Fixing My Broken Dishwasher

When I moved into the condo, my friend recommending running the dishwasher on empty to make sure it was working before loading dishes into it. I did and it seemed to run fine! However it was kind of dirty at the front of the bottom so I scrubbed at it...and pulled away what looked like a piece of linguine. I thought to myself at the time "I hope that was pasta and not the seal". Then I bought one of those dishwasher cleaner packs and ran the dishwasher...and this time I came back to a big ol puddle on the floor! Uh Oh!

At least I was 99% confident that the issue WAS the front door gasket (or bottom seal), since it hadn't leaked the first time I ran it! I went on the Frigidaire website for a part recommendation and ended up calling Reliable Parts and ordering a new gasket. Except when it showed up a couple of days later it was the wrong part!! Now, I have no idea if I ordered the wrong part, or if they sent the wrong part (since I ordered over the phone and only described the part and what they sent was a type of seal). I called the company back and was kind of pissed since the original part plus shipping was $25 and now I had to order again. However they were so helpful and sent me the part and covered the cost of shipping!

So my new part came in soon after and I watched a youtube video or two to get the hang of installation (there are TONS to choose from! For all makes and models!). It was pretty simple- you just take off the front panel, pry out the old gasket with some pliers and then carefully fit the new one in. I had some trouble getting the gasket into the sweet spot, but overall it wasn't too bad. The scariest part was seeing my dishwasher like this.

But I figured it was already broken, so it was unlikely I could make it more broken. The hardest part was getting the front panel back on! I needed Cam's help because it would not stay in place while I screwed it back on! Then I ran it again, with fingers crossed, and no leak! Hurrah!

While it was dismantled I also attempted to fix the handle, but it has a broken piece so it promptly broke again. The handle DOES work, but it is tricksy. I think I can safely store my valuables in the dishwasher because only I seem to be able to open it. Also, the bottom rack is missing a couple wheels and has no balance so it can be noisy to roll it out due to the resulting crash. Oh...and the dishwasher isn't even that good at washing dishes! Lots of pre-rinsing going on around here these days. I am definitely not planning on investing any more money into repairing this sucker, though. It works now and that is good enough until I can buy a newer, more efficient and quieter model.

That being said, I am enjoying having a working dishwasher again because I am super lazy at doing dishes, not to mention how much I hated that dish drying rack taking up my counterspace. I also like how BIG the dishwasher is...I am seriously throwing everything in there. My old one was so tiny! Good thing I don't own high-end pots?

Goodbye dish drying rack!

I was really nervous about trying to repair this thing, since I generally am no good at repairing things, so I was super proud when I was done! Have you ever attempted to fix anything like this? Do share!