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whirlcool

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
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9,618
Location
Just North Of Houston, Texas
It happened again, a neighbor came over and asked me to come have a look at their 1997 Whirlpool dishwasher. He said it wasn't draining. He said it stopped a few days ago. So I went over there to look at it.

It's a MOL line model. The one with the rubber gasket on the wash arm that connects to a center wash tower. Sure enough it was full of water. So I set it to drain, you could hear the motor running, but no water coming out.

I checked the check valve and sure enough water came out. Just then his wife made the remark "You know a few days ago we had Sears out to install a new garbage disposal and the guy didn't seem to know what he was doing" I asked her to explain and she said "It took him over two hours to install. He kept saying things like "This wire goes here, and that wire goes there, etc. He was very slow to get it installed."

Due to my continued membership here at aw.org I knew EXACTLY what the problem was.
I took the hose off at the garbage disposal and sure enough, the knock out plug was still in place. A quick whack with a hammer and screwdriver solved the problem.
Then fished the plug out of the disposer, reconnected the hose and everything now is working fine. The whole thing took about five minutes. The lady of the house is going to call Sears and ask for her installation fee back. And I don't blame her. I can see a homeowner making that kind of mistake, but an installation guy? He should have known better.
 
I don't know about the pretty faces.. (:->! but you all are very, very helpful.

I had seen this happen to someone else on the website here, so I knew what the problem was. I imagine it's pretty common. And I DID tell the homeowner where I learned about this too. Maybe he'll come along and visit the site someday.

I was rather surprised at the condition of the dishwasher. For being 17 years old,
it sure was clean and the racks were still like new. But it was rather noisy when running. You can really hear the water hitting the insides of the DW cabinet when running. That was from where the majority of the noise came from.

For those who are interested here is what we had:

Make: Whirlpool
Model no du910pfgg1
Serial no fj2629289

Thanks again guys!
 
A day isn't complete if we don't learn at least one new thing.

Thanks to this website, day after day we learn a lot.

What can I say? I even learned how to pay more atention to my local politics and politicians after a simple thread about electricity bills. That was a drop in the ocean but you all know what happened next. One thing pulled other and I ended up by making a difficult (but final) decision to move to another country.

Also, other day somebody posted something about toothpicks and pieces of glass in a dishwasher. Curious, i decided to inspect the washarms, after years being too lazy to do that... Tons of debris were found, including a small ziptie, just like mentioned.
 
I reported the same set of circumstances with the beater GE dishwasher in the house Dave's daughter and son in law purchased back in April. 

 

While checking out the dishwasher, it didn't register with me that the disposal looked fairly new.  Not until I had gotten home after being unable to identify the trouble did I give it more thought and then realize that the problem was likely the disposal plug.

 

By that time it was too late.  Dave's son in law had already contacted the home warranty service, so a tech came out the following day and removed the plug.

 

Lesson learned, by at least one person here besides me!
 
Allen, I'm surprised that you aren't a little gun-shy
about helping the neighbors after some of your reports. LOL

But, I guess if you're like a lot of us, it's hard to say no.

Good work!
 
The only neighbor I have really had trouble with was the old bag that lives down the street with a KitchenAid DW. She's also the same one that had the fabric softener Kenmore dryer that had the lint build up so bad it completely clogged all the internal venting in the dryer.

She claims the problem with her DW is that it doesn't clean well. It's her and not the machine. She uses the cheapest liquid gel detergent she can find, squirts in a dime size spot of it, no more and then doesn't prepurge her hot water line before starting up the DW. And oh yes, she has a penchant for putting large things like roasting pans, cookie sheets etc up against the detergent dispenser. Water never hits the dispenser because it is blocked by these items. I have told her many times you can't use this DW this way but she insists it worked right at one time. Grrr.

Then there was the dryer debacle. It was totally clogged with lint buildup that was so hard I had to use a screwdriver and hammer to punch a hole in it. It took me a few hours to clean it out. But it was as clean as new when I was done. She later called Sears out and they told her the machine needed a new motor. So rather than have Sears repair it she decided she would buy a new LG dryer. BTW, the dryer worked perfectly fine for me, so I don't know where Sears got the motor idea.

Anyway her two kids are engineers of some kind. Her daughter told her to get a LG dryer with a steam option because then you can dry clean your clothes in your dryer. I went with her to buy the new dryer to help her out. She asked the salesperson sooo many questions his head was spinning. Questions like "If my washing machine fails will this dryer spin the water out of the clothes?" But she just HAD to have a dryer with a steam option, no other dryer would do!

That was almost two years ago. A few months ago I saw her and asked her how that steam option is working out for her. Her response "I don't know, I haven't used it yet".

Oh and one final slap in the face from her. She has a son who is an engineer. She said that he was interested in flying. "So he took all the aviation ground schools you can take but he never moved on to the actual flying lessons. So I am positive that he has as much experience flying as you do!" What? WTF??

Karen saw her the other day in the store and was bitching that the school district where her grandson goes to school has not promoted him to the "Gifted and Talented" division of the school. The kid is 6 years old. She said that all her kids were gifted and talented and she can't understand why the school district is telling her daughter that her grandson is a normal little boy and doesn't need this kind of schooling.

We both said the next time she brings up an appliance problem, we'll tell her to call Sears! She's basically an intellectual with absolutely no common sense.

Other people here I have helped out with their appliances and they have been thankful and actually has made me some money on the side. I know where the limits to my ability are and I respect them.
 
"So I am positive that he has as much experience flying

"She said that all her kids were gifted and talented "
" it doesn't clean well." "she insists it worked right at one time."
"she just HAD to have a dryer with a steam option, no other dryer would do!" and later when she bought it,
"I don't know, I haven't used it yet"
"I am positive that he has as much experience flying AS YOU DO" ......lol ! how insightful. lol!

Beyond taxes and death...one thing for sure about life - lotta bs freely distributed.
 
I know I've mentioned these stories before, but they are kinda funny now that I am over the frustration of it all.

I don't know how the pro appliance repair guys do it, dealing with these crazy types all day long. Some people just refuse to take responsibility for their own actions.
 
Dealing with crazy types

Maybe after a while, they either just expect it, or they see so many that by some point, it just makes them laugh!
 
I honestly believe thats why most repair men charge in upwards of $200.00 an hour....the BS surcharge is already included!

for some...seriously, it would have to be to make it worth their while!

could be also why some guys just run in, flicker the flashlight around...and a quick diagnosis.....you need a new machine!
 
only neighbor I have really had trouble with

What about that older couple that purchased new machines from Lowes and got talked into a complicated model, then refused to complain when she couldn't figure out how to use them?
 
Makes me think about a customer I had one time. She came back into the store and was returning a Brush Dirt Vac. She said she was having problems with it and it wouldn't turn on. I took the unit out of the box and looked at it. Looked brand spankin new. Cord all neatly wrapped (25 ft. cord mind you) like it came from the factory.

She said, "I turned it on, and nothing happened." I couldn't help myself but had to ask, "Well, did you plug the cord into an electric socket?" Her reply of course was, "OH! Is that what I have to do?" with a dumbfounded look on her face. If you had seen this woman you would have known she was telling the truth.

What made me worry about the entire situation. I happened to notice when she came up to me in the store. Bag with the returning item in one hand, a set of CAR KEYS IN THE OTHER. OMG!!! How did you manage to convince the DMV to issue you a driver's license to operate a motor vehicle? Yet you couldn't remove something from a box and "PLUG IT IN" to make it work (No assembly required).

Miracle's just never cease to amaze me. Makes you wonder how they get from A-Z!
 
Idjits are everywhere

In my years at THD, I thought I heard it all. One day, a distinguished older lady came in to buy a stove. My first question: Gas or electric? Gas. Second question: Self-cleaning or standard? Ummm, I'd rather a standard-clean. I had a self-cleaning range for 14 years and it never did clean itself.

OMG! You can't make this up!
 
Love these kinds of stories, reassures me that it's not only me that encounter these types!

The older couple with the new dryer. They refused to return it. Their attitude was "we don't want to make any trouble for anyone." and dug their heels in on that. This woman invented what it means to be stubborn. She has the dryer and darned it "I'm going to have to learn how to like it".

I showed the woman how to use it. She complained that it now dries the clothes better than before, but not as good as her old dryer did. She said she frequently has to come out and add more time to it. I told her that she doesn't have to put up with it, that was her choice and now she will live with her stubbornness. So I am out of the picture on that one. As for paying for a high priced dryer, these people have plenty of money. They usually are pretty cheap too. They won't spend even a penny unless they absolutely have to. They could very well afford the dryer they bought. But it's needlessly complex for them to operate.

They should have had their old dryer fixed, it needed a new belt. But the repair guy just told them that it's too old to fix and they should buy a new one. So they did. By the time I arrived on the scene the old dryer was already carted away and the new dryer in place.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that these old people have a KitchenAid dishwasher in their Kitchen. It looks like a KDS-17 or 18. It's in mint condition. They have had it for years and years and have only used it a handful of times. They think it's too expensive to run.
 
the repair guy just told them that it's too old to fix

Interesting how they had no problem listening to a stranger with bad advice to buy new machines. Then they get flim-flammed at Lowes, but you, you they take a stand with, sheesh..
 

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