Dish washer

Dish washer troubleshooting

Symptom

The dish washer mostly works. However, it frequently will fail to wash the top rack. Furthermore, the dishes on both racks sometimes come out dirtier than when they went in. When this happens, I can take off the rotating spray arms which will be clogged with food particles. There are three spray arms: the largest is on the bottom, below all the dishes, one between the two racks, and the smallest one above all the dishes. The clog is generally at the end of the arm in the jet that should provide the force to spin the arm. These clogs happen after almost every wash.

	A clog in the middle spray arm that normally shoots up into the top rack.
	The top-most spray arm clogged with food. This spray arm is the most difficult to remove as it requires a 1/4 inch wrench to remove.

With some effort the clog can be removed and the top rack will get cleaned again. But the real problem is that food chunks are not getting filtered out properly.

I've tried to fix this before, and my first round of googling turned up the possible cause of broken glass in the bottom of the dish washer. And that was true. I cleaned out a bunch of broken glass. But that didn't fix the problem.

We've even called out a service tech and spent a bunch of money for him to clean the filter at the bottom (removing a bunch of paper stickers like the kind that are on fruit from the grocery store). But that didn't fix the problem.

Make and model

• Model: PDW9280J00SS
• Serial: VF821142B

Parts

Sears Parts has diagrams and parts lists online: http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/part-model/GE-Parts/Dishwasher-Parts/Model-PDW9280J00SS/0432/0130000

Recall

A quick search shows that our model is part of a recall: http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2011/GE-Recalls-Dishwashers-Due-to-Fire-Hazard/

Safety Recall

GE Dishwashers - October 2010 Recall

Your dishwasher is included in the recall.

Based on the information you submitted, you have two options (please choose one):

1. Replace your dishwasher using a GE rebate offer. GE is offering a rebate on the purchase of a new dishwasher, 
$200 for GE Profile™ dishwashers and $400 for GE Monogram® dishwashers. You will need to mail in the rebate 
form along with the model tag off your current dishwasher and the receipt showing the purchase of the new 
dishwasher prior to receiving the rebate.

  Download rebate form

2. Schedule free repair service for your dishwasher.

Neither one of those steps is likely to help resolve the current symptom. Well, not unless we want to spend $1000. So the recall should be dealt with, but later.

Diagnostic resources

GE provides maintenance videos:

• http://www.geappliances.com/videos/dishwasher-troubleshooting-fix.htm

The closest video to our problem is "Poor wash due to blocked pump". However the video only demonstrates how to pull lettuce from the bottom of the dishwasher tub (around part 506 below) without any disassembly. That step only helped when I was removing broken glass from the bottom of the tub.

Theory #1

The GE video about poor wash performance indicated that parts 506 and 508 are resposible for pumping food particles out of the washer. If they are blocked, then food particles would be distributed around during the wash and not removed, which is one of the symptoms we have.

To test this, I reached in and scraped quite a bit of hair and fuzz from the screen that is part of 508.

	This picture shows the pipe that carries water up to the spinning arm for the upper tray that gets clogged. And you can see the metal jar lid that I used to wedge the pipe for a tighter seal. The bottom end of that pipe seemed loose, which seemed like a way for food debris to get piped up into the upper arm.
	After removing the lower spin arm, you can see food debris inside the pipe that leads to the upper spray arm. And pieces of food sitting on the metal screen. You can also see the damage to the white, flexible tube that may also be allowing food debris to recirculate.
	After removing the connector at the bottom of the pipe, it is possible to remove the plastic cage (part 506) and get access to part 508 which did not contain any noticable food debris, but did seem to have hair and fuzz plugging the small holes in the side of part 508. Notice the damage to the white flexible hose.
	The schematic for the parts underneath the metal screen show two pumps: part 325 and part 310. The clogged screen on part 508 corresponds with the port on part 505 that leads toward part 452 and pump 310. There are two hoses (the smooth one that resembles a white garden hose (part 463) labeled drain tube assembly, and the crinkly plastic one (part 462) labeled drain hose. Part 325 is labeled pump drain assembly and is about $60 to replace. Part 310 is labeled mechanism assembly and is about $370 to replace (the comments call this part the circulation motor).