Problem with Kitchen Aid Dishwasher

[countryguy]

A friend of mine just bought a new Kitchen Aid from Sears and had it installed in their new home. It is the exact same model that I bought 6 months ago. It has worked superbly for me but not so for my friend. The first load worked fine but then yesterday she did a load and when done, the bottom of the dishwasher was full of water. I looked at it today, turned on the rinse cycle, it rinsed but did not drain. The dishwasher turned off and it was still full of water. She had her plumber check everything yesterday and he said there are no blockages in the lines. It can't be food getting stuck because all she has done is washed the dishes after unpacking them. She has a repair call in with Sears but any suggestions in the meantime?

Gary

 

[stevet]

Check the obvious!

Countryguy,
Has your friend done anything under the sink that may have caused a pinching of the drain hose and stopping the water from flowing well. You can also try taking the drain hose off of the connection under the sink and let it drain into a big enough bucket to hold the drain water. If it all drains out then there is something wrong with the plumbing from the sink down thru the drain and maybe you have too much back pressure on the drain system.
Check to see if the drain pump is actually working and that it isn't just accumulating at the sink.
You should be able to check and listen to the machine's operation and determine more fully if there is something wrong.

 

[countryguy]

Nope, she hasn't done anything under the sink. I had a look. The hose wasn't looped up high enough so I fixed that. According to the plumber, the drain pipe is not plugged...and the sinks drain fine. So the problem lies with the dishwasher and/or the drain line. When I selected the Rinse/hold cycle I heard the machine running but I did not hear the pump draining so I'm thinking that there is something wrong with the dishwasher itself.

Gary

 

[appnut]

After it started circulating for the R&H, hit cancel drain and see if you hear a pump motor trying to pump out the water. Also, that high-loop in the drain hose is very important.

 

[countryguy]

I tried the R&H 3 or times, hit cancel after the circulation started. The first time I heard the pump running but the water didn't empty. On the subsequent tries, nothing happened and the machine just shut off. I'm wondering if the machine needs to be reset somehow?

Gary

 

[appnut]

Sounds like apossible defective drain motor. These have 2 pummps, one for circulation and the other for drain. If it's brand new, Sears should simply replace the whole machine. I love my kenmore Elite version!!! I wish I had a camera. It washed a load of dishes I'd been accummulating for 12-14 days, oatmeal sitting encrusted on some bowls all that time. It's a BobLoad. Every set of tines is filled in the bottom rack and all 5 rows in top rack are filled with mugs & glasses (actually the middle row has glasses on either side on the tines, so it's six rows of glasses & mugs). Everything is bone dry, including the two large margerine tubs sitting on their sides in the back right & left corners. I'm using Jet Dry Turbo, I love the stuff. And I'm not using sani-rinse to help with drying, just Smart Wash & heated dry. Mugs come out dryer in this dishwasher than my old GSD1200 PotScrubber run on PotScrubber & heated dry.

 

[sudsmaster]

If you haven't checked the air gap, if any, then that would be my guess. Just pull the chrome top off and unscrew the deflector. Chances are there are bits of whatnot clogging the drain there.

Happened to me.

 

[countryguy]

Just got back from my friend's house. I tried the rinse & hold cycle again. After it started circulating I hit cancel. I could hear the pump but the water was not draining. It ran for about 30 secs. and then shut off.

I love my Kitchen Aid also.

Gary

 

[countryguy]

Forgot to mention that there is no air gap installed on either mine or my friend's dishwasher.

Gary

 

[toggleswitch]

If there is a garbage disposal to which this is connected, it is imperative that the drain-plug to which the hose attaches (in the disposer) be removed before connecting DW drain hose.

Another scenario, but not probable:
I am guessing that if there is a gargabe disposer it has been run just prror to running the DW. If it were full of muck the water would usually leave the machine, but end up in the sink.

 

[countryguy]

No, there is no garbage disposer.

Gary

 

[countryguy]

I've been trying to come up with an answer (Sears repair guy has still not been there) and was wondering if there could be some kind of air lock in the drain which prevented the dishwasher from draining. At the time my friend had water in both sinks as she was washing some stuff by hand so no air would be getting into the pipes that way, but then isn't that what the plumbing vent stack is for? I don't know if when it drained properly the first time whether she had the sink stoppers in place or not.

 

[stevet]

how about this?

Since it did an initial wash when first installed, how about the possibility that a label or piece of food wrap or some paper that was packed in the machine got missed and was accidentally sucked down into the sump or into the drain pump or drain opening? The attached link shows a Kenmore with a stuck pump motor but once the top pieces come off, you can see what the wash pump looks like and maybe find the culprit.

I emailed the poster and told him to try to turn the wash pump by hand and the the fix works.. seems to still be working fine.

In case you dont know how to get the wash arm off.. Check post 15377 where Brent-Aucoin told me how to take the washarm out and not break anything, then you can procede to remoce the rest of the innards! Let us know what happens!

http://www.automaticwasher.org/TD?THREADS/MODERN/15377X6.htm

 

[countryguy]

The problem is solved! The Sears repairman was out today - turns out that the plumber did NOT remove the knockout plug on the dishwasher connection tee under the sink! (don't know what kind of plumber he is if he didn't remember to do that since he is the one that just put all the plumbing in the new house!) As for the first cycle working OK, it must not have...my friend admits that she didn't notice that there was water in the bottom the first time. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Gary