About three years ago, we replaced our old broken dishwasher. When my husband purchased the new one, the store employee told him not to expect it to last more than two or three years, five years at the most. At the same time, a friend told me that she had gotten so tired of having to replace her dishwasher that she decided to invest in a Viking dishwasher. The sticker price of her dishwasher almost put me into shock.

A couple of weeks ago, our dishwasher stopped cleaning the dishes properly. We would place virtually clean dishes in the dishwasher and they would come out with a white etched film, or greasy, or just plain dirty looking. My husband tried a couple of things to fix it, but nothing worked.

On Monday, since he had the day off, he decided to find out how much it would cost to repair or replace the dishwasher. After doing a little research, he told me that a new Whirlpool or Kenmore would cost about $650, including delivery, installation, haul away, the power cord, and a hose. I told him that we couldn’t afford it. In 2011, out of necessity, we replaced our old refrigerator, garage door opener, furnace and oven . In addition to this, we had thousands of dollars worth of medical/prescription bills. I decided to do a little research online to see if we could fix our dishwasher.

I stumbled upon Handy Guys Podcast and this podcast (embedded below) which seemed to address our problem. According to the handy guys, the basins of Kenmore, Kirkland Signature, and Whirlpool dishwashers usually need to be cleaned every two to three years.