Fixing a Dishwasher That Won’t Dispense Detergent
If you’re having problems with your KitchenAid dishwasher not properly dispensing detergent, then the video and information below should be very helpful to you in getting things working again without the need for a professional service call. If you find that you DO need professional repairs done on your dishwasher, we recommend you get the best – Best Appliance Repair of Austin of course!
Today we’re going to show you how to change the soap dispenser latch kit on your dishwasher. It’s a really easy job; all you need is a #15 torx bit, a flat blade screwdriver, and a pair of slip-joint pliers. Let me show you how we do it.
Now our first step will be to open the dishwasher door, lay it down flat, and we can remove the cutlery basket just to get that out of the way. Now our next step will be to open the cover to the soap box, and then with our pliers we’ll grasp that latch from both sides, just kind of give that a little twist and pop it out; and we’ll set that aside.
Next we’re going to remove the #15 torx screws around the perimeter of the inner door panel. Now while supporting the door we’ll just lift up on that inner door panel, bring it out of the tub at the bottom, tilt it out far enough that we can hook the top of it under the latch; it will support itself.
Next we’ll take off the protective cover; it’s just held in place with a couple of plastic pins that pop into a couple of holes there in the inner door panel. So we’ll slide that off and set it aside. Now the back part of that latch assembly is located right here so we need to remove or set this aside enough so that we can pull the old one out and pop the new one in. So with a flat blade screwdriver just go into the bottom slot here, tilt that out, release it, and remove the old assembly.
Now there are two ways to put this in and you’ll notice a little tab in the top, that’s the position it should be in; it should be facing upwards. So we’ll slide our new one into place, there’s a rounded portion on that panel that will sit over, again make sure that we have it lined up properly, and then with our flat blade, we’ll reengage that hook.
Now we’re ready to put that terminal part in, it has a little tab that will face upwards as well so we can push that through from inside of the inner door panel. Now with it lined up straight, just push that piece into position until it locks in. How this mechanism works is that there is a set of cams that come down from the timer that is underneath of this cover and you’ll see two little nylon bars that come down through there, they engage this mechanism that will push it down, activate that lever that opens the soap box lid.
Now when putting this back together what we need to do is rotate that timer dial past the dry cycle until those arms are fully retracted as far as they’ll go into that timer mechanism; and they actually protrude about a quarter of an inch past the end of that bracket. You can rotate the timer dial all the way around until you find where they’re retracted the most.
Now what we’ll do next is put our cover over this but we need to engage this portion with those two arms. So let’s put our cover on, and what we’ll do is lift the back of the inner door panel up then we’ll engage the top of it first. Sit it down into it’s opening, and then lower it into place.
Now we can check the operation of that mechanism before we put it all back together, just take one screw and put it into the bottom on this side, then holding the inner door panel to the outer door panel stand it up, and then we’ll rotate that dial, just past the normal wash position, and the soap box should open. And it does. So we know everything works there, we’re ready to put the rest of the screws in.
Reinstall the cutlery basket, and our repair is complete. Told you it was an easy job. Good luck with your repair.