How To Fix Your Broken Dishwasher

Dishwashers are one of the many appliances in our homes that tend to break easily. Some older dishwashers can clog up because of food particles not rinsed completely. Even newer dishwashers can clog after hard use. As with any home appliance, you want to make sure your dishwasher is in excellent working order, otherwise it will wear out faster.

Think of all of the dishes you have washed in your dish-washer and now think what it would be like if your dishwasher was broken. Some people don’t mind hand washing the dishes but if you are like me, I hate it! My wife is usually very busy taking care of our children so I try to help out as much as possible by doing the dishes. Believe me, if our dishwasher broke I would pay whatever it cost to get it fixed or buy a brand new one.

Dishwashers will save hundreds and maybe even thousands of gallons of water over a years time, plus they will also save you a ton of time. Loading and unloading a dishwasher does not take that much time so its beneficial to have it running.

A few weeks ago our Frigidaire dishwasher broke! It wasn’t just clogged it just stopped working. What surprised me was we bought this brand new less than two years ago so it shouldn’t be broken. I called up a friend who does appliance repair in Spokane and asked him for his help. Even though we live a few hundred miles away from each other he was able to help me diagnose the problem and get it fixed right over the phone.

For some reason the motor stopped working which is a common problem with newer Frigidaire dishwashers. He explained that dishwashers seem to be his number one appliance that he fixes. The good thing about dishwashers is they are fairly cheap to fix, especially the newer ones.

The first step to fixing your broken dishwasher is understanding what it is doing.

If its not turning on, then it could be an electrical problem.
If it does turn on but doesn’t clean the dishes, it could be a clogged pipe.
Most of the time if the dishwasher doesn’t clean the dishes its the clogged pipe or the motor needs to be replaced.

Luckily new appliances are easier to fix because its easy to find parts. Every appliance has many moving parts and when one breaks you either fix it or get a new appliance. With dishwashers there are only a few parts you can actually replace such as the motor, heating element and the hoses. With so few parts that can be replaced, dishwashers are usually easy to fix.

The only problem with a dish-washer is that it is usually hidden underneath a counter top so getting to the back of the machine can be difficult. Having a broken dishwasher repaired will save you a bunch of money and is usually the best way to go, unless of course the machine is many years old.