Back in fall, a portable version of the much-venerated KDS14 dishwasher came up for sale on the South Carolina craigslist. This is a model I have dreamed of owning but never thought I'd find one, so I just HAD to have it.
I finally got it back to the house in Ogden last night, but not without a lot of help and kindness from folks here on the site. Brainard Cooper, III was instrumental in getting this deal done. He very kindly picked up the dishwasher and stored for me until December. Our favorite shipper, Jackie Demperre, brought the machine from South Carolina to a certain appliance museum in Beltsville. John (combo52) very graciously held on to the machine until Jon (jetcone) came to visit. Jon then trucked it from Beltsville to Boston and stored it until last week for me. Finally Phil (PhilR) drove me down to Boston with his truck and we brought the dishwasher over the border and into my basement in Ogden. Thanks to all of you for helping me with this - I am beyond thrilled with the dishwasher!!
Now back to business - I was itching to check this dishwasher out and made it my 'activity of the day' for today. To heck with the Super Bowl.... LOL
I don't have a lot of photos at the moment, more will follow later this week, I hope. I knew there were some issues with hoses - the drain hose was so brittle it had snapped into 4 or 5 sections! I haven't seen anything that 'vulcanized' before; oddly enough, the fill hose is just fine. Nice and flexible and no interior rot - it makes me wonder if it didn't get changed at some point. I removed the drain hose and inspected the rest of the machine. Everything else looked just fine! I figured I had nothing to lose so I tried a dry power test, using the Rinse and Hold cycle. Well I was thrilled to find the timer works, the pump motor worked, the drain solenoid worked and so did the water valve!
The next test was the drying system - I set the dial to Plate Warm and hit the Full Cycle button. The heater powered up but I could not hear the fan turning. The fan/heater housing is pretty easy to remove on a KitchenAid so I popped it off and found a fan blade was caught on the housing. Odd, but easily bent back into shape. After that it worked fine!
So what next? I threw caution to the wind and hauled the machine down to the basement for a water test... I started with a bucket of hot tap water and.... I found a leak. It seems to be coming from a joint or coupling where the pump housing joins what I guess is the the drain/recirculate chamber. I drained the water out and found a dish that would fit under this and hooked up the fill hose.
I was very, very happy to find the water valve still works and that ol' Big Blue wash arm was moving water around the tub. I can't get over how quiet these 14's are and how much water seems to be moving around!
I've got to stop for today, alas, but I'm looking forward to further testing next week!
Oh and if anyone can help me 'date' the machine, it's a model KDS-54P, serial 874965.
I finally got it back to the house in Ogden last night, but not without a lot of help and kindness from folks here on the site. Brainard Cooper, III was instrumental in getting this deal done. He very kindly picked up the dishwasher and stored for me until December. Our favorite shipper, Jackie Demperre, brought the machine from South Carolina to a certain appliance museum in Beltsville. John (combo52) very graciously held on to the machine until Jon (jetcone) came to visit. Jon then trucked it from Beltsville to Boston and stored it until last week for me. Finally Phil (PhilR) drove me down to Boston with his truck and we brought the dishwasher over the border and into my basement in Ogden. Thanks to all of you for helping me with this - I am beyond thrilled with the dishwasher!!
Now back to business - I was itching to check this dishwasher out and made it my 'activity of the day' for today. To heck with the Super Bowl.... LOL
I don't have a lot of photos at the moment, more will follow later this week, I hope. I knew there were some issues with hoses - the drain hose was so brittle it had snapped into 4 or 5 sections! I haven't seen anything that 'vulcanized' before; oddly enough, the fill hose is just fine. Nice and flexible and no interior rot - it makes me wonder if it didn't get changed at some point. I removed the drain hose and inspected the rest of the machine. Everything else looked just fine! I figured I had nothing to lose so I tried a dry power test, using the Rinse and Hold cycle. Well I was thrilled to find the timer works, the pump motor worked, the drain solenoid worked and so did the water valve!
The next test was the drying system - I set the dial to Plate Warm and hit the Full Cycle button. The heater powered up but I could not hear the fan turning. The fan/heater housing is pretty easy to remove on a KitchenAid so I popped it off and found a fan blade was caught on the housing. Odd, but easily bent back into shape. After that it worked fine!
So what next? I threw caution to the wind and hauled the machine down to the basement for a water test... I started with a bucket of hot tap water and.... I found a leak. It seems to be coming from a joint or coupling where the pump housing joins what I guess is the the drain/recirculate chamber. I drained the water out and found a dish that would fit under this and hooked up the fill hose.
I was very, very happy to find the water valve still works and that ol' Big Blue wash arm was moving water around the tub. I can't get over how quiet these 14's are and how much water seems to be moving around!
I've got to stop for today, alas, but I'm looking forward to further testing next week!
Oh and if anyone can help me 'date' the machine, it's a model KDS-54P, serial 874965.
