Frigidaire Dishwasher OrbitClean Spray Arm Issue

[johnb300m]

Oh my, I don't know why they keep making that silly OrbitClean arm.
Electrolux is frustrating.
I have their washer/dryer left over from previous homeowners, and they're actually amazing machines.
A friend of mine swears by her Elux washer/dryer set.
The microwave over the range I got a couple years ago is a Frigidaire and it was the best looking unit at the store for the price, had 400cfm hood velocity, highest for OTR at the time, and the only one that had two LED lights. Even the luxo-KitchenAid OTR micro had a dinky single incandescent light.
I've had a couple basic Frigidaire dishwashers in apartments. All performed really well, ..... except around the time the detergents were reformulating phosphates out. That REALLY did in Frigidaire dishwashers I think harder than other makes.
But even now, if you need a budget dishwasher, you can bypass the silly orbit arm and the lower end Frigidaire dishwashers are pretty nice, and even have turbidity soil sensing now.
They seem to have good reviews online, and if not abused, could probably go a good 8-10yrs.
I'd certainly get a budet Frigidaire dw at this point, over a budget Hotpoint/Haier dw.
The swap to the standard Frigidaire wash arm is absolutely the right thing to keep that machine going for a while longer.

Finish CycleSynch is a marketing scam, like others have said.
If you look at the ingredients, they're hardly any different than the other Finish products. It's the same PVA wrapper. Their "claim" for cycle synch is the enzymes get to work while the main wash heats up to temp. Where once it's hot, the enzymes die and the regular soap does the rest.
That's it, and that's literally what every other enzyme detergent does on the market.
With that said, Finish detergents in general, for the time-being, I think are better than Cascade, for the water in my region. And they don't foam nearly as much as Cascade.
I think Cascade Platinum is still the better choice, however, if you have heavily hard water, like over 12+ grains, it does a good job still.

 

[niclonnic]

A closer look...

So today, I informed my dad about this issue, and I removed the spray arm so we could take a closer look at it. He found out about two things. First, the metal on the bottom of the OrbitClean end had split apart, so it's grinding against the plastic on the arm.

Second, the blue plastic has partially melted. With these two issues figured out, he deduced that the spray arm is not actually spraying out of the tips, and is instead spewing water in no particular direction, like a hose that hasn't been fully attached to a sprinkler. This is what actually contributed to the arm either turning slowly or getting stuck in one spot.

When I suggested we replace the OrbitClean arm with the traditional one, my dad rejected that idea, asking "Why change the racecar's formula?" (Apparently, this is an idiom meaning to make a substantial change to something.) So he himself ordered a new OrbitClean arm from Amazon; it'll be here in a couple days.

Who knew that a split OrbitClean end resulted in such poor washing performance? It pays to take a closer look at some things. But that's OK, we have no clue just how long the spray arm has been doing this for. Once the traditional arm arrives, I might just send it back.

 

[kalanikaau1]

Reply# 5

Concur regarding Frigidaire appliances.

I once owned (3) all fridge Kenmore refrigerators manufactured by Frigidaire, the reason why there were 3 of them is that the original unit was replaced by Sears under the extended warranty, which I wisely purchased upon buying it.

All 3 suffered some sort of sealed refrigeration system failure within a years time, enough for me to swear off any Electrolux product thereafter.

The 4th replacement unit was a reliable Whirlpool conventional top-mount fridge, I had told Sears that I did not want another Frigidaire at all.

I recently purchased a new GE french door fridge, a Frigidaire was completely out of the question, besides they don't produce a model I was looking for in an all white finish.

The Whirlpool is now 20 years old and hasn't failed me yet.

 

[michaelz08]

And they’re barely improved since then.

kalanikaau1- you’re right on the money. My Frigidaire fridge made it barely 4 years before it broke in such a way that the labor to repair it exceeded its value. And beyond that it was not well constructed, the cavity was slightly too wide for the shelves and they were millimeters from falling down.

I’ve replaced all the Frigidaire appliances that came with the place. While the rest didnt fail, they were at best simply cheaply built and at worst remarkably annoying and unpleasant to use.

 

[askolover]

I have two Frigidaire appliances...my gas stove and my dryer I bought for $20 and repaired for $20. I got it because it has front controls and I wanted to put it on a pedestal next to the Miele washer. It works fine enough but it just tumbles too fast causing clothing to stick to the drum instead of dropping through the heat stream. The sensor isn't all that great either. I always have to turn it back on for 15 extra minutes. But it still works since my repair. My GE never had any trouble drying anything even on low heat set for sensor dry...everything was dry when it stopped. It's now the backup dryer in the outbuilding.

 

[niclonnic]

New Arm

As promised, the replacement spray arm arrived late this afternoon, and I wasted no time installing it (after unloading the clean dishes, of course). This is a generic arm that came from Amazon (no reviews so far), arriving in a plain brown box. It was a bit tricky to install (the white piece that goes onto the dishwasher is a little more loose than the old one), but now the arm is in place, nice and snug.

I tested the arm by running the dishwasher, empty, on "rinse only." Right off the bat, I could tell a difference in the noise; there is a much more prominent "swishing" sound, a product of the OrbitClean end spinning.

I'm glad to have this spray arm issue taken care of (so far, not sure how long this generic part will last). I'll give the DW a workout just by loading dirty dishes without pre-rinsing them first. Off to wash!

https://a.co/d/hliAyND

 

[johnb300m]

Heh, forgive me for chuckling about this but your dad who insisted it must be the same design, is ok with a generic, non-oem part?
Ok…..
Who knows! The quality on the oem orbit arms is so spotty, this generic might outlast the old one!

 

[combo52]

Frigidaire dishwasher orbit, clean, lower wash arm

Hopefully the generic arm will work, we're going to continue to fix these by putting in the simple basic Frigidaire arm.

Generic parts are destroying a lot of appliances. People are replacing original parts with these inferior parts and then the machine breaks again and they're throwing away the machine. It's even worse when they've paid big money to have somebody install a new heating element in a dryer for instance only to have it stopped heating again within a year. And then the entire Appliance is scrapped.

At least with the lower wash arm if it fails, you can just replace it with the real one, and I have seen some generic parts that actually work for a while so good luck keep us posted.

John

 

[gelaundry4ever]

frigidaire dishwasher

I'd stay away from Frigidaire dishwashers. Mine lasted a year before it stopped doing anything. The only thing it did was turn on its lights when pressing the buttons acting like it would do something.

 

[niclonnic]

Update...

Here's my status report on the generic spray arm.

Initially, on the first few washes, the arm did very well, getting the dishes cleaner than ever before. But unfortunately, things quickly took a turn for the worse.

The last few nights, the dishwasher had gotten a bit louder than before. I quickly realized that both the bottom white piece and gray tube, which twist and lock onto the lower post of the DW, are not very snug, so these pieces gradually twist into the unlocked position during a cycle. This makes the arm very wobbly during operation. I even tried using a drill to sand down the plastic on the locking piece, but that didn't do very much.

Just last night, I started the DW like usual and went upstairs. When I came back down about an hour later to check on it, my socks got wet. The DW was leaking like a sieve, all over the floor. I had to soak up all that water with a couple of bath towels. I then opened the DW, repositioned the spray arm and closed the door. The leaking mostly stopped, but the wash water got all sudsy. So I stopped the cycle during the final rinse and restarted on a normal cycle without detergent.

After soaking up all that water, the kitchen floor had warped in a few spots. Laminate floors and water are a dangerous combination.

Soon, I discovered that this new arm was showing the exact same symptoms that the original one did (staying in one place mid-cycle). Combined with the lower pieces coming loose, the arm would rest on the heating element, further exacerbating the problem.

Today, I removed the generic arm and took a closer look at it. The plastic had gotten a bit melted and even split open. And the OrbitClean end had gotten seized up, not to mention the metal piece started to split apart. Not even a whole week later, this generic arm is already having issues. No big surprise here.

Fortunately, I hung onto the original spray arm and its two other parts. After explaining the issue to my dad, he suggested that I pull a switcheroo, by taking the OrbitClean end off of the generic arm and putting it onto the OEM arm (in lieu of the old, split and melted end) to see if it works better. If not, we might just have to return the generic arm. I'm hoping that the basic Frigidaire arm will arrive tomorrow, like Amazon promised. I just want a good, reliable dishwasher with a functional lower spray arm.

 

[combo52]

Sorry to hear about your damaged floor

Luckily, it didn't result in a fire,

As an appliance professional tech I would recommend never using imitation parts unless you can't get anything else for your particular Appliance.

Amazon is not a good place to buy appliance parts. They're usually imitations

John L

 

[niclonnic]

John L

Fortunately, since I caught the dishwasher leaking at just the right time, the floor damage is VERY minor. Normally, I can't even see the warped spots unless I'm looking for them. If all that water sat on the floor overnight, well....

Anyway, since I did the switcheroo, the DW has been working great. However, it's too bad you can't buy the blue, spinning piece by itself anywhere. An OEM OrbitClean spray arm costs around $50, even on Amazon. And this is just for the arm itself. The arm support and drain filter are separate parts.

https://a.co/d/5FwXSpd

 

[niclonnic]

Basic Frigidaire Arm

Well, 16 long days later, the basic spray arm arrived from Amazon. It was literally shipped in a plastic Electrolux bag, with a USPS label slapped on. The arm was delivered in a parcel locker.

This basic arm is colored blue, instead of silver/white like in the product photo. But the thing is, the DW has still been working great ever since the switcheroo took place. I noticed that some dishes that were run through last night (on "Power Plus") still had one or two stuck-on food stains, but they came out significantly cleaner than they did with the original OrbitClean piece.

Now, the question is, should I return the basic arm, or hold onto it in case the generic OrbitClean piece fails?

 

[DADoES]

 
Interesting that an OEM OrbitClean is $6 less at a parts source I often use, although no free shipping.

 

[combo52]

Frigidaire dishwasher lower wash arm

They have substituted the dark blue arm, I would just keep that one if it works well enough hopefully you'll get some more years out of the dishwasher. The main motor is the other weak point in these dishwashers. We've changed them pretty frequently although most people just opt for a different dishwasher because it's fairly expensive repair.

John L

 

[niclonnic]

Update - OEM Lower Spray Arm Ordered

I decided to come back to this thread with a status update. Even with the Frankenstein lower spray arm (OEM gray piece paired with a generic orbital blue part), our dishwasher has still been going strong after 5 months of near-nightly usage. However, these days, when I go to unload the dishes, I notice that the arm is almost always pointing east, regardless of whichever cycle I use. I'm not sure exactly what's causing this to happen. The other day, I spun the orbital piece by hand to try and correct this, but it didn't even last a day.

So, the other day, I clicked the Amazon link to the OEM spray arm, and found that it was 53% off for the low, low price of $26! That was a steal, so I went ahead and ordered it. It arrived today via FedEx in a large, but VERY well-protected box. This arm was the genuine article, arriving in an Electrolux bag.

Once I installed this new arm, the first thing I noticed was how much more stable it was compared to the last one. My original theory was correct; these OrbitClean arms do indeed become imbalanced over time, leading to inadequate cleaning. The old arm became very wobbly, even with the generic orbital piece installed. Looks like I've got this whole "pointing east after a cycle" issue sorted out.

Just like with the generic arm, I ran the DW on "rinse only" to test out the new OEM arm. I could hear a significantly more pronounced "swishing" noise compared to the generic arm. I'm satisifed thus far, so I'm going to run the DW like normal and give a status update later on.

On a side note, I checked Amazon today, and the price of the OEM arm jumped to $46. As a result, I am SO GLAD to have purchased this at such a steep discount.