How to clean out old Kitchenaid

Dishwasher Repair
1

Hello - My family never used a dishwasher when I was growing up, and I only started using the one in our home recently, after our 4th child was born (time is precious!). Point being that I’m not 100% sure exactly what should be happening during the various cycles and what the various parts inside should look like (i.e. maybe something is broken/missing and I just don’t know it)

But recently, the dishwasher started sounding different, and I don’t think the arms (both top and bottom) are spinning, although water appears to be coming out of them, so I’m thinking something might be clogged and reducing water pressure? (the holes in the arms appear to be open/clear)

The “strain” at the bottom had a lot of junk on and under it, which I tried to clean out the best I could using an allen wrench to get underneath.

So my question is this - I see that other dishwashers have a filter that can be easily removed/cleaned. Do I have something like this in mine? If not, is there something (i.e. the “strainer”?) I can easily open/up to further see if gunk is clogging?

Can I easily remove the lower arm?

How exactly are the strain (black cylinder) and strainer (black piece attached to the cylinder) supposed to work? Does the strainer spin around during operation?

And just curious - what is the white cylinder in the right back of the tub? I know it’s not the float (which is not shown in my picture)

Thanks for any insight and help!

(picture attached)
lower arm (Small).jpg (35.1 KB)

2

Go watch a youtube video on how to clean a sump pump area on an old kitchen aid…make sure all your spray arms are clean…that lower spray arm take a pair of pliers put it on the plastic piece in the middle and grab the spray arm and spin it around till you notice that plastic piece going lower to where the spray arm comes off…then the rest of the dismantling with take a t15 and t20 torque bit set and watch how you dismantle it piece by piece because it has to be put back together exactly the same. A little trick to cleaning the smell out empty all dishes begin a cycle and wait until the unit fills up with water and the jets start to clean around then open the door and add 1 1/2 cups of bleach and let it cycle thoroughly…if the smell doesn’t go away try it 2 times should work like a charm.

3

Thank you so much for the reply. I did not know about the existence of the “sump”, and I found a video on youtube (though not on my model), and I will try it out.

Thanks again for your time and education!