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Broken Dishwasher Makes Noise? Not so fast. It's my hot water pressure.

My dishwasher hasn't been cleaning dishes well.  It is about 12 years old... is time for a new one?  The short answer is no. A new dishwasher will not fix my problem.  It turns out that my kitchen's hot water flow is very low, and so my dishwasher is not filling up with enough water.  Buying a new dishwasher won't fix this, so therefore I won't be buying a new dishwasher.

[ UPDATE!  After a 12+ months of suffering, I solved all my dishwasher problems by flushing my kitchen's hot water plumbing!  See this post for more information. ]

How the Dishwasher Inlet Valve Works

My dishwasher fills up using a timed water valve. Given reasonable water pressure, my dishwasher accurately accepts about 3 gallons of water per cycle in 95 seconds.  If the water flow is very low, then less water comes in over those 95 seconds.   If water pressure is decent, the dishwasher fills until a float switch is triggered.  

If the dishwasher doesn't get enough water, the pump still runs but it sucks in water and a bunch of air.  This makes the dishwasher very loud, and water/air mix dribbles out of the washer arms. Nothing gets cleaned.  After a while, the dishwasher realizes that something is wrong, drains any water, and tries again.  

Verification of Water Issue

Since I perceived a water fill issue, I decided to verify the problem.

While the dishwasher was filling, I'd stop it by opening the door and manually add about a liter of water.  Then I'd close it and allow it to fill up more.   After doing this at each fill, it seems to make it run perfectly again.

 It turns out that I can add up about 3 liters of water, so it is filling to about 70% of what it actually wants.

Fixing the issue

I tried to replace the inlet valve, thinking that it was maybe clogged.  Nope, it was fine.  The problem is in the plumbing.  In fact, the kitchen hot water tap is noticeably slow.

Now I have a couple options:

  • Get a plumber in to address the low hot water pressure.  This is likely the right answer, but that seems expensive.
  • Connect the dishwasher to the cold water line.  This likely isn't a bad idea, as long as it doesn't make my dishwasher freak out due to the cold water.  If I use this approach, then my dishwasher will have to heat the water much more than it does now.

Do you have any thoughts on how to inexpensively address this issue?


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