Without a doubt, having a dishwasher in your home is a very helpful and efficient appliance for cleaning the dishes, especially when you do not have the time to wash them yourself; however, at times, your dishwasher may require some repair work, maybe even an entirely new replacement. If your dishwasher seems to have lost all hope of properly functioning ever again, it will be time to find a replacement. Unfortunately, if you do not know the first thing about replacing a home appliance, you will want to familiarize yourself with the working parts of a dishwasher before removing it.
Before you begin, you will need to make sure that you have a screwdriver, flashlight and an adjustable wrench at hand to assist you with the removal. When removing your dishwasher, you will want to be certain that the electrical supply at the circuit breaker is off. As you will want to be absolutely sure that there is no power, test the appliance by turning the cycle on. If nothing happens, then the power is off and you may feel safe enough to continue removing the appliance.
The next thing that you should do is find the hot water shutoff valve and turn the hot water off. The hot water valve is usually located under the kitchen sink. Now, search under the counter edge that is above the dishwasher. You should see the two to three brackets that are responsible for keeping the appliance attached to the counter. Once you have located the brackets, remove the screws that are holding the brackets to the counter.
After the screws are removed, you can now physically begin removing the dishwasher from the counter. You can do this by grasping both sides of the dishwasher and slowly pulling it out. If the appliance does not move smoothly, you may have to add a slight side-to-side motion when pulling. Continue pulling the machine out from under the counter until there is approximately 12 to 18 inches of clearance behind it, or pull until you feel resistance. This resistance will be from the connections behind it, so be careful as to not pull the appliance with too much force once you reach this point. If the machine is too heavy for you to move by yourself, be sure to ask for help from another friend.
Once the dishwasher is in position, you will need to gain access behind the appliance in order to get a view of the connections. You should see three connections: the water intake hose, drain hose and the electrical connection. If you are unable to disconnect these, continue pulling the appliance out until there is no slack left of the connections. Disconnect each water line with an adjustable wrench. When disconnecting the electrical wiring, the supply can often be found beneath a screwed-on access plate.
After locating the access plate, carefully remove the wire nuts that hold both the white and black electrical wires together. Be sure to also unscrew the ground wire. Once everything has been safely disconnected, the dishwasher should be prepared to be removed from the room.
If you don’t feel comfortable removing your dishwasher, contact C&W Appliance Service to have one of our dishwasher repair technicians remove it for you.
