Dish washer 727

Our dishwasher stopped draining. There are lots of resources on the web now for fixing this kind of thing.

http://www.allrepairmanuals.com/frigidaire-dishwasher.htm?model_number=PLD2855RFC0

http://appliancejunk.com/forums/index.php?topic=1597.0

Here is the manual that lists all the part numbers.

media:dishwasher-parts-manual.pdf

I bailed out the water and took apart the inside bottom of the washer. That's where the filter and bottom spinner arm are. I found pieces of broken glass in the filter. That's an important detail since broken glass often leads to a broken drain pump according to many blogs.

I took off the kick plate and found out that I had pretty easy access to the drain pump. It has two wires that supply power. I could verify that the drain pump was the problem by triggering a drain cycle by starting and canceling the wash. That causes the drain pump to run for about 3 minutes. The drain cycle was making a new and bad sound like spurting and hissing steam. The sound stopped when I unplugged one of the wires to the drain pump.

That was enough to convince me that I probably needed to replace the drain pump. But there still could be a clog that was preventing the water from draining. I disconnected the pump and saw that the drain hose had water freely moving in it. No clogs.

I got a replacement part from WL May at 12th and Hawthorne for about $85. That felt pretty expensive for the size of the pump, but I guess it is much cheaper than a new dish washer.

I also found that the dishwasher was poorly shimmed up by pieces of shingle. I took those out, leveled the unit, and used the adjustable feet to keep it level and stable.

It now works just fine again and isn't prone to twist out of position and cause the door to get stuck open or closed.