Our story begins a few months ago (probably more, I have no sense of time…) when I received one nearly new dishwasher from a woman here at my office. Her daughter had just purchased all new appliances and her used ones were destined for the dump unless some kind, BENEVOLENT soul rescued them. Being in need of a dishwasher that was not old, dingy, and BROWN, I accepted this responsibility and adopted this poor, unloved Maytag dishwasher.
Excited and determined, and with a LOT of help from Ian and Scotty, I removed the old dishwasher from its housing and carefully removed the insulation surrounding it for reuse on the new appliance. Phase one complete! Score 1 point for me! Hooray!
Now on to the good stuff. Putting in the shiny new(ish) one! Upon inspection, it would seem that the old hose for draining the water from the dishwasher was not compatible with the new washer. After a remarkably unhelpful phone call to Home Depot (Me: Hello? I was wondering if you could help me with a dishwasher part. Her: No. Me: Do you know who might be able to? Her: No. Click.) and Rona I finally turned to the local appliance store that, luckily, had their own parts and service department and who had the exact part I needed in stock. Hooray! One more victory for me!
We promptly were able to get the drain hose connected and set up properly, only to learn that the water supply hose was also not compatible. Why had I not checked this first? That is a very good question. Really, a very good question. Score 1 for the Maytag.
Deciding to skip straight by Rona and Home Depot, I went to the people I knew could help me. I went back to the folks at the Parts & Service department of the local appliance store. Upon arriving, I was then given a generic hose that “fits all new dishwashers”. Apparently, drain hoses are specific to model. Water supply hoses are UNIVERSAL. So, fine. Score another 1 point for me…
Or not.
The plumbing under my sink is old enough to be incompatible with this UNIVERSAL hose. Score 1 for the Maytag.
Off to Home Depot I go for a little power shop the next day at lunch. Somewhat limited on time, I quickly speak to a plumbing guy there and he describes to me something that should be a relatively quick fix.
“Easy”, I say. “Point me to the parts and I’m on my way.”
“No. No. I should probably draw you a picture.”
“Really. I got it.”
“No. Really.” Draws picture. “Here is what you need to do.”
Thoroughly patronized and ready to hit someone, I finally leave Home Depot with 5 feet of tubing, crimping rings, and a rental crimper, and a connector that is compatible with my UNIVERSAL water supply hose. After much struggling, pounding, and swearing, I finally get all of this connected to the water valve under my sink. With more help from Scotty and Ian, of course. Let the record show that I did NOT do all of this alone. I had a lot of help, which I am very grateful for. Score 1 more point for me. Yay!!!
What is that sound I hear? The sound of success? Perhaps…
My dishwasher has been beautiful. Working without fail, making my dishes sparkly and clean! With minimal effort from me! Like magic! Until last night when the hose I worked so hard on decided it’s relationship with the mature, stable valve just wasn’t working out anymore. It wanted to go its own way, be independent. It needed its own space and to find its own sense of adventure. And so, after one very messy breakup, we opened the cabinet door to discover some oh-so-much-fun-I-could-barely-stand-it DRAMA. Score THIRTY SEVEN points for the effing dishwasher and it’s entire plumbing farce. Scotty quickly found the valve and shut it off but not before a giant puddle had amassed on my kitchen floor. Grabbing towels from the upstairs linen closet, I quickly managed to mop up all the water from the floor and most of it from inside the cabinet under the sink. Score 10 points for me and my cleaning prowess!
Pleased with myself, I headed downstairs with said towels to put them in the washing machine only to find an even bigger puddle on the laundry room floor. The water came down through the walls and ended up in a puddle under the cat litter box, my box of IMPORTANT PAPERWORK, and, oh yes, one of my spare tires. I had to move it all out of the way before I could get under the makeshift workbench to mop up the water down there. Tonight, I get to cut the plastic from my basement walls (no drywall in the laundry room), turn a couple of fans on to dry out the insulation underneath, and then re-plastic it all.
Our score so far:
Dishwasher plus surrounding plumbing: 39
Me: 14
NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL A GLARING DEFEAT.
I suppose I should probably consider ripping out the uneven shelving so I can drywall and finish that room, but then, if there is anything I’ve learned from this entire experience it’s that maybe sometimes it’s okay to leave that kind of stuff up to the experts.
You win this time, dishwasher. But I’m making a comeback. And this time, I’ll be wearing war paint.
OH MY!!! That sounds like quite the evening. This sounds remarkably like a little thing that happened to us a couple of weeks ago when we needed to replace the taps in the basement bathroom. We thought, “hey, what a great opportunity to spruce up the main bathroom, we’ll buy new ones for that one and put the old ones downstairs”. This resulted in a 2 week period where the only tap that worked in the entire house was the kitchen, probably 8-9 trips to Canadian Tire, Rona and Home Depot and a $600 bill with Pete the Plumber. AH, GOOD TIMES!