Is my dishwasher on its last legs?

January 3, 2009 6:38 PM

Is my dishwasher's motor toast?

My dishwasher makes a terrible intermittent noise through all cycles of the wash that varies in length and intensity. It seems to be coming from the lower-left part of the dishwasher (underneath the dish compartment) and only stops when it has completed all cycles (except drying, which I don't use). It's an older "Hotpoint" dishwasher with no model number written on the front. There doesn't appear to be anything stuck in there. It's been doing this for almost 3 months now and it's SO LOUD.

MOV of sound, ~3.1 MB. Sorry about sendspace.

Is the motor cooked? If so, why has it not gotten any worse over the past three months? If not, what is it?! I live in an apartment and sometimes maintenance is pretty slow so I'd like to fix this myself if possible.

posted by proj to Home & Garden (2 answers total)

Best answer: 99% you've got something hard (usually a pea sized chunk of glass or ceramic; did you break a glass or plate around the time of the noise starting?) caught up in the food grinder or your impeller seals are going. The former usually isn't really a problem except for the noise. The latter will eventually cause a leak that will eventually destroy your motor.

The former can be handled by taking apart the jig saw puzzle that is your pump-impeller assembly until you find the object. The latter is the same except you need to replace the seals once you get it all apart. Neither is particularly hard and it won't require special tools not found in a well stocked mechanics toolbox. However a degree of black art rubber chicken waving can be required. Especially if you have one of the models that feature stainless bolts threaded into regular steel holes. It's pretty easy to twist them off.

I'd let my landlord handle it.
posted by Mitheral at 7:21 PM on January 3, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks!
posted by proj at 9:16 PM on January 3, 2009