Cleaning · 15 of 21
Grinding Noise During the Wash
A hard, rattling grind that comes and goes as the machine sprays.
| What you can see | What it usually is | Whose job |
|---|---|---|
| A grind that starts a few minutes in and stops whenever the spraying pauses | Something loose is lying in the sump and only gets picked up while water is moving through it | Yours to fish out |
| The same grind in the same place on every cycle, whatever you load | A fragment has lodged against the impeller and is being cut at rather than thrown around | Ours |
| Grinding with a hot smell, or a cycle that gives up early | The motor is being loaded past what it will tolerate, and running it on is what turns a clear-out into a pump | Stop using it and call |
| A scrape from high up as the upper arm comes round | A handle or a long utensil is hanging through the rack into the path of the arm | Yours to reload |
A grind is a hard object being picked up and put down again by moving water, over and over, against parts not built to take it. The noise itself does no harm; the minutes it is allowed to carry on do. Switch the machine off at the wall, then call Viking Repair Denver on (303) 729-0972.
Every other noise a dishwasher makes is rhythmic. A grind is not: it is irregular, metallic and obviously wrong, and that is useful, because it means nobody has to wonder whether they are imagining it. Switch it off at the first cycle you hear it on.
Why the minutes matter more than the object
The object itself is almost never the expensive part. What costs money is the hundreds of passes it makes between the moment it arrives and the moment somebody stops the machine. A fragment circulating in the wash water is scoring the surfaces it passes, and an impeller that has been scored no longer moves water the way it did even after the fragment comes out.
That is why the honest advice on this one is unusually short. Stop using it. A machine taken out of service on the first noisy cycle almost always comes back with nothing more than a clean sump, and one that has been run for a fortnight because the dishes were still coming out clean very often does not.
What happens once the tub is empty
The filter lifts out, then whatever sits beneath it, then everything that has collected in the bottom. Most of the time the object is lying right there and the work is over in minutes. Where it is not, the pump inlet is checked next, because a light fragment goes wherever the water goes and stops where the water slows down.
Afterwards the machine runs empty with somebody listening to it, which is the only real proof that what was making the noise has actually left the building.
What to try before anyone drives over
- Switch the machine off at the wall switch or the breaker before a hand goes anywhere near the tub. Nothing else here matters if the cycle can restart while you are reaching into the bottom of it.
- Lift the filter out and tip what is in it onto a pale cloth. Glass shows up as glitter against a light surface, and anything larger than that will be obvious the moment you look.
- Feel carefully around the sump opening with the filter out, and stop if you can see glass. A shard is a job for a torch and a pair of tweezers, not for fingertips.
- Turn both spray arms by hand once the bottom is clear. They should go round without catching; a catch says the fragment did not come out on its own.
That is as far as it goes without tools. If it is still wrong, call Viking Repair Denver on (303) 729-0972 and say what you last washed and whether anything came out of it chipped — it is usually enough to know which part is coming on the van.
Every symptom, grouped by what you can see Water in, water out, cleaning, power and the door — the whole library on one page.
Clifford Nakamura
- Written
- On the van
- Service technician — controls and intermittent faults
- Years at it
- 22 years in the trade