our nearly 10 year old dishwasher hasnt cleaned well in the last year (especially the top rack) and i thought I would tear into it one last time before giving up on it and going to buy a new one. thanks to this forum, i found the technician troubleshooting manual behind the kickplate and started to disassemble the washer. as i got deeper into it, i found that there isnt a chopper assembly. this makes sense since the holes in the wash bars are constantly fouled with debris. so my question to the forum: where did it go? can it break apart and get ground up by the water pump impeller? if so, should I go looking for pieces of it somewhere else? i inspected the water pump impeller and it doesnt seem damaged. i pulled out the check flapper and it appears clean and normal. we had a service call on the unit a couple of years ago for the same complaint (not cleaning top rack) and he said it had a plugged screen and was starving the pump for water. any chance he left the chopper assembly out?


EDIT: I found the part number to order a replacement and while poking around on the internet found a youtube video on how to replace the assembly. from the video, i see that the assembly consists of a metal screen and metal chopper blade. what the heck? I wonder why i dont have one of these in my dishwasher?

thanks.