# Dishwasher Help

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dishwasher-help/450020>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 20, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dishwasher-help/450020 "2008-05-20T21:00:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dishwasher-help/450020/1 "2008-05-20T21:00:13Z")

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I have a 2 year old Whirlpool. The water _seems_ to be getting up to the upper blades and I hear the pump and the lower blades work fine. The problem is that the upper blades won’t rotate. They are not getting stuch so what could the problem/fix be?

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**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dishwasher-help/450020/2 "2008-05-21T02:03:15Z")

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They usually rotate by virtue of having water pumped along the arms and squirted out of holes in those arms at an angle. If one or more of those holes are blocked, they will often not spin. Usually the arm can just be pulled off so you can check it, otherwise you’ll have to stick your head in there and poke something like a toothpick into the holes.