I haven’t had it for more than five years (probably more like three or four). I am not in love with how well it cleans in general unless it’s verrrry carefully loaded, but normally as long as I’m careful there’s no problem, until yesterday. Now it doesn’t even touch the top racks.
It’s a Kitchenaid - I don’t see a model number that’s easily apparent.
Still can’t find a model number, but the manual says it’s for models KUDS02SR, KUDS02FR, KUSU02FR, and KUDU02VR.
The upper arm spins freely, by the way.
Can you put photos of your rack?
It depends - will you fix my dishwasher?
Dishwasher? What are you talking about?
Possible causes:
IANADWRM (dishwasher repair man)
Okay, a bunch of Googling has suggested it may be the chopper thing that chops food bits up before they get to the pump. Diagrams online aren’t terribly helpful, though - I’ve managed to get the bottom arm off, and the arm assembly, and the cover for all the stuff under there (don’t have a Torx driver, but a hex wrench did okay - hope I didn’t ruin anything) but now I can’t figure out from the diagrams what to do next. It kind of all seems like a sealed system.
Also, there is gross nasty stuff hidden under all these things. YEEECH. Should have called Larry, my plumber.
There must be a tube that feeds the upper arm. See if it’s still connected, and not blocked somehow.
I found a bunch of KUDS02SR** models online, and selected one. Do these look like yours?
On preview, have you ever cleaned the filter? Our needs to be taken out and rinsed off once in a while. (I don’t see one in that online manual, though.)
No, there’s not a filter you’re supposed to clean. The manual, interestingly, has no troubleshooting section.
I’ve got the whole tube assembly out (my kitchen looks like the dishwasher threw up all its guts) but I can’t figure out how to get down farther than the cover of all the understuff - there was the arm, and then the arm tube thing, and then a filtery thing, and then… I’m not sure where to go from here. There’s standing water in the lowest part, and some corn. (That’s the only recognizable food I’ve seen - the rest has been this ghastly pale odorless slime. Urrrrrgh.)
Yes, those look like my dishwasher.
ETA - and the tubes and arms don’t look clogged or anything.
AHA. Hidden tiny screw. I have found you, you little bastard!
Anyway, it was disappointing - it didn’t really look clogged, per se. Couple corn niblets. Rotten broccoli floret. There were two little pieces of plastic which I thought might be responsible, so I removed them, but they didn’t really look like they were blocking the intake. Might not have been the problem at all. I put it all back together and am trying a load now, but I’m not really super-optimistic.
On the other hand, I’ve learned a lot about the dishwasher - before today it was a magic box that I put dirty dishes in and took clean dishes out of. I didn’t even know how to take the top rack out!
Ya know, it’s exchanges like that that make my day.
Especially if you use your imagination to tack on …
Yeah, but then there’s ghastly slime.
Some things don’t fit the pattern and must be ignored.
My dishwasher has a telescopic tube that extends from the propeller thingy at the bottom and connects with a tube in the top rack. This is where the water comes from that sprays everything on top.
Occasionally, the telescopic tube gets stuck and won’t come out. It also gets stuck in a partially extended position sometimes making it impossible to open the bottom rack. You also have to make sure that there’s nothing on top of where the telescopic thing comes out.
Personally, I’ve found that 99% of what the dishwasher does is through the chemicals in the detergent. For years, I used cheap store-brand detergent and I was unhappy with the results I got out of my dishwasher, often having to hand wash things that had just come out of the dishwasher. Then one day, I got a coupon for Electrosol (which is called something else now I think) and tried it out and everything came out perfectly clean. Since then, I buy either Electrosol (or whatever it’s called now) or Cascade.
I also find that the powder works better than the little gel-bag things or the little tablets.
Electrosol = Finishin the US.
(What it is in Finland, I have no idea.)
Wait, we have Electrosol also.
However, a repairman once told me never to use it - Cascade powdered only. Ever since then I haven’t had a single problem (except, you know, today.)
I don’t know if it worked, but I do have a load of clean dishes from the top level!
If this DW is one with the adjustable height top rack, you should check the water delivery system at the back of the washer.
There is a tube running up the back of the DW. It sends water to the very top to wash the tops of the top rack, and a middle wand attached to the bottom of the top rack that fits into a valve. If the other valve is ‘open’, then the water may spray out to the front of the washer instead of being diverted to the appropriate wand.
I’m not sure what number 11 is. Basically if you aren’t getting the top washed but the bottom is, then the problem is somewhere along the path in the above diagram.
11 is the fancy-schmancy super pot washer.
Yours goes up to 11?
Hells yeah! It goes up to “only 11 items” and it goes up to “11 hours until we’re done washing the dishes” and it also goes up to “11 Torx screws”.
