Has the door of your dishwasher got slightly crooked? Has it been causing trouble while opening and closing? Or is there something else very wrong going on with it?
If yes, this might be a strong sign that it’s high time for you to grab your tools and start repairing that dishwasher door.
Don’t worry or hesitate because this can be done at your home without the need of an outsider.
We will inform you with ways and a step to step guide to adjust and fix your dishwasher door on a low budget and with less effort!
The adjustment process counts a series of steps out of which the first one is to prepare yourself for the work and align all the tools along with the instructions guide in one place.
A dishwasher is a modern appliance that caters to many of our kitchen needs. The dishwasher door has its smooth mechanism however there might come one time when your door causes difficulty in opening and closing.
Otherwise, it suddenly gets stuck at one position or if the hinges begin to get weak, the door might open too far from its range that all dishes in the rack along with the rack fall past the door, on the floor.
This possibly could damage the floor, rack, and dishes.
To avoid this damage we need to start mending our problem.
Number One: Door that won’t shut
In this part where your dishwasher door won’t close, you will have to mend the door lock. Altering the door lock arrangement at the place of its origin should be a precise procedure for most modern dishwashers.
- To alter the door lock position for adjustment, you need to access it. Therefore, first of all, unfasten the screws for the internal door panel. Just enough for you to reach the lock, make sure that you don’t overdo it.
- Before any further advancements, make sure that you switch off the circuit breaker connecting to the dishwasher. For safety, try to switch it on for once and check if electricity is being supplied to it.
- Adjust the strike plate aka (also known as) the region where the lock inserts into. For this, the dishwasher has to be taken out from the niche for a while and not more than just enough to reach for the strike plate. Consider using Phillip’s head screwdriver for this purpose.
- Then in a matter of a few minutes, use your screwdriver to weaken the screws. And adjust the plate according to the preferred alignment that would help insertion of the lock. Again use your screwdriver to tighten the screw firmly after alignment.
Remember to do proper fixation in the first go so that you don’t have to keep fixing this repeatedly.
- After opening the dishwasher door, unfasten the bolts protecting the inner door panel to the outer door panel with a screwdriver.
- Next, you need to slightly loosen (without removing) the bolts securing the door latch with a twist. For this, lift the inner door panel enough just so you get the job done.
- It’s time to tighten the door lock securing screws but before that, lift the door in such a manner that the lock aligns with the strike plate.
- Lastly, finish reinstalling the inner door panel with protecting screws by a screwdriver. Close the door confidently and switch on the circuit breaker.
Number Two: Door Hinge that is crooked or makes noises
Most of the time, there is a problem with the dishwasher door hinges that causes the door to unusually crook or make unpleasant squeaky noises. Hinges behave this way when they turn old and start rusting.
To fix the door hinges,
- Switch off the electricity supply to your dishwasher by turning off the circuit breaker box or unplugging it from the opening below the sink.
- After ensuring electricity is not being supplied to the dishwasher, take out your screwdriver to remove screws from the strike plate. Uncover all electrical wire connections by reducing the screws from the cover of the junction box.
- Free wires from the box by separating wire connectors from the wires as you rotate them. Then discard the bolt nut for some while as you free wires from the junction box.
In the next few steps, you will see the involvement of door springs along with the door hinges because actually, these springs help to open and shut smoothly. You will adjust the springs in a way that satisfies your adjustment needs.
- Now it’s time to unload the bolts from the brackets of the dishwasher that hold it to the countertop of the kitchen. Uncover the door springs from the dishwasher as you pull them carefully from beneath while keeping a towel down the floor.
- Take time to observe how springs are connected to the dishwasher. To adjust tension in the springs, loosen if you feel the door gets jammed every time you take an action to it. Or tighten if the door gives no fo littler resistance and seems as if it would fall any second.
Shift and switch the position of the plastic spring link from where it is present. And shift the spring with another space in the frame.
For example, if before the spring was present at the bottom (frame) of the dishwasher, connecting to the hinge then its position should be shifted.
- Gather everything together to reinstall the dishwasher as it was before. But before that, ensure that the door is properly functional.
Conclusion
Today we discussed the solutions related to the fixing of the dishwasher door that, due to many reasons, can be crooked, squeaky, or not as smooth as before.
We gave a brief guide to quickly repair that dishwasher door which should be fixed by its earliest before the racks with dishes break and the floor gets dirty.
This brief guide was purposely made to assure people can independently fix their dishwasher doors in these critical times without calling out for any outside labor force and spending dollars when it’s easy to be done at home.