Since the reviews dissuaded me before, I simply picked one
of the “recommended” dishwashers from Consumer Reports and declined to read the
reviews. Apparently no one likes dishwashers
anyway. I tried to order the machine on
Christmas day, but the web site would not save my billing address. The next day I managed to place the order. Several days later I got the notice that my
dishwasher was waiting for me at Sears at the Pheasant Lane Mall. I hitched up the trailer and drove to the
mall. After an unsatisfying experience
trying to communicate with an electronic kiosk, a human being finally appeared
to tell me that my dishwasher was actually at a warehouse on the other side of
the river. The kiosk had already tapped
into Ms. Hyde so this news did not elicit a cheerful response. I did not mind picking it up at the warehouse,
which was no further from home than the mall.
I did mind going to the mall with the van and trailer to be told I
needed to wind back down some small roads to where I could cross the bridge to
the warehouse. I tried to be nice to the
polite and efficient warehouse people.
To do this I had to forget that I was not going to have time for other
errands now. The dishwasher stayed in
the trailer parked in the sheep paddock, both victim and perpetrator of my mangled
schedule.
I went back for the trailer two days later, removed the old
dishwasher, and prepared to install the new one. My mind was thinking washing machine… put it
in place, screw on the hoses, pop the drain hose in the pipe, plug it in and
start doing laundry. Hah! The water supply for my dishwasher comes in a
3/8 inch flexible copper pipe. Flexible
such that it is difficult to bend, particularly if you don’t want to put in a
permanent kink. This pipe comes up from
directly over the water heater in the basement, with maybe 10 inches of room
between the top of the water heater and the rafters, and the dishwasher feed behind
a labyrinth of other pipes. Another
wrinkle, the valve that shuts off water to the dishwasher feed would not close
completely, leaving a persistent drip from the line as I worked. This all convinced me that there would be no
changes to the piping below. Fortunately I found a nifty little connector at
Home Depot. The push on connector, a
little pipe cutter, and some very careful work pushing the pipe into shape to
get to the feed on the new machine, and we were connected.
Which brings me to the installation directions... they
instruct you to connect the water and electrical with the dishwasher out from
under the cabinet, and rolled on its back.
Of course neither the copper pipe for the water nor the line for the
electrical will reach the connections until the damn machine is under the
counter. At this point you are working
on the connections lying on the ground, squeezing your arms together to fit into
the restricted space under the machine where all the various connections are
cleverly interlaced with hard edged sheet metal, various sharp objects, and
other wiring and hoses. The simple act
of squeezing a set of pliers to hold a hose clamp open becomes a combination of
art and torture.
Almost done, I decided I should use the new drain hose supplied
with the dishwasher since the old one could be 20 years old. The old hose needed to be sawn off the
connections. The nipple to hook the
drain hose on needed to be shortened for the new hose connector. Then, the pipe below the kitchen sink broke
(crumbled). I AM NOT A PLUMBER! My brother tried to convince me it would be
easy to fix. My brother says everything
will be easy. Fortunately in this case
he was right (don’t tell him) but of course this required another trip to Home
Depot. I did use the plumbing work as an
excuse to buy two lovely channel lock pliers.
I even managed to use both of them while re-assembling the drain on the
kitchen sink and finishing the dishwasher drain.
Water feed and drain in, machine leveled, fastened to the
cabinets, I only needed to make the wiring connection. I discovered that the part that holds the
wire in the circuit box was missing. I
thought perhaps I could jerry rig something with electrical tape and a pipe
clamp. It did not turn out well so I
took yet another trip to Home Depot for the correct part. I finished the wiring connections, a simple
thing except the position of my hands required me to crush my arms together in
a way that left me almost completely manually incompetent while simultaneously sending
shots of pain through my shoulders.
Finally done, a quick trip down the cellar to turn on breaker 3, confirm
the water feed is fully on, then back up to try the new machine.
As advertised this dishwasher is very quiet. It is also very pretty, with the controls on
the top of the door so that once you close the door you have no clue what cycle
it is on. There is an eerie glowing blue
bar of light on the door. It provides no
information that I can tell, but it looks cool.
Ooh, it turns red when the dry cycle starts! You have to get right up to the dishwasher to
hear that it is running, until it starts to drain. You can hear it running the drain water
through the drain in the kitchen sink, sounding like a dog or cat yorking up
some inedible prize. It will take me a
while to not want to grab for the paper towel when I walk by.
I’m not sure I’m up for installing a dishwasher again, but
it is done and now full of dog bowls, blue light glowing as it washes away.
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