Nope...
Turns out it wasn't a clogged inlet--that was clean as a whistle. The pump was going/pretty much gone. To replace the pump would have been more than the new machine she replaced it with. Admittedly, she seems to have gone pretty BOL, and replaced the KA with a Kenmore. The KM is louder than the old machine, but not so much that she can't watch TV (her kitchen and tv room/family room are the same space) and doesn't have "bells and whistles". she just wanted something to wash the dishes and dry them. But the funny thing is, her upper rack and silverware basket sound identical to what's in my 2009 Architect-series KA, that her '07 MOL didn't have--the flip-down racks up top for smaller items, the individual silverware slots.
Now here's the thing: The repairman told her she didn't use it enough and that was the problem. He said these machines are made to be run every day or every other day, and if they aren't, the bearings etc can get bound up or something (this is my retelling of what she said he said...administer grains of salt where needed!) Is that for real? She never washed pots and pans in it, so it would take her the better part of a week to fill it up (and she would Bob-load it, too). So now, between that and the repairman showed here how little water a dishwasher uses compared to running water for handwashing (funny how she believed him, but not me--but I guess what comes around,goes around), she has pledged to wash EVERYTHING in the dishwasher now.
Anyway, thanks Bob and Steve for the advice. Too bad it wasn't as simple as we all thought. Um, also, apparently she left out the part about it making a noise when she texted me in the first place--I think that was a key piece of info!
