Aren Cambre's Blog

(Skip to the very bottom if you want the instructions on how to use this hose.)

I finally have a new dishwasher installed (more details later). Thanks to instruction defects on Home Depot’s GE Universal 6′ Dishwasher Connector, the installation was significantly lengthened.

The first of these hoses leaked out of both ends:

This is what the end looked like when I was done with it:

I returned it as defective and got another one. The second one also leaked:

…out both ends!

Notice that this time, I used Teflon. Didn’t help.

What is going on? I double checked the instructions:

…and couldn’t find where I went wrong.

Note how the instructions say “DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN.” What in tarnation does that mean? Thanks for being so helpful and specific, GE!

Here’s what I did:

1. Hand tightened.
2. Wrench tightened until the nut doesn’t back off after I remove the wrench. Before that point, the nut would back itself up about 1/32 to 1/16 turn when I left off the wrench.
3. Turned on the water.
4. Watched both fittings leak.
5. Throw tools around the room and curse Home Depot and GE.
6. Storm around the house in a rage, pulling out my hair and banging my head on light switches and doorknobs.
7. Tightened each fitting about 1/8 – 1/4 turn at a time until the leak stopped. Except neither leak stopped, leading to…
8. Eventually bottomed out each fitting to where I couldn’t tighten any more.

I didn’t think I was overtightening in step 2, but I’m sure that it was way overtightened by step 8.

Back at Home Depot the third time, I asked the resident certified plumber what I was doing wrong. He said I need to get it pretty tight. (Gee, thanks, hadn’t that method failed me twice already‽)

Doing the same wrong thing over and over again is insanity, so I thought I would try a new tactic this time. I followed the same instructions that came with some faucet hookups: hand tighten, then turn a wrench an additional quarter turn.

Hand tightening got difficult because the 3/8″ fitting fit had smooth sides and fit in a 5/8″ wrench. But I did it that way on both ends, and it held! And didn’t leak!

Here is the under-sink fitting:

…and the under-dishwasher connection:

My gentle readers may wonder, “Aren, don’t you feel guilty returning a product that you screwed up?”

No. This is a product defect. Part of a product is its instructions. The fancy packaging clearly denotes this as a DIY-oriented product. Therefore, the instructions should be appropriate for DIY types like me who have never done this before. Simply stating “DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN” when you really mean “hand tighten and then wrench tighten an additional quarter turn” is a gross defect in the instructions.

Another part of the product is the design. There is no need for the flat edges on the nut to engage the wrench. If the nut had been enlarged and equipped with a grip-able surface, then no wrenches would be needed at all. Human strength would be able to provide enough torque.

DIY people are used to fittings where you need to crank them reasonably tightly. Almost all copper fittings are that way, almost all metal-to-metal fittings in a car are that way (except for Vortec intake manifold bolts when you use the plastic manifolds!), etc. Home Depot should have done a better job of policing its products, especially for one that’s 50% more than the equivalent at Lowe’s.

At the end of my prior dishwasher fiasco work, I was left with a bum dishwasher line and a leaking shutoff valve. The leaking valve is the one of the right:

No matter how tightly I cranked it shut, it the line would not stop dripping. Today, I rebuilt that valve with a Brasscraft shutoff valve rebuild kit. Somehow, I made the leak worse with that rebuild! That means this old shutoff valve needs replacement. I don’t think it’s more than 20 years old, so that surprised me.

To make matters worse, the line supplying my hot water valve on my kitchen sink started leaking on one of its fittings. You can see water collecting on it in this picture:

It may be correctable by simply tightening it up. However, since I want to replace the valves below anyway, and since the flexible line is of unknown age, I went ahead and replaced it, too.

I ended up getting a 3 way, quarter turn ball valve:

The brass cap on the right is where a dishwasher line will later feed into it the water supply when I get this new dishwasher.

Notice that the fitting on the bottom is not soldered. This compression fitting seemed scary, but they are apparently the de facto fitting for new installations where the lines don’t move much. If the lines are subject to a lot of movement, especially twisting motion, you still need to use an old-fashioned solder valve.

So far this contraption is holding up fine.

By the way, an experienced professional told me that the universal dishwasher line is usually fine. It could be that I had a defective line or a defective fitting. Either way, I am returning the $15 universal line back to Home Depot and picking up a more reasonably-priced $10 line from Lowe’s.

Some stupid mice “gifted” me another opportunity to do household repairs.

On Thursday night, I noticed the dishwasher sounding a little strange. Halfway through the cycle, I found the inside was bone dry. Further investigation found–gulp–the floor was soaked!

I removed the dishwasher’s bottom cover and found that mice ate up part of a line:

This is part of the line that runs from the pump to the top sprayer. Thanks to the holes, the pump just sprayed water underneath the dishwasher.

Here’s a close up, after I removed it:

You can make out mouse teeth marks.

I can’t work on this from underneath, so out goes the dishwasher!

This isn’t an easy-to-find replacement part. Since the dishwasher is 10 years old, 4 years past when Consumer Reports recommends to replace it instead of repairing it (I agree with that assessment), I knew I would have to do a repair on the cheap or just get a new dishwasher.

Here’s the opening behind the dishwasher:

The floor is dark because the wood is soaked. See that hole just right of center? Close up:

See the teeth marks? That’s a sewer vent pipe behind. I guess they scampered up that?

Over to the left, the stupid mice made the beginnings of a cute little nest with plastic bits and fiberglass.

Next step is to stuff steel wool into all holes. Steel wool should keep the mice out.

The hole to the right was probably not an access port, but it could have allowed the mice entry into an area below an adjacent cabinet. (No food was stored there; just pet supplies.)

Then I set up a fancy drying system:

That’s a regular floor fan blowing heated air into the dishwasher cavity.

After it got dry enough, I caulked the heck out of the remaining openings:

The floor is pretty dry by this point.

This is the side of the dishwasher after I cut off the damaged piece of the pipe:

And my totally awesome repair:

Automotive heater core hose clamped on each end with a hose clamp. I was sure this would work fine because the plastic tube linked up with the pump with a soft rubber piece and a hose clamp.

It’s hard to make out, but this is where the line connects to the pump.

I put a small wire cage on part of this line where it hits against a metal edge to prevent constant rubbing from tearing a hole in the line:

While I had things apart, I noticed that the power supply line is an unswitched feed that comes off the switch for the food disposal. I would rather have a way to shut off the dishwasher circuit without throwing a breaker, so this:

became this:

I had to play a little logic game to figure out which wire went where, but it works great now.

Shove it all back in, turn it on, and we’re ready for another 10 years of service.

Wrong!

The stupid dishwasher’s pump has a leak, unrelated to the mice!

Here is what happened after running it for just a few minutes:

The pump is leaking! I have no idea how long this has gone on. However, the lack of warpage on the wood suggests that this is a new leak. The jostling of getting the dishwasher in and out may have encouraged this leak. I don’t see how I could have created the leak per se; the pump couldn’t have struck anything. I think something was probably about to “give,” and the movement made it finally give up.

If that’s not enough, this dishwasher supply line also leaks:

Let me tell you, this supply line is garbage. It’s an overpriced, $15 hose from Home Depot. Here’s the box top so you’ll know not to get it:

This piece of trash wouldn’t tighten. That is, it would loosen itself up some after each turn of tightening it. When I finally got it tight enough to stop backing out on me, it kept dripping. So I cranked it bit by bit until it stopped leaking, except that even after I knew I had applied way too much torque for a brass fitting, it still kept leaking!

Here’s what the end looked like once I got it off later:

Either Home Depot is selling complete trash for $15, or this product has poor quality control. $15 seems really high for a simple hose, anyway. I may check into something less expensive when I replace the dishwasher.

Yeah, that’s right, “replace.” It’s new dishwasher time. There’s no point in spending any more time on this dishwasher. It’s 10 years old and has outlived its economic life. Fortunately, Consumer Reports’s 3rd highest ranking dishwasher is a “best buy,” so a replacement shouldn’t hurt my pocketbook too much.