Is this thing on?

Have I mentioned how loud my dishwasher is? I'm not talking about noise of water draining into the sink or a distracting but tolerable white noise of the motor running. I have no idea why, but it makes a grinding noise (there is no hard food grinder or disposer in it). The only thing I can liken it to is a garbage disposal that has been turned on...with a spoon in it! The odd part is that it doesn't make the noise for the entire cycle, nor does it make it every time for the same amount of time even when running the same cycle.

The first time I heard it was the first time the machine was run after we moved in. We cleaned the kitchen after making dinner in our single unpacked frying pan and half a dozen plates. Five minutes after the cycle started I realize DH had doubled the volume level on the TV and my children are screaming to be heard over it. I realized that the relatively quiet noise level of the dishwasher had gradually increased over that 5 minutes and now you couldn't be in the same room with it and think.  Worse, you couldn't be in a DIFFERENT room with it and still hear reasonable noise levels like the television or human speech from a 4 and 9 year old.  Honestly it felt like a kick in the teeth, just one more thing to add to the Great Big List of Fixits!

Our home is on a septic system so we have to be cognizant of how much water we are using at any given time.  This means that if I have run a couple loads of laundry before dinner and the kids are taking a bath after dinner I need to wait to run the dishwasher until the middle of the night so that the system has time to process all the wastewater.  Not a problem as most dishwashers these days have some kind of time delay.  A week or so after learning how loud the dishwasher was we discovered that the time delay feature didn't work.  Of course we would learn this after putting approximately half a load of dishes back in the kitchen cabinets thinking they had been washed.  We began looking for a new dishwasher the following weekend!

Now I should say that I am a "gadget junkie".  In most households this trait usually falls to the men but to be honest DH doesn't have time most days to keep up with important current events much less learn about the latest i-device or television to hit the world of technology.  I, on the other hand, love "bells and whistles", I've never owned a VCR (yes, I am that old) that had the time perpetually flashing 12:00, and as you can tell from my previous post, I know the difference between a power cord, coaxial cable and high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable.  This all means that going to the store to pick out a new kitchen appliance wasn't going to be easy as I have to temper my desire for the "latest and greatest" with my desire not to have to spend an arm and a leg to get it.  What makes the situation even harder is I do research....LOTS of research and read user reviews on virtually everything I buy.

I have come to the conclusion that when purchasing appliances (regardless of the appliance type) that research may not be as important as an extended warranty.  Every brand has their fan-boys, but no brands are made the way they were 20 years ago. Gone are they days that the washer and dryer set that you purchased when you got married would be the same set that you load up and move for your kid's to use for few years while renting a house with their friends while they are in college.  Now days you'll be lucky to get 4 or 5 years of use out of low-end machines and 10 out of the mac-daddy units.

I finally found the one I wanted, and placed an order for it online (because being willing to wait to have it ship from New York saved me $500 and I still got a 5 year onsite warranty).  Unfortunately I received an email indicating that the appliance was now on back-order from the manufacturer so would take longer that usual to arrive.  Fast forward one month and it finally arrived today!

My mother asked me when the installer was coming to put it in.  HA!  Seriously?! There are very few things I will pay someone to do around my house for me and they usually entail dealing with a gas line.  For anyone thinking they need to pay $199 to have someone install a dishwasher you should know that the hardest part is making sure you connect your water lines tight enough to not leak...but not so tight that they crack a connector and cause a leak.

The steps are pretty simple especially if you are just replacing an old dishwasher with the new.


First remove the old dishwasher (turn off the water line and power to it first!) so that you know if you have an outlet or direct wire coming from the wall.

Dishwasher space with direct wire from wall.

Connect the power.  (I find it easier to do the power before the unit is slid in if your cord will allow)

Connect 3 wires (hot, neutral and ground)

Slide the dishwasher into the provided space.  (Depending on your insulation this may be the most time consuming part as you don't want it bunching up and hanging out the front under the counter)

The insulation is the most challenging part of sliding the unit in under the counter top

Finally connect the water lines, secure unit to cabinets and install the handle if necessary!

Installed and ready for use!

Obviously this is an over-simplification as each unit is different.  But it isn't nearly as complicated as most installers and contractors would have you believe.  The nice thing is that now most companies make owners and installation manuals available for download so you can see what you are getting yourself into before the unit is delivered.  

We love the new unit.  Now the only thing we hear when it is running is the sound of our voices saying "Is this thing on?"