[ilikebikes]

I have a five-year-old Kenmore dishwasher. It has three levels of cleaning. The top-level which is on the ceiling of the dishwasher is not dispensing water. I removed the top arm which is only 3 inches long as well as the water supply to the top arm and cleaned them and confirmed that water will go from the cleaning supply to the arm and pass through and that the little arm spins. Put it all back in the dishwasher and confirmed that water is not coming out of that spinning arm. Water does come out of the bottom and the middle. Water seems to be the correct level in the bottom of the tub. Dishwasher goes through all the right motions but it is definitely not coming out of the top. I feel like I am overlooking something. Any suggestions would be helpful. No dishwasher puts my wife in a very bad mood. Thank you very much.
Cheers
Tom
Rockville, Maryland

[henry]

If it is like my Kitchen Aid which has 3 levels of spray arms and an adjustable height top basket, look at the water manifold on the back. The middle spray arm should engage a hole to get water. However in the adjustable height basket version, there may be 2 holes-- an upper and a lower. The water pressure is supposed to push a seal against the unused hole when operating. If this seal is not working, then a large amount of water will come out of it decreasing the pressure to the point that i might partially work the middle arm, but not have enough pressure to work the upper arm. To experiment, you could put a cork in the unused hole and put a tie wrap around it to hold it in and see if everything works after that. If it does, then you may need to replace the manifold. I have a similar scenario where I am suspicious that not enough water is coming out of the middle spray arm to clean out the soap dispenser leaving lumps in it. Hope this helps.