KDS-18

[cam2s]

So I've been a long time lurker here, but now I have a good reason to post! Recently, I was at an estate auction. The sale bill had listed a KitchenAid dishwasher for sale, but there weren't any pictures or other descriptions. I knew the person who was having the sale and I expected that they would a modern machine, so I wasn't expecting much. However, when I got there, my jaw dropped when I seen the holy grail of dishwashers, an 18 series Superba! I knew I had to have it, even though I didn't have a way to get it home and really have anywhere to put it once it got there. The appliances were the last thing to go, so I had the whole auction to stew about it. They finally got around to it, but nobody was bidding on it. I was trying to restrain myself, but when the auctioneer asked if anybody would take it for $2, my hand went up before I even knew what was happening.

 

[cam2s]

KDS-18

I recently graduated from college and have been living at home while looking for a full time teaching job. We got a new Maytag about 6 months ago, so I knew it would be staying in the kitchen. However, I was anxious to use, or at least test my new baby so I went to the hardware store and got a power cord, wired it up and got a bucket of water. I poured some water in and let it sit. I didn't see any leaks, so filled up the sump, plugged her in and hit the rinse button. After living with the new Maytag, hearing the coveted "hurricane in a box" roar to life for the first time was quite an experience! Still no leaks, the drain solenoid wokred, and the rapid advance time seemed to function alright.

 

[cam2s]

KDS-18

I've been wanting to hook a unicoupler up to it, but I haven't gotten around to figuring it out. Since I now have the owners manual and service manual, with a full description of the cycle (courtesy of the epherma), I would try to run a cycle and bucket the water in at the appropriate time. Of course, everything came out spotless! Better yet, everything functions correctly. The fill solenoid is the only part whose function I haven't been able to test. I do have a few questions for the experts.

Any idea why the porcelain and racks discolored on the left side?
There is small chip in the sump. It is toward the front of the sump in the picture below. How should I fix this? The other spots are just dirt and other stains. I scrubbed it down and got some of them out, but now all of them. What should I use to clean it, or will they eventually come off when it gets put into daily use?
There are a couple of spots of rust on the racks. How should I take care of those to prevent further rust?
There isn't any insulation on the machine. What type and where should I get some to replace it?

 

[cam2s]

KDS-18

Thanks in advance for your replys! Any information about this beauty would be greatly appreciated!

 

[gansky1]

Oooh - where in NE are you?

Where was this auction?? LOL - that was a great buy for $2 for sure, I'd have even paid $4.

This should clean up pretty nicely, they are relatively easy machines to work on, I have a KDS-18 in my kitchen as my daily-driver dishwasher and love it.

There are still parts around for this machine, if you even need any. I've seen much worse porcelain tanks come out like new with a good cleaning and a bit of touch up here and there.

Is there rust in or around the chip near the sump? It looks like someone overshot the silverware basket and dropped something through the rack. It's easily touched up if there is rust beginning to form with a little epoxy patch. The racks look pretty good from the pics but also can be spruced and touched up easily as well.

For cleaning the tank itself, light iron staining can be removed easy enough running through a cycle with Super Iron Out and then hard water deposits can be removed with an off-the-shelf dishwasher cleaner available at most grocery stores. Nothing looks that bad so it should be an easy restore! '
Congrats on a great find!

Two dollars! Wow!

This is one I found on Craigslist last year, now rebuilt and combined with my first KDS-18 and in the kitchen. The gold is long, long gone!

 

[mitch]

Nice score!!

That 18 is nice!! I keep hoping to find the portable version of this one! Have fun shining her up!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Congratulations!

The staining on the left side of the tank can be explained if you look up and see the water inlet. The stains are from iron in slightly hard water. A unicouple is fairly easy to hook up. The only part you might need is an adapter from the fill valve to the fill hose. There is a Maytag part number I can probably find for it. I think it is an adapter that goes from 3/4 to 3/8 inches. Someone here probably knows for sure.

As Greg said, the chip can probably be touched up with epoxy parch, but KitchenAid tanks had TriDura porcelain so the black under the white is porcelain also and the staining around the chip is like near the water inlet, minerals and iron deposited on a rough surface.

You are going to enjoy this dishwasher. It used to be said, "There are dishwashers and then there are KitchenAids." This model, only improved upon by the addition of the wider upper wash arm of the 19 series, was the apotheosis & very quintessence of KitchenAid Dishwashers.

 

[cam2s]

Nebraska

I live in north central Nebraska, Bassett to be specific.

The chip has not rusted and there does not appear to be any rust in the sump.
I noticed that the fill valve was up near the top of the machine, but I guess I didn't put 2 and 2 together about mineral depositing. Lol. Somebody overshooting the silverware basket also makes a very good explanation as to how the chip got there in the first place.
If I want to get the bigger power wash arm do I have to replace the whole rack or is it possible to find the arm and the China Guard?

 

[gansky1]

I

The whole rack is needed for the longer wash arm - the china guard won't fit the 18 rack. I don't currently have the longer wash arm in my 18, but if you remember to put larger items in the corners rather than small juice glasses, etc. it's not a big problem.

 

[beekeyknee]

Things you might want to try.

Cameron,

Here's some things you might want to pick from. It's a long drawn out old posting I made two years ago.

You could also download the service manual from the web site. I think you might have to be a contributing member to do it though. Robert's been posting all the service manuals lately.

Nice machine. Good luck.

Brian

My Habitat ReStore find, KitchenAid KDS-20, March 2010.

Top View. I'll show a fix for this later.

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[danemodsandy]

Brian:

There is no requirement to be an AW contributing member - or even a member - to order materials from Automatic Ephemera. A user does not have to join Automatic Ephemera, nor sign in, nor anything else. You simply select what you want from the offerings, pay for it via PayPal, get your download link, and download.

All of the differences between paid and unpaid membership to AW are spelled out at the "Forum Topics and Rules" link on the AW home page.

 

[beekeyknee]

Well, excuse me Sandy. That's why I said "I think" instead of "I know". Sorry I haven't read the "Forum Topics and Rules" lately. I guess I should jump up out of bed and read them first thing every day. That's what I live for.

 

[danemodsandy]

Brian:

You've made a couple of remarks here about what you think are differences between paid and unpaid members here - differences that don't in fact exist - so I wanted you to know where the actual list of differences could be found.

You certainly don't need to "jump up out of bed and read them every day." But I think it might be useful information if you read them once.

 

[beekeyknee]

Sandy,

I have read them once. In fact I've read them more than once. And I just looked through them now. I don't see it mentioned in "Forum Topics and Rules" or "Automatic Ephemera" about who can or cannot access "Automatic Ephemera". Since it started after I was a contributing member, I didn't know. I suppose since it's not mentioned I should have just assumed that it didn't matter. Or maybe it's there and I can't find it.

I wasn't trying to coerce him into contributing. I just didn't want to direct him to something that wouldn't work. In retrospect I should have said, "I don't know" instead of "I think". From this point forward I will never mention the subject again and I'll most likely think twice about posting anything.

Cameron, this dispute was not directed toward you. I was trying to give you some helpful advise.

Sandy, it's nice to know you're monitoring my posts so closely. I'll try not to be so ignorant of the rules in the future and will toe the line for you. I now consider this matter closed and I will not respond to it again.

Good Day

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Nice...

Way to go, putting our best side out there...

That is a snazzy looking 18. She really should clean up nicely. I'd like to find a 19 or so if one really nice looking surfaces over here.

RCD

 

[tomturbomatic]

19s sorta self destructed with all of the water heating. The ones we found on midnight appliance runs were REALLY TIRED. Some were not tired, but those were the ones replaced early because people did not like the performance: long cycles, lotsa time spent sitting there heating water, poor drying. If there was one thing KA was noted for, even in the first machines that did not do such a great job cleaning, it was their drying and 19s did not dry well unless you pushed CANCEL DRAIN at the end of the cycle and opened the door to let things flash dry. It could be hell on hairdoes, but it got the job done.

 

[cam2s]

Uh Oh

After reading the Brian's post about restoring his machine, I thought I better take off the front panel and check the dispensers. They look like they have started to leak a bit. Can I just clean this and reseal them? On the plus side, I bought some epoxy putty and cleaner while I was in town this weekend. I covered the chip up and it is setting at the moment. I"ll run the cleaner through it later and see if it takes care of the staining.

 

[cam2s]

Detergent dispenser

Here is an up close shot of the detergent dispenser.

 

[cam2s]

rinse aid

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