Dishwasher DIY

Our dishwasher is on the fritz. Beeps incessantly and flashes F1 Flood. It’s happened before and being a good housewife I knew exactly where the manual was so retrieved it only to find in the trouble-shooting section at the back it said “Call registered Fisher & Paykel service agent”. So we just switched it off at the wall overnight and hoped for the best. Bingo, it came right.

But not this time. And boy is the Mister dark about it. 3 nights in a row now (while we waited for the weekend to pass and then a registered Fisher & Paykel service agent to be available) he has had to wash the dishes. We’ve been using this dishes time to bond as a married couple like in the olden days, before dishwashers, when the family talked while doing the dishes. (I remember my grandad making the same comment every single dishes time … “why does your mother use these bally triangle pots every meal? They’re a bloody pain to dry.“ (See? Not my fault I could use the swear version of ‘bloody’ correctly in a sentence at 18 months old!)) Except in the olden days, misters probably read the paper leaving the missus to wash AND dry. Our bonding sessions don’t last long – the Mister has instigated a one-pot dinner rule and we have been eating chippies directly from the packet and no pudding (!!) in order to minimise on the washing up!

Not wanting to wait a moment too long the Mister turned to the internet, where now that F&P Dishdrawers are exported there is a wealth of blogging, use-grouping, wikipedia’ing people residing in America all too keen to disseminate any knowledge, that you can easily find fix-it instructions for F1 Flood. After a skim read of the most thorough of such instructions we decided on going with the last sentence …

… turn the power off, remove the bottom drawer by pushing in the clips on side of the drawer … put the drawer on its r.h.side …  mop up the all water … expose the mains/flood switch board … push in the clip in the middle front edge of the cover with a flat blade screwdriver … hair dryer … mop up any remaining water … refit drawer … Remember, if you get to a point where you don’t feel confident with what you doing or you think you might break something, leave it and call a professional to do the job,  you may save money in the long run and if you going to expose wires or connections always switch off and unplug before removing the cover, you dont know whats underneath …

Very detailed instructions, I was going to put my gumboots on and get into it, but after visions of the dishdrawers, racks, runners and spray arms on the floor and piles of wet towels from mopping up water, we decided to wait for the registered Fisher & Paykel service agent – booked for tomorrow. Only one more night of bonding over the dishes. Unless of course a part is needed. And the part is not in the truck (which one would expect if they guy is a bona fide registered Fisher & Paykel service agent) and has to be ordered. Crikey – how will I stop the Mister rushing out and buying a new dishwasher if that happens?