Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Dishwasher saga begins...

After discovering steam leaking from our dishwasher damaging our cabinets (thanks to another local blog!) we quickly got on the phone with Fridgidaire and got in contact with our local repair company (for some on-warranty repair). From other sources online we were concerned that this issue is a fundamental flaw with the dishwasher and only bandaid solutions would be offered. But given that we don't have the time to seriously research another dishwasher or the desire to spend yet more money on the house we figured it would be worth taking advantage of the warranty to hopefully buy us some time.

After the repair person attempted for quite a while to determine the cause of the steam leak he got on the phone with another repair person and progress seemed to be made. Apparently this steam problem with our dishwasher is especially an issue when this dishwasher is installed at the end of a run of cabinets (e.g., against a wall or trim piece). Normally if it sits mid-run (both sides blocked) the steam is pushed out the bottom of the unit by the fan successfully but if one side is not blocked the steam is not forced out the bottom with enough force and it just sits there accumulating.

It seems since this issue has surfaced Frigidaire has worked to solve it. The repair person has ordered a new door panel to be installed that is designed to get the steam to vent out the bottom of the door more effectively (something about where the fan is placed etc.)

I'm glad to report we now have some hope that we may be able to keep this dishwasher and not have our cabinets reduced to paper mache. We'll update again once the new door is in and let you all know if the fix is successful.

5 comments:

K Dot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
K Dot said...

You are aware of Jen & Dave- just clicked on your link....this is obviously a flaw in the design of this machine & not just a one off. Hopefully it gets resolved. I recommend the AEG or Miele- both excellent!

416fixerupper said...

Yes, we saw their problem and its what alerted us to the problem with ours. From what the repair guy says Fridgidaire has redesigned the door to fix the fundamental flaw though (ie. it's not just an extra gasket, but something a bit more major). We'll see how it goes... he seemed to think Frigidaire is quite proactive with revising parts to fix flaws but the proof will be if this new part actually fixes it.

Jen and Dave said...

It is interesting to hear that Frigidaire is replacing the door. This solution was never offered to us. After having a service rep from the Brick look at ours twice, they approved a complete replacement (through the manufacturer's warranty). Hopefully the newly designed door will solve the problem for you! Good luck and we look forward to hearing how it works out.

Jen @ RamblingRenovators said...

Sounds like you caught the problem in the nick of time. Hope the new door works out for you.