Exorcist Dishwasher

First thing, I have to apologize for forgetting to blog last Monday. I beg off with the excuse of the most horrible cold I have ever had. Didn't leave my house for five days. So my mind wasn't working all too great.

Today, I want to tell you about my Exorcist dishwasher. Most of you know I moved into a new house at the beginning of the year, and have been working through the list of contractors, uh, messes, for lack of a nicer word ever since. But this dishwasher thing caught me by surprise.

I'd put on a load of dishes to wash then went in the bedroom to fold laundry and watch tv. I went back to the kitchen a while later. The dishwasher was done with the dishes, but I noticed a ton of water on my kitchen counters. So I was thinking "man, you made a mess rinsing off those grape, then I realized the water ran all the way down the counter. So I look at the floor, expecting to see a flood, but it's dry.

By then I'm confused, but still looking for an answer. I look up at the ceiling, even though it hasn't rained, and all is clear. So then I figure maybe the dishwasher backed up into the sink and it did an Old Faithful routine. Then the sink should be wet, right? I peer over into the sink...dry as a bone.

Now, physics is one of those sciences that has always confused me but I DO understand the basic principals. It was official...I had an exorcist dishwasher. So I did what any mystery writer would do - I turned the dishwasher back on so that I could solve the case.

I'm disappointed to say that the answer wasn't near as interesting as the problem, but then in a way, I guess that's true about most crime. It's usually about something basic and sordid, like money, power, sex, or greed - and the occasional high school cheerleading slot.

So this is what happened. On the left side of the faucets on my sink is an overflow valve. (Some of you might have a salad shooter there instead) Well, the dishwasher drains into the garbage disposal, and sometime the garbage disposal can back up into the dishwasher line and cause blockage. When that happens, the water then comes out of this overflow valve. Which is a great solution as long as you've got your overflow valve turned to face the inside of the sink. But you see, mine was facing the back of the sink, so when the dishwasher tried to drain and couldn't, all the water went shooting out across my cabinets - not a drop IN the sink.

So mystery solved. And a project on the table. Had to take that line off and clean it out before I could use the dishwasher again, but hey, now I can add dishwasher repair to my long list of jobs I can now perform.

Deadly (Dishwashing Diva) DeLeon