Potscrubber

[appnut]

I wish I could be there with you and the dishwasher.  I could stand next to it while it's running and know pretty quickly what it's not doing correctly and why. 

 

I hadn't noticed the woodgrain look on a portion of the panel.  That might mean it's older than my 1987.  On mine, where your cycle button says Heavy Soil and Normal Soil, mine was designated Normal Soil and Light Soil. 

 

[spacedogb]

Something in the lower arm

There is definitely something in the ends of the lower wash arm. I have included pics of that and the control panel.

 

[appnut]

Oh yeah, that will definitely effect cleaning performance.  I never had anything like that show up in my wash arms.  Hopefully someone here can give you suggestions to get that debris cleared out. 

 

[spacedogb]

Lower arm won't unscrew

I found a thread on here that said turn wash tower nut counter clockwise. Unfortunately mine will not budge.

 

[combo52]

Removing the lower wash arm

You unscrew the base of the pop up tower from the top of the WA, then take out a Phillips screw and lift the WA up and out.

It looks like you have holes in the bottom of the wash arm, often on GE DWs with plastic wash arms when heat dry is used a lot the arms do this, the holes will diffidently affect washing pressure and often causes water to leak out from under the door.

Either replace the WA or patch it in a creative way.

John L.

 

[spacedogb]

Just tried to unscrew again. It will not budge. Also checked for holes and didn't find any. I included a pic of where I am trying to unscrew. Can someone please tell me if it's the right place?

 

[nmassman44]

I will bet you that you have crap right on the water inlet screen of the pump inside the sump. It looks like you may have to take the sump cover off and have a look/see. You also have crap behind that passive filter in the back of the tank. If the check valve is working properly, you should see a clear/clean screen since all the soil gets held in the storage tank below the filter. If that piston doesn't seat or move to close the opening, there will not be enough water pressure to force the soil out of the dishwasher. Your arm looks like some crap got pulled into the pump and that had to make quite a bit of noise when it happened. As others suggested here is very good advice.

 

[panthera]

Where your finger is pointing

Is where it unscrews- the 'wrong' way, as you noted. It's frequently very tight. Try holding the arm with one hand and then turn the part you're pointing at s if you were TIGHTENING it. It will eventually loosen. Someday.
There's a Phillips screw (regular way) in the middle which loves to fall into the pump, so careful. Be sure you don't lose the nylon fitting it sits in.

 

[spacedogb]

Finally

Got the arm off!!! Found a piece of bone and broken glass inside the spray arm. Am I correct to understand that it had to travel through the pump to get there? Also included a pic of the arm where the to halves attach. Does mine appear to be leaking? Also included a pic of the black spotty film everywhere.

 

[spacedogb]

Self cleaning filter

Took out self cleaning filter and noticed 2 things. First the inside of the filter was filthy. Second something was blocking the little flap at bottom of filter from closing. The gray piece found blocking the filter flap is the tag of a dish towel and part of the dish towel

 

[panthera]

Probably not leaking

Yes, it went through the pump. Probably didn't hurt the pump, though.

That black stuff is icky. Chlorine bleach is your friend.

Oh, side note - you have the 900 Watt heating element. If it fails, the 500 Watt is the standard replacement and it does fit, regardless of what the local yokal dealers will tell you. GE was already using both at that time, I've done two replacements with the 500 Watt so, yup - it will work.

There is a fuse in a little black box not too far from the heating element contacts. That blows sometimes for no reason, stopping the element from working. You might check that if it's out. In the potscrubber cycle, if the input water for the wash is coming in at 125F, you can expect it to rise above 135F by the end of the cycle and roughly the same for any input temperature - about 10F. The 500 Watt element will keep the temperature of the water and raise it a little bit.

I'm so glad you got the beast loose. When you put it back on, be sure not to damage the thin brownish/reddish ring at the bottom of the spray arm - it's a gasket and paper thin. Don't bother tightening the arm more than just barely finger tight - it tightens (as you have seen) over time all by itself.

 

[Chetlaham]

One of the best

Dishwashers ever made! I am with Panthera, these could clean and then some. Forget what the GE haters say, it was only the BOLs that tainted the legacy.

Personally I would change the pump and sump boot. The new pump is much quieter, and the smaller sump reduces carry over dramatically increasing washing and rinsing performance. With some care this will feel and perform like a new modern machine out of the box- except with a much faster cycle time.

Let me know if you are doing so, I can post the parts.

 

[spacedogb]

Just started messing with the GE again. When the dishwasher is off and empty should the plunger for the self cleaning filter be closed or open? When in drain mode water flows into the dishwasher when in drain mode and even more comes in when I push up and down on the tip of the plunger.

Thanks [this post was last edited: 9/5/2017-16:55]

 

[johnb300m]

plunger

The filter plunger should be OPEN when the machine is Washing, and Off.
It should ONLY be closed when the machine in pumping to drain.

If that plunger is deteriorated in any way, you will want a new one.
The filter performance with a new plunger will be night and day.

Good luck!

 

[panthera]

John Answered the question. Is an easy fix.

I suggest you clean the sump first, no point loosening more debris after all your hard work on the valve.

 

[spacedogb]

Video of solenoid. Anyone know of a part number to this solenoid.

 

[panthera]

It's #WD24X10018

It's about $11.00 plus shipping new at the site in the link. Just remember - plastic, so no force or it will, of course snap off on you.

Super easy.

Oh - since there's no electro-mechanical actuator, technically it's not a solenoid. As to 'self-cleaning', well, yeah, back when detergents had chlorine bleach, phosphates and enzymes and we washed with really hot water, they were......

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[dustin92]

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it just doesn't clean the way you are expecting it to. We had a newer version of this style machine for 12 years, and from day 1 it had issues washing dishes that were already clean. Granted, it had no filters, but still. If any trace of food went in on a single dish, it would come out ground up and splattered over all the dishes. Cups and glasses in the top rack always had crud in the indents on the bottom. We thoroughly hated that dishwasher. We have had a Kenmore Ultra wash, and a Maytag Jetclean since, soon to be on to #3, a Bosch, and none have ever left anything on the dishes.

 

[panthera]

Dustin,

1) CR rated this system BEST - even better than KA for cleaning.

2) No filters? Seriously, dude?

 

Maybe you got stuck with one of the BOL pieces of 'builder grade' rubbish GE/Hotpoint (still) sells. They're as comparable to this as a rusted out YUGO is to a 1956 Belaire.

 

Sheesh.

 

 

 

[super32]

I had a 2800 from about 92' til about 95', largely based on CU recommendations at the time even though i had Maytag on the brain. I loved all the lights and glitter but it did not clean very well. I frequently had issues as some others have mentioned here. We were going to remodel the kitchen and keep the 2800 for the new kitchen since its was only about 3yrs old. Well needless to say it didnt make it to the new kitchen because the pump took a dump. I didnt even think of replacing the pump because i was not real happy with it in the first place. It was replaced by the illusive Maytag Intellisense, but dont even get me started on that thing either. :/