Question about gaskets needed for KitchenAid dishwasher rinse aid dispenser (the two porthole style)

[valvashon]

A few years ago I bought a supposedly bad rinse aid dispenser from a KDI-15 model for possible use in my KDI-58 (portable version of the 18). When it arrived I thought that I had been taken so I just set it aside. Finally dug it out this last week as "Phil" is apart because I put in a new timer. Cleaned up the rinse aid dispenser and in doing so I inadvertantly fixed it! A previous owner of that machine used what appeared to be plumbers putty to seal up where the fill and dispense ports enter the wash tub. That plumbers putty also filled up the stopper area leading it to just leak rather than dispense.
I have tried it with my "widowmaker" line cord and it opens, closes and seals properly when power is applied and removed. I will assume that the movement of the plunger lets out a small splash of rinse aid which then gets further rinsed into the machine.
The presence of the plumbers putty led me to wonder if there was a missing pair of rubber gaskets that should go under the white things that screw on to the ports and hold it to the machine. I was unable to find such a thing at a good, old time hardware store but I did find a thin fiber washer/gasket that fits well around the threaded part. Should I put that under the white screw on thing or is it not designed to have a gasket with the white part acting as a seal?
I will have it properly together tomorrow and wil post some pictures of the unit and how the fiber gaskets might fit on it.

TIA

Val

 

[valvashon]

Turns out that the rinse aid dispenser doesn't need any gasket- in fact, using a gasket (at least a fiber one under the screw on things) makes it actually leak. I installed the dispenser and ran Phil for a week with the door off to observe and without a gasket but with some nylon thread tape there is no leak "behind" the inner door panel. These pictures are of the finished install before I put the door panel back on. All connections have been soldered and enclosed in shrink wrap tubing. Connection to timer is a correct sized .110 non-insulated female quick-disconnect, connected to the timer but not a "Molex" type- it will come out separately from the Molex connector if it is ever disassembled again.
Second pictutre is of the insulation I added previously, cut to now fit the rinse aid dispenser. I added several of these around Phil, they really cut down on the noise.



Here is the inner door panel after a cycle is done. As you can see there seems to be a bit of a residual leak down from the rinse aid dispenser at the end of the cycle but it's not constant- if I wiped this up and closed the door for the rest of the day it would not reappear. As the dishes (especially the glasses) come out much cleaner and with dramatically less spots with the rinse aid I will take the little bit of dribble. If you are serious about keeping your older KitchenAid I would definitely search out and install one of these dispensers.


Val

 

[valvashon]

Looks like there is currently one on eBay for about $27; slightly different tank shape but the dispensing and filling ports are obviously for the "two port" style rinse aid door panels. You might ask the seller to measure the centers of the holes but it looks to be the right thing. No threaded nuts in the picture but those shouldn't be hard to find, they look like standard garden hose ends to me. Hope it's OK to link, this is current as of 1/24/26.

304442/675551 dispenser

If you search with this number- 675551- you will get many hits. Kenmore apparently used this same type of dispenser and they were made by several different manufacturers. Different configurations but the in/out holes look the same. As always, measure yours and see if it lines up.