Q for Dishwasher Mechanic...

[sleddriver]

Went to wash a load of dishes recently and upon turning on the power, all I heard was a seized motor! Brrrrrrrr......so I quickly shut it off. Never heard this in the 26 yrs I've owned this Maytag Jetclean DWU6502AAE.

Dirty dishes in racks went on the porch and I began to disassemble the innards. Found a small piece of rubber band inside the pump impeller and that was it. I don't understand HOW it got through the tiny filter screen. Another mystery is how garlic skins are able to get into the water stream and clog up the jets in the spray arms...both upper & lower. How does that happen?

I cleaned out the spray arm clogs, the motor was fine, no leaks underneath. Still not sure what would cause it to stall like that. Any ideas?

Something is still odd though as the two loads I've washed since the repair have had a few dirty dishes remain. Never used to see that.

I had some left over acoustical damping pad from another project, so I used it on the inner door surface. Now I can barely hear the water swishing around inside.

Any old-school Maytag guys here?

 

[NibbanaBanana]

I just replaced the pump assembly in my Kenmore (rebranded Whirlpool) last winter. Exactly the same problem, the dishes weren't getting clean. I had the same thing happen in another dishwasher years ago. The pump seals start a small leak that runs or drips onto the pump motor bearing and they start to corrode. The motor starts to not turn so well, so the dishes don't get clean. Eventually it seizes up completely. I think they are thermally protected motors so they don't catch on fire. But they start to seize up intermittently and you never know it.

I got a new OEM pump motor assembly on ebay for $88.

 

[Doog]

You need a new motor & pump assembly....they lose PSI over time. The symptom is dirty dishes remaining. But I would invest the $240 in a new Dw if your is over 20 years old.

 

[SatinSilver]

Originally Posted By: Doog
But I would invest the $240 in a new Dw if your is over 20 years old.


Where and what brand dw do you get for $240? My parents need one and the ones I saw where much more than that. They just need a basic but good quality one.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Originally Posted By: Doog
But I would invest the $240 in a new Dw if your is over 20 years old.


Where and what brand dw do you get for $240? My parents need one and the ones I saw where much more than that. They just need a basic but good quality one.


I said I would invest the $240 in a new DW....I didn't say it would cost $240. But the motor and pump will. But you can get a basic DW on sale for $299> if you shop around. I usually look at Lowes or Best Buy. In most Lowes stores they will sell the display dishwashers for under $200. I got a $800 Whirlpool for my vacation home from a Lowes store for $150 because it was missing parts. Took it home and called Whirlpool customer service and told them my new dishwasher was missing parts and they shipped them to me for free. It took me 2 weeks to do it. But it can be done.

here is one for $299

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/whirlpool-24...p;skuId=8561015

here is one for $279

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/frigidaire-2...p;skuId=5439409

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Went to wash a load of dishes recently and upon turning on the power, all I heard was a seized motor! Brrrrrrrr......so I quickly shut it off. Never heard this in the 26 yrs I've owned this Maytag Jetclean DWU6502AAE.

Dirty dishes in racks went on the porch and I began to disassemble the innards. Found a small piece of rubber band inside the pump impeller and that was it. I don't understand HOW it got through the tiny filter screen. Another mystery is how garlic skins are able to get into the water stream and clog up the jets in the spray arms...both upper & lower. How does that happen?

I cleaned out the spray arm clogs, the motor was fine, no leaks underneath. Still not sure what would cause it to stall like that. Any ideas?

Something is still odd though as the two loads I've washed since the repair have had a few dirty dishes remain. Never used to see that.

I had some left over acoustical damping pad from another project, so I used it on the inner door surface. Now I can barely hear the water swishing around inside.

Any old-school Maytag guys here?


I still have one pre-Whirlpool buyout Maytag, slightly newer than that, in a rental property. I'd say its maybe 20-22 years old, not 26. In its case, its a grinder-type, not a filter type. I'd never encountered filter-only dishwashers until the last 10 years or so, but maybe they were out there and I was just buying lower-end noisier machines back then. The grinder type are just that- they have a mini hard-food disposer built into the pump and they dice it up in bits rather than filter it out. On the drain cycle, the powdered food residue goes down the drain. Zero maintenance(*) but noisier and they use more water since the food residue gets flushed out over in a couple of sequential rinse stages.In the wash stage, the food bits are being sprayed over the dishes and gradually collected down in the sump to be pumped out, so the wash cycle water isn't as clean as it is on a filter-type DW.

(*) Zero maintenance EXCEPT that things like onion and garlic skins can go through the chopper without getting chopped, and may get stuck in the spray-arm holes.

 

[sleddriver]

Interesting...this one has both a grinder & screen. The motor also has separate windings for both drain & wash, according to the schematic. I've searched for a service manual, but so far, no joy. I do have the original documention and haven't called Maytag yet. The filter screen is plastic. I noticed the newer models are made of SS.

This one is old-school, made in the USA, no techno-anything. Just a timer-driven, analog state-machine. So is my Whirlpool clothes washer of the same era.

What's puzzling to me is that I don't understand how garlic skins could get through the screen unless there was a hole in it? No ruptures.

I also don't understand how an even larger piece of rubber band could lodge itself in the impeller...or even get there? Something's gone wobbly....

The motor is quite impressive, lots of shiny copper and it turns freely. Don't understand the stall noise at all.

Lots of puzzling questions.....

 

[sleddriver]

Found this diagram:


I found the piece of rubber band sticking out of the pump impeller, #13, which is inside the screen #6. Can't figure how it got in there.

 

[sleddriver]

After looking over this diagram and partially disassembling the lower spray arm, parts #4 & 7 I realized I made a mistake when putting it all back together. The two thin "seals" (hard plastic rings of sorts) were misplaced, allowing water to shoot out of the top of part #4, rather than be directed to the lower spray arm.

With that fixed, I added more dirty dishes + the last load which wasn't that clean and let her rip. Excellent results this time.

As the owners manual didn't have this diagram, I printed out a copy and attached it.

Onto other household chores......

 

[sleddriver]

UPDATE: Discovered the lower spray arm is not moving. I'd let it run for ~ 15s, then stop & inspect. Upper spray arm does rotate. I'm guessing either a sealing plastic ring (#3) or rubber o-ring (not listed above) is no longer sealing, lowering water psi. It doesn't sound quite right either. A bit noisier than I remember.

I'm surprised there's no old appliance mechanics on BITOG! We're a very diverse group!

 

[sleddriver]

Nevermind...the lower spray arm was making a grinding noise when turned by hand. Odd that...very odd. So I disassembled it and found a SS screw laying inside the filter (#6). Must have over-tightened it last time as it wouldn't grab any threads this time. Rats.....part #7 snagged on it and jammed and since 7 is responsible for turning the lower spray arm, it wouldn't rotate.

I'll have to strip it to the sump bottom, fix the threads and reassemble.

Sure is nice to be working indoors, in the A/C, in low humidity and with NO #$%! mosquitos. Geesh they're bad since all the rain. Currently it's 87°F, dew point is 80°, Rh is 79% and the heat index is 102°F....at 8:15pm!

 

[sleddriver]

Another Update:

Looking back over this thread, I've been dealing with this since July 13! Geeze Louise...

It was making odd noises occasionally, lower & upper spray arms would stall, so some dishes weren't getting cleaned at all. Very aggravating. I was still devoting all of my spare time to sled work, so the DW took a back seat for awhile.

The other night I pulled it apart and discovered another rubber band up inside the pump impeller...WTH? Then I remembered I sub'd it for the square rubber sealing ring so I could take the later to a HW store and find a suitable replacement. It's 0.055" sqr and about 4.53" dia.

I'm rather amazed the RB could be sucked out of the groove, past the male part fitting into the ring groove, then sucked up inside the impeller. Doing so killed the impeller efficiency, lowered pump pressure, resulting in the LSA not rotating at all, and the food filter sweep arm also not turning.

I spent a few hours cycling it, quickly opening the door to see if the SA's spun, removed all racks, to better see if any water was flowing out of the arms. Then discovering that plenty was, however, the LSA still wouldn't spin. All SA water ports were open. I removed the USA, let the machine run and heard plenty of water from it hitting the inside of the door. This also "flushed" out the pipe of any debris.

Found out that part #7 was rubbing on both parts #4 & #10. Enough to prevent the LSA from gently gliding to a smooth stop, instead of an abrupt one. I marked it then sanded and smooth some rough casting seams, which seemed to help, but it rubbed too much. When part #4 was bolted back in place, it rubbed even more.

Went after it again this afternoon. I needed to fix the broken-off bolt thread mount molded into the plastic sump/motor combination. Initially I thought of epoxy/JB Weld/Bondo/3M plastic adhesive, etc. but then thought I could use a SS machine screw. The tricky part would be holding the bolt end with pliers while tightening the nut as I'm not able to assemble this section BEFORE installing it. Hard to explain.

I also discovered a great, inexpensive, available replacement for the 21yr old "square-ring" was Teflon rope/packing of appropriate diameter! Works much better than a rubber band!

The repair worked as planned this time. Part #10 had a new seal to its mate and 3 SS screws holding it firmly together. The filter washer/LSA assembly now spun freely by hand with no rubbing! The third screw/bolt combination held the cover on square instead of tilted a bit. Finally, finally.....

I ran a "light" wash cycle, immediately noticed the lower motor pitch, and the periodic WHOOSH....WHOOSH.....WHOOSH of water jets hitting the back of the door! When opened, the LSA was still rotating even with the tub filled with water. Loaded some dirty dishes, a bit of detergent and let her rip. All food was blasted off, and glass shiny clean.

21yr old made-in-USA Maytag Jet-Clean fixed with $6 in parts!

BTW, I learned that citric acid is a major ingredient in DW cleaner. I'd bought some to use in a home-made drink mix. Found it locally for about $5/#. In bulk, I'm sure it's even less.

For awhile, I thought I would have to drag the thing onto the back porch, bypass the door lock, fill the tub with a garden hose and let her go to actually see what was going on internally! A scuba mask + swim suit would be appropriate attire. The neighbors would have loved that......

 

[andyd]

Sled driver, I admire your tenacity. Thankfully, MDW, bought an insurance policy for the new Whirlpool. The mother board had a leaky capacitor and it fried. I was only pearl diving for a week. If I had my druthers, I would only buy non- electronic appliances.

 

[sleddriver]

Thanks! I got a burr in my saddle with that thing and I don't give up. Not actually being able to see what's going on "behind (the) closed door" is like playing Peek-a-boo with a problem: You can't look at it! Not to mention having to re-wash dishes.....