How to Install a Dishwasher, the easy part.

Now that the electrical, hot water supply and cabinet are ready for the dishwasher, we can simply stick it in and hook it up. The steps are simple to follow:

First you want to hook up the plumbing. I bought a kit from Lowes that came with a 90 degree brass elbow, a 5 foot long braded steel hot water line, and a couple of adaptors. Tip the dishwasher over on its back. This will allow you access to the underneath. Wrap Teflon table around the threads of the 90 degree brass elbow and thread into the bottom of the dishwasher. Follow the instructions. Mine told me to tighten it and end with it facing toward the back of the machine. You might want to attach the hot water line at this point also. Remember again to use Teflon tape around the threads,

The next step is to slide the dishwasher into the opening. Be sure the hot water line and waste tube are out of the way. Use a wrench to turn the feet so that the dishwasher sits level.

Underneath the sink you want to attach the hot water line and the waste tube. Put a loop in the waste tube before attaching it and mount it to the cabinet with a wire tie.

The next step is hooking up the electrical. Make sure you turn the power off. Now attach the ground wire to the green screw in the electrical box on the dishwasher. Twist the two white wires together and secure with a wire nut. Do the same for the two black wires. Wrap them in electrical tape and then enclose them in the electrical box.

You are now ready to turn the water on, turn the power on and test the dishwasher. Let it run on normal cycle and keep checking for leaks. Be ready to hit stop and turn the water off if need be. Here is a picture of mine fully installed.

It feels good to accomplish something yourself doesn't it?

How To Sweat a Copper Pipe

You will have to have a hot water line leading to the dishwasher. If you do not already have a Tee in the hot water supply underneath your sink this might involve a little sweat-soldering of copper pipes. This is not too hard to do once you have seen it done correctly. I will try to explain it and then place a link for a comprehensive 7 minute vidoe demonstration.

The first step will be to sand the ends of the copper tubing being joined. You can do this with an emery cloth or buy a wire brush made for this purpose. Make sure they are clean and bright after sanding. Then smear flux all over the mating surfaces. This will clean the surface and allow the solder to flow and bond to the metal. Your next step will be to fit the two ends together and light up your torch. You want the inner flame of the torch to touch the copper tubing. The solder will flow from the colder section to the hotter section. Once the pipe is hot enough, you will probably see it smoking and when you touch the solder to it the solder will just melt. Touch the solder to the joint and allow it to flow into and around the joint until it drips out the bottom. Take the heat and solder away and then use a heavy rag to smooth the joint.

We did most of the soldering on top of ceramic tiles on a work bench away from the sink. In this way we ony had one joint to solder while in a tight space. Below you can see the new tee, valve, and threaded connection that we soldered together for the supply line. You should have a valve dedicated to your dishwasher.

Notice, the piece of tile behind the connection. This is what we used to keep from catching anything on fire. You can also use a metal sheet or fire-retardent blanket. Below is a link to the video demonstration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH5Uy8Uf1xs

Cutting the Cabinet Space for the Dishwasher

The dimensions of most dishwashers are pretty standard. They need an opening of 24 inches wide by 24 inches deep by 34 inches high. Since I did not have a dishwasher cabinet I had to cut a hole in the long one-piece cabinet that I did have. Here you can see the cabinet before.

My cabinets are already 34 inches high and 24 inches deep so the first step for me was to mark out my width. I took off the door, drawer, and drawer hardware and then I placed two tick marks at 24 inches in width. I used a level to mark my two perfectly plumb lines on the face of the cabinet. After checking the width of the lines at the top and at the bottom it was time to cut into the cabinet.

I drilled a ¾” pilot hole at the edge of my marks so that I could fit the saw blade in. For the majority of the cut I used a variable speed jigsaw with a smooth cutting blade. Remember that the blade cuts on the backstroke so if you are able to make the cut from the back of the cabinet. This will keep the wood on the face of the cabinet from splintering.
At the top and bottom of the cabinet the jigsaw blade was simply no long enough to finish the cut so I had to switch to a sawzall. Again I was careful to set the sawzall on a lower stroke rate with a smooth cutting blade. This helped me control it as they can get a little jumpy.
After cutting the hole I did a little bracing using 1x2 lumber. The will be covered from the cabinet side with a thin plywood.

Now the electrical and the carpentry are done. The next thing is to do some plumbing so that we have a hot water supply line and we will be able to stick it in and hook it up.

Wiring a Dishwasher

The first step in the installation of my new Frigidaire Dishwasher was to run the wiring for it. Most dishwashers should be on a 20 amp circuit. Most all modern dishwashers including mine have a sanitize cycle in which they need to really heat up, this draws a lot of power.

How you run the wire will be determined by the layout of your particular house. I have a small two-story house near the water so it has no basement. I couldn’t run the wire through the attic either because the kitchen is on the first level. My best bet was to run the dishwasher wire through the crawlspace underneath the house.

This was a feat in itself. There is about 18 inches of space under my house. I am 210 pounds. I had two choices, crawl in on my back or crawl in on my stomach because there was no rolling over once I was under there. Oh yeah, and I am claustrophobic. Needless to say I did this job while my wife was away so she didn’t hear me screaming like a girl when I hit a spider web.

I started by clicking in a new 20 amp breaker in my electrical panel. To this I ran a 12/2 with ground wire down through the wall and out a hole I drilled in the floor. I filled the rest of this hole with expandable foam to seal it. From there the wire was run along and stapled to each joist to the bottom of the dishwasher cabinet. A hole drilled in a joist could significantly weaken its structural capabilities so it is important to be weary of that. If you are not experienced with electricity this could be a job for a qualified electrician.

Underneath the house I installed a waterproof junction box to relieve strain on the wire and then ran it up though another hole I drilled in the bottom of the dishwasher cabinet. Here I installed another waterproof junction box so that I could split the power to the dishwasher and to the new garbage disposal I was putting in at the same time.

Remember: Turn off the power, white to white, black to black, and copper ground to the green grounding screw. 20 amp circuit requires 12/2 and a 20 amp switch, 15 amp circuit can use 14/2 and a 15 amp switch.

Next Up: Cutting a hole in the cabinet for the new dishwasher.

DIY Dishwasher Installation

This past Saturday I spent the day underneath the cabinets installing a dishwasher and garbage disposal. Both installations are relatively simple if you are replacing older fixtures. However, my kitchen has never had either of them. This was a complete retrofit, which is one of the harder ways to put an appliance in. Installing a dishwasher requires 4 things. You need a space in the cabinet to put a dishwasher, you need an electrical outlet to hook the dishwasher into, you need a hot water line to hook into the dishwasher, and you need a waste line from the dishwasher to the sink. Throughout the next few posts I will try to break the process down into these 4 smaller projects. Next up: Running an electrical line for the dishwasher.