Ok, my older model GE dishwasher is having trouble. When I try and start it there is a hum like it is trying to start for a minute or 2 then it stops. No water comes out at this point. If I wait 10 minutes or so the hum will be back again for a few minutes. Now if I turn the dial about halfway through the cycle while it is humming the basin will fill up with water but that’s as far as the cycle will go.
The strange part is this doesn’t happen every time. Sometime if I come back and try a few hours or a few days later the dishwasher will start like normal and may run good for several months without any issues. Then 1 day it just stops again.
Hopefully someone can save the day so I don’t have to start washing dishes by hand:)
Sounds like the motor for the dial is broken. Based on nothing other than what you’re saying, that’s where I’d start.
Two things just to get started…
1)Where is the hum coming from? Is it coming from the dial? Is it coming from under the dishwasher? If it’s coming from under the dishwasher, pull off the bottom panel and see if you can figure out where it’s coming from, I have a guess (the water valve, but that doesn’t feel quite right, I still like the dial).
2)Next time it doesn’t hums when you first start it, nudge the dial forward justalittlebit. Seriously, like 1 ‘click’, and see if that gets things moving.
If you’re handy, you can replace it on your own in a half hour or so.
Bad timer. You say “dial” so I assume it’s old enough to have a mechanical timer, like a washing machine. Take the model number and serial number to an appliance parts store (or website) and price the timer. It’s fairly easy to change out as long as you swap one wire at a time.
They can be very expensive, though - $100 or more. Have to make a judgment about the net worth of the repair.
The hum at the beginning is the initial drain - DWs try to exhaust as much old rinse water that might have dripped after the end of the last cycle before starting a new one. It can be a considerable amount, several cups, and the next cycle will run cleaner if that’s dumped first. But then the timer either doesn’t move to the next step, or does so whenever it feels like it.
The hum is from underneath. I checked the dial by going one click at a time and I could hear it going to the next cycle steps, like the soap dispenser opening and other louder clunks.
Okay, then it’s likely the water valve.
Typically the water valve opens and a float tells it when to shut off, but if it never fills, you’re just hearing the solenoid trying to open.
You don’t have to check it for voltage because you can hear it buzzing. Actually, I take that back, check it for voltage (or physically feel it for vibration), if it’s calling for water and none is coming in (and the water is turned on, double check if you don’t live alone*), that’s the part that needs to be replaced, or at least pulled apart and checked for debris.
*Or even if you do live alone and you’ve been, say, using the sink sprayer a lot and it’s hose hangs low enough to snag on the valve under the sink.
Thanks Joey and Amateur,
I will check the water valve and solenoid. Here is some more information.
I let it run thru its whole cycle. When the cycle completed I opened the door and there was 3-4 inches of water in the bottom and the water/inside is hot. Now I never heard the water run at any point so whenever it did run it wasn’t like it does during a normal wash/rinse cycle.
The hum would always be from underneath, loosely speaking, because all of the machinery in a dishwasher is in the bottom - main pump, water valve, sometimes an auxiliary pump, etc.
Trying to step a timer through the cycle (on a dishwasher or washing machine) won’t always produce a normal result, because there are long wait cycles in between some steps. For instance, you might have noticed that the DW, after 20-30 minutes of a quiet dry cycle, will suddenly hum for a minute or two. It’s doing one final drain purge to empty the last of the water from dripping, drying dishes. It can be hard to force that event if the timer has to sit at that tick for say, a minute or five minutes to trigger the event.
As it sounds like the water solenoid valve and the main pump are working, I’m back to suggesting it’s a bad timer. That matches all the symptoms you’ve reported.
Check out the price of a replacement and you’ll know what to do next.
Obviously it did or there wouldn’t be water in it. If you normally hear it and you were around to hear it and the valve is struggling, it may have only opened part way and which allowed the water to fill slower and quieter.
As for why it didn’t drain, is that new?
Ya know, I hate to go on with the water valve idea idea if these are related (in which case it’s something else). OTOH, if the buzzing was the water valve, then that’s a really strange coincidence. Maybe just check the filter and we’ll get lucky. It would be really strange if the drain valve AND the fill valve both went at the same time.
OTOH, this could point back to the timer. It’s time to get out the meter and make sure the fill valve is getting 120v (+/- 5v or so) when it’s calling for water. If it’s getting something wonky like 45, my money is back on your timer causing both the fill valve problems* AND the drain problems.
OTOOH, maybe you don’t have fill valve problems. Maybe that was the drain valve that AB was talking about at earlier. That might make sense.
At this point you really gotta pull off the bottom panel and figure out what’s buzzing. Get out a flashlight and look for exposed wiring though. The fill valve should be near the front, make sure the terminals are covered. The only thing that may have exposed wiring, in theory, is the place where the homeowner connects the power to, it would be right at the front.
The fill valve will have a copper line going to it, it’ll be right at the front. The drain valve will have a big, usually corrugated white tube coming off it. Stay nearby during a cycle, figure out which one is buzzing. We can go from there, if you have a meter, I’d get terminals exposed so you you can be ready to hook it up to the buzzing one to see what kind of voltage you’re getting.
Just to be clear, at this point we really have to know if the dishwasher has problems filling and draining or just one or the other. I have a feeling that you’re not sure anymore either.
That’s REALLY going to narrow things down. If it’s both, it’s almost for sure the timer, barring broken/burned/shorted wiring.
If it’s only one (fill/drain) we still have some testing.
In the mean time, check the drain filter. Just for kicks.
Also, the cost of the first GE timer I could find at RepairClinic was $55, that’s way cheaper than even a cheap dishwasher.
Inlet valve is about $30, not too bad.
Drain pump, $50-$100. If yours is $100, that’s (for me) when I’d look at replacing the unit. If it’s $100 on a dishwasher old enough to have a dial, you’re probably at the point where you’re going to be replacing one thing after another. Also, the drain pump is a lot more work than and inlet valve and a timer is, like, 20 minutes of work and you don’t have to spend the next week wondering if it’s going to leak.
Well after looking at it further and still having issues I have decided just to replace it. Its old anyway plus my stove died last month as well so maybe I can get a multy-purchase discount
