The Quality Goes In as the Price Goes Up

The Frigidaire dishwasher is old, 7+ years; if it were a computer it would qualify to be in a museum. So, when the dishes on the top rack stopped getting clean I knew it might be time but I’m of the nature to at least give it the old college try. The problem turned out to be pretty easy to diagnose; the seal on the back of the top spray arm had dissolved/corroded and the water wasn’t going through the spray arm but leaking down the inside back wall of the dishwasher. Simple, get a new seal, snap it in and I’m good to go. Well, not so fast. Frigidaire doesn’t sell the seal separately. You have to buy the entire spray arm. Hold on now. They don’t sell just the spray arm any more. You have to buy the entire top rack with the spray arm attached and the seal attached to the arm. In the end a $.15 piece of plastic, my best guess, ends up costing $69. The only reason I bought the entire rack assembly is that with the dishwasher being so old that I believed the Frigidaire parts lady that the parts were not being made anymore. A couple of months after the repair I was in Lowe’s shopping for something else when I happened to walk by the dishwashers and there was a new Frigidaire. I stopped, opened it up, pulled out the top rack reached around behind the spray arm and pulled off the seal. The exact same thing that I bought for $69. I tossed it back into the dishwasher, slammed it shut and went on my way.

But wait, don’t order yet, there’s still more.

The second scariest set of words your wife can say to you are “Why is the carpet wet?” The first being “I’m pregnant…again.”

Both could involve leaky pipes and both could end up costing you a lot of money. I’m dealing with the wet carpet. Leaking pipes? No, it’s the dishwasher, again. It’s leaking from the pump/motor. Something underneath. So, me being me, I take it apart. (Thanks YouTube) Down, down, down I go into the bowels of the motor until I find it the source of my leak. A small spring loaded washer between motor and pump. With the motor in hand off to the parts store I go where I’m fondly, if only, remembered for my seal on the spray arm performance. The nice guy at Parts Plus looks up the motor and yes indeed. You can’t buy the washer separately. Another $.15 piece of plastic, with a small spring inside for… $139. They throw in a new motor and pump with every washer.