Water Feed Tube Assembly

Water Feed Tube Assembly

Stephen from IL

Dishes in the upper rack suddenly weren't getting clean.

Common screwdriver used to pry apart the metal spring clips securing the feed tube.

DIAGNOSING THE PROBLEM: Dishes in the upper rack suddenly weren't getting clean in my two year old Maytag dishwasher. While looking around trying to diagnose the cause, I noticed a quarter-sized hole punched into the front of the plastic feed tube by a protrusion on the back of the lower rack. Protrusion presses against the feed tube whenever the lower rack was rolled back into the dishwasher. A fully loaded lower rack, heavy with dishes, could really do some damage to the feed tube if the rack was rolled in aggressively and allowed to smack hard against the back wall of the dishwasher. The protrusion contacts the feed tube before the main body of the lower rack hits the back wall. Basically, the feed tube gets hit first. Over time, a large hole was punched out and water no longer made it up to the two upper wands which prevented the dishes in the upper rack from getting clean. FIXING THE PROBLEM: It appeared that this protrusion served no purpose other than to cause damage to the feed tube, so I cut it off with a hacksaw to keep it from damaging the new feed tube. This lower rack is used in many other dishwasher brands and models and the protrusion probably served a real purpose in one of them, but on this make and model it only caused problems. Something Maytag's engineers should have caught. PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE: Since I had to partially disassemble the lower wand housing in the bottom center of the dishwasher to replace the feed tube, I disassembled it a little farther and took the opportunity to clean the filter screens and the debris trap. The trap held all manner of nasty gunk, toothpicks, pieces of broken glass, and other assorted debris. I cleaned the fine screens under a stream of hot tap water while I brushed the backside of the screens with an old, soft-bristle toothbrush. You have to clean the screens from the side opposite of the debris. Be patient and you will get them clean without prying apart the screen housing and possibly breaking it. I put everything back together and the dishwasher is back to cleaning like it did when it was new. Since I removed the protrusion I won't have to replace the feed tube in a couple years. But, after seeing the amount of debris and crud buildup on the screens from two years of use, I put a note in my calendar for next October to perform annual cleaning of my dishwasher filter screens and debris trap.