18 thoughts on “Dishwasher Emergency Today”

  1. Ouch. That is an excess of drama you most certainly do not need.

    That biteth stones. Honks Bobo. Egad.

    Opportunity to explore “high speed dishwashers”, which do not have the mondo estupido water limits of current dishwashers.

    Best I have got today. Sorry. Good luck with all that.

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    1. The problem wasn’t not having the dishwasher. i can wash dishes by hand and like Agatha Christie fine it great to plot while doing so. The problem was that it screamed for five hours until the plumber managed to disconnect it. LOUDLY. Imagine a sound between a banshee and grinding gears. While I was under the sink, next to it, trying to disconnect it. (The valve had mineralized open. So it needed to be cut out and a new one put in.) We still don’t know how it’s connected electrically. The guys who put in the new dishwasher will have to figure it out.

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      2. I’m lucky. There’s a dedicated circuit in the kitchen sub-panel for the dishwasher. The wood door that covers the sub-panel wears the small bulletin board, so it actually looks good.

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  2. Depending on the emergency, that’s either bad or horrible. Our first one took out the freshly redone floor in the kitchen, part of a wall and all the base cabinets on one side. (We redid the rest of the base cabinets because why not?) The cabinet guy said a lot of his business came from dishwasher leaks.

    (We caught the second one right away, with Murphy taking a break. The plumber was coming that day for an unrelated installation and had the right part with him.)

    The inexpensive leak alarm (see Home Depot or the ‘zon) has saved us from a third leak, though that was the cutoff valve. Protip: those valves leak if they’re not fully closed or fully open. Middle settings (done by accident, faucet spray hose knocked it out of the way) get leaky. Zipties fixed that one.

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    1. Better tip: replace those shutoff valves with 1/4 turn valves. The shaft isn’t immersed in water under pressure, therefore no need for packing which always leaks eventually. Tightening the packing nut only stops it temporarily. They even cost about the same.

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      1. I’ll look for 1/4 turn ball valves. I didn’t see any at Home Desperate, and the triage list says it has to wait for a round tuit. Zip ties to keep both cutoff valves from getting touched by the faucet’s hose, and a leak monitor if anything goes south. I got the PEX tools and clamps just in case.

        Have to check the plumbing suppliers. We have a decent retail one, and I should be able to get into Ferguson’s for the wholesale side. No sales tax, so unless they exclude retail by policy…

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        1. I got these at Home Despot:

          Brass Craft 1/4 Turn Angle Valve, 1/2″ FIP inlet, 7/16″ & 1/2″ slip joint outlet. Part number on the box is G23301X C1, UPC code is 0 26613 13572 4

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          1. Oh! Saw them, but wasn’t crazy about adding more adapters to the stream, nor the right angle. The current setup is 1/2″ PEX through the floor of the cabinet (true for all faucets in the house–characteristic of manufactured housing), so valve is crimp, then 1/2″ MIP, then a 1/2″ FIP to compression fitting. (The last one broke twice for our dishwasher. Didn’t catch it first time, causing major mold/floor/trashed cabinet problems. The second one was caught right away. The no-lead brass is way more fragile, though it looks like the plumber had a stainless replacement. He showed up that day for another job, perfect timing for once.

            Plumbing isn’t in my confort zone, though I did a bunch for a previous house; one nasty leak where the [redacted] no-lead* solder wasn’t cooperative, and had to rebuild the broken drain tree for the non-toilet drains in one bath. The old one had glued itself together, stronger than the fitting that broke.

            ((*)) F’n EU bureaucrats and their lead fixation for the loss.

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            1. There are also straight 1/4 turn valves with MIP or compression inlet and various outlets. I put 1/2″ male pipe fittings on all my water supply pipes so I only need to buy one kind of valves.

              You don’t want to use lead solder on water supply pipes. Lead leaches into the water and then you drink it, and cook with it. Lead also leaches out of the brass. Always run the faucet for a couple of seconds before filling your glass or pan.

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  3. Stove day after Thanksgiving. Water heater Last week. Microwave also last week. Need to replace the racks in the dishwasher but paying 2/3 the cost of a new one when it works just fine makes me give stink eyes. The budget is in tatters, shredded, mulched, dead, kaput for the year already.

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    2. This house has supposedly increased 70k in value. We’ve spent …. about that in 3 years. If/when we move (sigh. It doesn’t fit us at all. As in the spaces don’t work for us. It’s sometimes an issue when moving in haste. So far we’ve had two houses of six that fit us “out of the box.” and two that were almost impossible. This one and our first house in CO. And I can’t explain it. It’s just when we try living in it, we keep changing rooms we do things in, and nothing works.) we might rent it to younger kids for price of mortgage (low interest, so low payments, relatively.) BECAUSE they love it, and it might fit them well, and if we can figure out a lease-to-own it will give them a leg up.

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    4. I know the feeling. Kennel, barn chimney, trees with killer limbs, all from one storm. And the fancy propane “wood stove” that suffered a failed gas valve. A right pain when it was supposed to be the backup for a 7 hour power outage.

      Not sure which will be more expensive. Tree service got crazy last year, and demand will be high. Parts for the (all new because it needs it) chimney system are over $2000, and the dangerous portion has to be Other Peoples’ Bodies.

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      1. Hmm, Murphy is still at it. $SPOUSE went to make bread, and the 12+ year old range decided that the oven wasn’t going to get hotter than 135F or so. Burners working fine but the controller is verflucht. (The underdone oven fries should have been a tell, but Life has been far too interesting for us to note it. Sigh.)

        OTOH, this is the first service call for the Frigidaire-equipped kitchen, with appliances ranging from 2011 through 2016. (Microwave is a Panasonic, and works well. So far. [Crosses fingers])

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