I just bought a used d/w that appears to be cycling and working fine except the drain does not completely seal. After 5-10 seconds of filling with water, the drain starts dribbling, almost a steady stream… The washer washes, but then runs out of water before the cycle should end so I"m assuming it will not wash dishes worth a flip.
I removed the drain valve cover and inspected the diaphragm. It is soft and does not have any holes in it. I can also see where the round seat imprint is in the middle, so I think it is OK. Maybe it shouldn’t be so soft and pliable?
I had the luxury to run the test on another d/w that is known good and is the exact same model number and it did the exact same thing. I’ve guess there must be some sort of back flow pressure required on the discharge hose to seal the drain valve. Does that make sense? Thanks in advance!
I did not have the dishwasher installed. It was sitting in the back of my truck with the garden hose connected to the water valve. I just had a 90 degree plastic pipe taped to the drain outlet at the front of the d/w so it would just run on the ground. I plugged the loose wires into the end of an extension cord to run it through the cycles… Since both d/w’s did the same thing (leaked out the drain pipe once enough water was inside the cabinet), I’m guessing the other end of the drain hose does need to be connected to allow the diaphragm to seal? Does that make sense and if so, can you please ‘splain’ why? Thank you! Pat
[quote]… I’ve guess there must be some sort of back flow pressure required on the discharge hose to seal the drain valve…[/quote]This is correct. The drained water must go up at least 20" above the floor level and then it can go down.
[quote]…It was sitting in the back of my truck with the garden hose connected to the water valve…[/quote]I’m assuming you did it for test only. Otherwise it will never clean dishes because of water temperature which must be at least 120°F.