the same time, I need to check the rinse agent dispenser, as I've noticed the last few times I've run a cycle, there is no "clunk" at the beginning of the last rinse fill.
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