What's the secret ????

[toploader55]

I just can't understand why it is so hard (for me anyway) to get the lower panel of a KitchenAid Dishwasher back on ?
I just can't to get them back on unless I spend 2 hours trying. I know it's suppose to angle on to the groove under the rubber gasket, but on mostly all of mine they're a bitch.
What's the trick ???

 

[gyrafoam]

Oh, tell me all about it.
About once every couple of months I manage to accidently kick that lower panel with one of my big feet and it drops down.
Sometimes it goes right back on and other times it refuses to cooperate.

People who work on them all the time come to visit and just give me one of those looks as they snap it right into place.

 

[magic clean]

Ed & Steve;

make sure the tabs at the lower corners, where the panel mounting screws are affixed; are bent slightly downward, this helps apply force upward to keep the vertical side flanges securely beneath the evaporation channel.

Leslie

 

[stevet]

Yep!

You are right Gyrofoam. We just snap them right back in.

Ed, the secret is to make sure that the sides of the lower panel that engage the end of the holder of the evaporation channel(black rubber strip)are very flat. They actually slide under that channel holder and stay in place that way. Some of the older machines had a more defined piece of metal that extended down to engage the lower panel in that area but they did away with that way back.
And I am sure everyone has noticed that the little tabs that the screws go into on the bottom of the panel don't really line up perfectly with the holes in the frame. That is so that when the screws go in, they exert upward pressure on the whole panel to stay locked in place as well.

Don't think for a minute, Gyro, that I don't kick my panels down from time to time. I got tired of changing them out all the time whenever the small chrome piece got bent by the bottom of my shoe.Just figured I would wait till it is totally trashed before killing another panel. That's why I always try to grab the panels and door panels from a trashed machine before anything else!

Hope that helps!

 

[toploader55]

Thanks

I guess I'll spend a week off trying to get the damn thing back into place. I just spent 15 minutes with it and got into that "sort of" position. You all should know what I'm talking about here. So until I hit the Lucky Strike , this will do for now. E.