A tale of three dishwashers....

[turquoisedude]

With the incredibly warm weather, you'd think I'd be thinking more about the recent LK models, but no... I had to start to make some serious progress on the three dishwashers that were already 'in the shop'. Two of the machines were projects that have been on the go for a long time. First up - the 1961 Whirpool Supreme top-loader... I got this machine back in summer of 2010 and I have been working on it on and off ever since. The good news about this machine was that the dishwasher was in great mechanical shape - the motor, pump, and timer were all in superb shape. Better still, the plastisol tub and racks were near-mint. But the darned thing leaked badly from the word go... I spent a lot of time (and made a whole bunch of restoration mistakes) trying to get the leaks stopped. In January, I had the machine in 'dry dock' to be able to work on it.

 

[toploader55]

Uh Oh...

I can see more "good news" coming within the next few minutes . LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

'If I had to do it over again'...
Well, in this case, I should have made more of an effort to tear apart the wash arm entry and drain chambers. I got lazy and did not feel like taking on another project like the 58 Frigidaire restoration - but I paid the price... Just using silicone on the pump and wash arm delivery piping was not enough. I just kept having to use more silicone and glue to stem the water flows... BUT I got everything sealed up after many, many tries!

 

[turquoisedude]

I also had issues with water input. When I tried testing the machine with a load of real dishes last year, I gave the Whirlpool a failing grade. The dishes had not been cleaned well at all - given the tests I had done with just a couple of buckets of water, I was kinda disappointed...
Well, it turned out that the dishwasher was not getting enough water when I used the regular hose and water inlet valve because the inlet valve kept clogging. It took me way too long to figure out why - the inlet hose was rotting and each time I tested the machine I was washing more gunk into the valve, worsening the clog. Once I changed the hose, water flow was good and strong once again.

 

[turquoisedude]

So finally, after two years, I was able to re-assemble the Whirlpool! I managed to ding the new turquoise paint job in a couple of places, alas, but it was nearly ready for the kitchen...

 

[turquoisedude]

The last 'big' job to do was to repair the faucet coupling. I had repaired it BEFORE realizing that I needed to replace the inlet hose. Fortunately I remembered what to do and was able to repair the coupling again. JB Weld - what would we do without you??

 

[turquoisedude]

Well, by Sunday night, the Whirlpool was back in the kitchen again! The KA Electra was shifted down to the basement and the WP was ready for a load of real dishes...

 

[toploader55]

JB !!!

It Should be FDA approved !!! LOL

Imagine the surgery it could eliminate.

 

[turquoisedude]

How'd it do?? AH, that will have to wait until next weekend... I didn't have time to run the darn thing tonight before we headed back to Montreal!

 

[toploader55]

So,,,

Which machine washed better ?

The Electra or Whirlpool ??? Just Curious ???

 

[turquoisedude]

Project 2

Remember that 1957 Whirlpool (D&M Made) dishwasher that I picked up last summer?? Well, it's been in the basement for some time now and it was time to get moving on it again...
The tub had some issues - there was serious rust around the motor mounts and the heater openings. It took some creative solutions to repair the corrosion - I remembered how my father used that fibreglass fabric and resin stuff to repair cars and boats and added some JB Weld to the equation. I think this is going to work!

 

[turquoisedude]

Inside the tub had been pretty rusty - I actually used fine sandpaper to clean it up a wee bit!

 

[turquoisedude]

Uh-oh! This looks like potential trouble.... The tub lip was damaged when the former owner of the machine removed it from it's original location...

 

[turquoisedude]

But a bit of JB Weld and some 'gentle persuasion' with pliers paid off...

 

[turquoisedude]

BUT there's still 'some assembly required'... It may be a few more weeks before I get to the 'maiden wash' stage here!

 

[turquoisedude]

Last but not least... I finally got some water into the 1959 GE Princess dishwasher! This was my second vintage dishwasher acquistion but it has taken me 5 years to get it operational again... This is the first time I actually put water into it... I was slightly worried...

 

[turquoisedude]

Look Ma! No leaks!

 

[turquoisedude]

I am missing the original lid to this machine, so I borrowed an idea from Mike (dishwashercrazy) to just have a plexiglass one. Here's hubby helping me build one...

 

[turquoisedude]

And much to my delight, the machine worked just fine!