KitchenAide dishwasher help please!

Trying to disassemble the water duct work on a circa 1995 Kitchen Aide dishwasher that has been running fine, but now the upper rack stuff does not seem to get adequate spray. Removed upper sliding rack and cleaned the bottom whirler-no help. Now trying to remove the whole spray system of rodding or blowing out. BUT, after getting bottom whirler out, I cannot figure out how to get the bottom screen and grill out...it all seems to be locked in place to the "going up the back" plumbing which has a clamp I can't seem to get loose. Does anyone have a manual of that era (my washer is a 916291238 that their web site says manuals are no longer available. Apparently someone washed items with lables still on...and the little ports are plugged somewhat.

Do not ask me where in this house my manual is as that may cause.......Sigh. Thanks for reading and commenting. Leo

I work on the commercial versions of that
thing. The ones i work with are glassware
washers for the bars in the building. They
cost like $3000.oo each and are solid
stainless steel. Have one hp pumps and move
a heck of a lot of water. You are playing
with a 21 year old machine! Some spray arms
have a little stainless snap collar inside
the arms. You need to lift pretty hard and
wiggle them round and round while pulling up
on it.I bet that screen is molded in. They
hate to make things fixable. You should have
seen what was left when my moms machine
swalowed a steak bone in the middle of the
nigh after everyone went to bed. I hate to
tell you but it sounds like your pump is
shot. No impeller is left. That " dish
machine soap" is caustic and it is also
abrasive. That means it cleans really well
and also chews up your pump. Also if you
have hard water, it can chew things up. All
of the pumps are made out of plastic.
Better to go buy a new one and stop messing
around banging your head on a wall. You will
be so happy with a new dish machine. Sorry
to tell you but I don't even know if you can
get parts. Too old.

And if you do get another one, "the appliance Doctor" (Joe Gagnon) says the best dishwasher by far is the Bosch. I got one last spring and I believe him. You can hardly hear it, and it's the bottom of the line. It also uses less soap and water and cleans really well.

Repair clinic.com
Repair clinic.com

OK, I have gotten the water duct work out without breaking anything...yet. Will work on cleaning parts and ports, then reinstall those parts. As was mentioned, the pump may have weakened--will see if this cleaning helped...I do not look forward to the removal and newer installation. I know these machines do not last forever! Thank you for taking time to advise me. I think all food vessels should be edible and what a wonderful green world that would be...no wasted electricity, water or time! Just eat everything including the fork....uh...make mine raspberry please. Leo

(quoted from post at 13:07:07 10/06/16) And if you do get another one, "the appliance Doctor" (Joe Gagnon) says the best dishwasher by far is the Bosch. I got one last spring and I believe him. You can hardly hear it, and it's the bottom of the line. It also uses less soap and water and cleans really well.

Click to expand...

I have been in commercial dishwasher repair for forty years. Bosches are best due to the horizontal shaft. Detergent is caustic but it doesn't bother machine parts. Grit that goes in on dishes ruins impellers and shaft seals. Shaft seals on horizontal shaft pumps last ten times longer than those on vertical shaft pumps.

I agree, 21 yr old machine? Forget it, buy a new one. Ditto on the Bosch. Have had 3 Kitchenaids for 40+ years, got a new one for a second house we bought, did the research, Bosch had the best reviews and I can see why.

You all aren't kidding on Bosch. I bought one a few
years back. It wasn't but $50 more than a throw
away brand with like features. It has never spit out a
dish that wasn't perfectly washed. It has a light that
shines on the floor in front of it. It's a good thing,
too. You literally can't hear it run after the water fill
cycle kicks off. It is silent. I was dumbfounded when
I installed it and fired it up.

Don't give up! If you were satisfied with it's performance 'til it "crashed" there's no reason not to repair it.

Those (Hobart) dishwashers of that era are completely repairable and darned near indestructible!

Even though I am familiar with them, I don't quite know what you are dealing with, a photo or two would certainly help!

I carefully removed parts down to lower levels and everything was gooey with ??? , finally pulled out a gob that had a round, flat screen with a horizontal driven two bladed shredder? on a stub shaft driven by a coupling? Cleaned everything thoroughly but I can see no way to put stub shaft with blades back while pushing down the screen into its slot. Maybe time for a new one. Leo

NO,NO Took me three attempts. But it is real simple after I had don just like you and ordered a new shrewder which I did not need. Look close at the back of the shrewder, the drive is made so you can find the small slots there at the bottom of the housing then line up the screen as you push down easy it will snap the drive in place. Put the cover back on the all the other parts and you are good to go. Note for some reason ever time I put mine back together the first time I used it there was some noise from that area but did not take long for it to get back normal.

Go to hobartcorp.com website and look at sr24 parts list and see if they look like your
machine.Also wm5h parts. [email protected]

I've had a Bosch for the last 21 years, whenever it doesn't clean, time to pull and clean the strainer that collects the yuck from the plates. Then it's good for another 2 months. I don't design dishwashers, but Bosch knows how to build them for the consumer market.