GE Mobile Maid SM501E1

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Interesting!

Hi Tom,

Well, that could explain it. Here's what it seems to do:

- Start - motor runs like you'd expect.
- Fill - short increment; not a full charge. Circulates briefly with barely enough to really do anything but cavitate.
- Stops. The sound of crickets chirping fills the air.
- Sits like a brick until the motor comes back to life to drain.
- Motor continues running. Fills; motor stops. Again, comes back to life to drain.
- Fills; more like a full charge. The motor never starts; then, really brief (but meaningful this time) circulation.

- Again, drains.
- The rest of the cycle resumes like you'd expect; the motor then remains on until the dry.

I guess I'm just used to the later turbine-pump machines, which, like a KitchenAid, never stop the motor until the cycle completes.  Never take anything for granted, I suppose!

It seems odd to dedicate so many water changes to line purges and futzing (harkening to mind the fabulous static overflow-rinse on the Kelvinators), but I guess it makes sense if the goal is to warm the tank and the line. It doesn't circulate but those thirty seconds you described with a full fill, which seems just enough to scatter debris, rather than accomplish much in the way of a prewash. The main wash afterward seems to consist of two long periods of circulation, the second triggering the covered detergent cup.

It may indeed be Functioning As Designed<sup>TM</sup>--the schematic sheet is tucked away in the front, so I'll have a look and see if a cycle sequence is outlined there.

 

Thank you again--functional is always good news! 

 

Nate
 
Nate,

I had the MM that Paul has now. Yes, very strange 1/2 fills, slosh, drain pause, does it's nails etc. Then on with the Main Event.

And lets not forget the infamous as you named it "P-7" Dry.

I really think you need to wire in the Cycle Selector you designed for the PotScrubber Series.

I think your New Lisa Douglas Model has almost the same Cycle Sequence.

These Mobile Maids really clean although they can use the town's supply of water for the day.

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TOL Mobile-Maid TL GE DW

Cool Find Nate, we have almost the exact machine about one year newer, I have always been meaning to getting around to playing with it.

 

GE DW Timers on the early models with the shaded pole motors were know for losing more and more of the motor running time often to the point of where the motor would barely run at all. Back in the days when there were a lot of these DWs around we must have changed a few hundred of these timers. I never tried to fix the timer but I think you could probably do so by filing and slightly bending the contacts for the motor operation. While you are correct that the cam is slightly worn or off center I think that the problem can be corrected by adjusting the contact pressure.

 

Yes I love your comments about the WONDERFUL Silver-Shower, this was truly one of the many silly gimmicks to make people think that this DW would outperform other models.

 

I never could figure out why GE put all the holes in one side of the lower wash arm, this was another crazy idea that was tried about once in the history of DW design. As the wash-arm revolved and a wall of water hit stuff it would toss items out of the rack, diffidently no place for wine glasses.

 

We had a family friend that had a basic built-in GE DW with this wash arm and seh said that it would throw silver-ware out of the SS basket.
 
Nice machine - love the green color and the fat-finger buttons.  You are very right about the GE upper racks, they were about the best designed with the KitchenAid running a close second.

 

I stripped one of these last summer, same features but a year or two older, it had the small oval buttons.  I should have replaced the turbine pump with a new style pump/motor to quiet it down a lot but then I'd have still been left with it's other faults.

 

I played with the silver shower sprayer for a while and no matter the water pressure I put to it, couldn't get it to turn on it's own.  I decided this was it's best use:

 

 
So, does the Mini-Wash option just run the Silver Shower?  (ducks and runs....)

 

Seriously Nate, that is one cool Mobile Maid.  Love the 2-speed system; this must have been one of the last to feature the much-loved Silver Shower wash arm.   Great find!!
 
Part # on timer

In the rare event that eBay coughs up a TOL timer hairball, does anyone have the part number on this timer?  I'd love a spare, just in case my dinking-around endeavors result in more pudding than productivity.
 
Thanks, John!!  LOL, yes, this machine is a marvel of misguided engineering, but I can't argue with the results.  Last night included a monstrously dirty load with rice and pasta, and the GE nibbled it into bits and sent it down the drain.  It also sent a piece of very clean pasta up into a coffee mug, and from the results of yet another mug with hot cocoa residue, I can tell that the corners are a tough go for this unit.  No need to do the full peanut-butter monty in tall tumbers on this machine.  ;-)

 

I need to go foraging in the shed to see if I have an open-sided basket--last night's peanut-butter spoon test passed with flying colors, but there was one compartment that seemed a little underloved.

 

I'll take the timer out Sunday and sit down and have a look at it.  That's great to hear that this was a thing with these machines, and I'm also glad to hear that it's more contacts, less cams.  It'll be interesting to explore what's happening.

 

So far, silverware has stayed put (it's pretty heavy-gauge stuff that we have), but you can--as Greg noted once--hear the plates jumping.  I find that if I put fry pans and such in the bottom, they help lean onto and anchor other items that might be skybound.

 

If I can get the timer sorted, I'll get the new pump.  This one is okay, but I can hear the telltale fan clattering that only serves to underscore what's going to happen later.

 

Greg--I love that!  The first fridge with Silver Shower action!  I'm surprised, given the circumstances, that GE didn't offer it as a factory option.  ;-)  The functional equivalent of boobies on a bull.  Why not on a fridge? 

 

Interesting that you mention its inability to turn, since I've been spying on mine, and I don't think it's revolved.  I'll look again when I get home.  I could add an angled jet to assist, but deep down, you have to wonder how much you really care.

 

Paul--LOLOL!  Yes, you just put one item over the silverware basket, and the reduced fill sends a steady stream out of the Power Shower as well to act as a Filter-Flo.
 
Aferim with envy!

Beautiful machine!

 

I've been wanting to find one of these in my never-ending search for top-loading dishwashers. Interesting how the user buttons for these machines have gone from minimalist styles where they were tiny little chrome cats' eyes to these big honking keys (much more ergonomically-correct) and do the same things. The china/crystal cycles on the old Pull-outs used to be achieved by an intentional partial fill which would soften the spray. I think the aeration is a neater solution when it works.

 

I think this model is just one year older than Robert's machine; in 1970 they turned it into a Versatronic and changed the Plastisol colors.

 

Thanks for all the pictures. Could you post a couple of shots of the interior around the dispensers?

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Very nice MM.  1968?  In a pinch a D&M basket will tide you over.  The cutting board top is worth a ransom.   Best of luck!  A
 
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Yay interchangeable parts!

LOL, probably just the newer-gen pump once this timer thing gets licked. If there was room around the bottom rack, a Multi-Orbit wash arm? :-)

That other wash-arm design minimized the havoc wreaked upon the dishes, but it also turned a scrubber into a suckster. I've owned machines with that style--and thus began an seven-year hiatus from GE turbine-pump dishwashers until the 2800 wandered in the door.
 
Thank you!

Thanks, Don--and thanks for the year confirmation, Ken!  Not sure whether this has anything to do with it or not, but I did notice a grease-penciled "69" under the front panel.

 

Cool!
 
Pics

Sure, Ken--I'll get some tonight or tomorrow and report back.  Let me know if you want any other close-ups.

 

Thank you for the great info--and I love your renderings!!
 
China/Crystal

Since you know I'm going to be obsessive over this, here's a query--should the China/Crystal tube be flat-ish like it is, or should it be a fairly open tube?

 

It does a hard U-turn right at the pump output, and it's collapsed over time.  Not sure why they did the U-turn, unless someone worked on this machine and rotated the tube it feeds into around, and caused it to point the wrong way (possible).

 

Part of me wants to replace it and play.

 

(Once I get the timer fixed, of course.  No use polishing the hubcaps when the car won't start.)
 

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