Day 3130 Hot steam.

11th March 2026

The day I had been dreading, fixing the dishwasher.

I was up at 7.30, had breakfast then started to prepare for the challenge.

My friend Dave was coming over to help, he called me to say that he had bought an earlier train and was on his way up the hill.

By then I had removed the front panel, removed the retaining screws, disconnected the electric and the water and waste pipes, and pulled the unit out into the kitchen.

I met Dave at the front door, he apologised in advance for not being very helpful. He said that he had been dreading this for days, so I spent time reassuring him that two brains are better than one, and we will have fun doing it.

Secretly I was scared, but I didn’t want to worry him more.

The first job was to remove the base panel, this exposed the innermost workings of the machine.

Disconnecting the electrical bits was easy, uncoupling the hose clamps was tricky, but we did it.

Next was trying to disconnect the heater from the motor. This was bloody difficult. 

The first deviation from the videos was the removal of the whole assembly of motor and heater. I don’t know how this could have been done in situ because there were non return plastic clips that had to be forced open to allow the heater unit to rotate anti clockwise.

With a bit of brute force,  a wooden block and hammer, the two pieces came apart.

This was the easy part.

The reassembly was painful, with many different attempts to fit the components. 

First fit the motor, that in itself was horrible, it had to locate in two rubber brackets. I forget how many time we got it together only for it to fall out.

We tried to fit the heater to the motor but it required a lot of force to compress the seal and locate the locking clips, so out it all came.

We then assembled the two parts together then tried to fit the motor part back into the rubber brackets.

By this time we had been working for three hours, it was mentally exhausting. Dave continued to apologise for not helping much. 

Then by the luck of the gods it was there, in the correct place ready for the hoses to be refitted.

There was a warmth of satisfaction running down my back, or was it just beads of sweat?, I didn’t care.

Once the electrical connections were reattached it was just the base panel to be refitted.

What bastard engineer designed this piece.

There were parts that had to be tucked under a metal flange, plastic fingers to align with slots it was effin’ difficult.

Finally I loosened a couple of screws that allowed a bit of flex, just enough to tuck under the back portion of the floor panel, the fingers then aligned themselves, and it was in.

Re connecting the hoses and electric and sliding it back into its home, and the job was done.

Then it was “Does it work” test.

Everything was ready, I selected a program and pressed the button.

The machine rumbled into life.

I checked for leaks, there were none so far.

While it was going through the cycle, we started on the next job, the tripping of the RCD for the shed. This was the mystery, everything was wired correctly, the underground cable was a proper armoured cable, and when we reset the trip, it stayed, head scratching time.

I went back to the kitchen to see how the test was going, as I opened the door the steam hit me. I punched the air in victory, two old duffers had done it, a fully working dishwasher.

So the day ended, it was now 3.30pm and both of us were drained. 

We walked into the town to try to get something to eat, by that time most places were closed, but we did find one open.

We stayed there talking until they asked us to leave because they were closing.

I walked Dave to the train station, it was one of those days when things had been achieved, and my sprit was on a high, and I hadn’t had a drink.