Under Warranty

Alternate headline:
What I learned from my dishwasher repairman

My dishwasher is trying to give birth. This could be a good thing — sellable product with no production costs. Ah, just a pipe dream [rim shot]. It just sounds like it’s having contractions because it’s moaning and making one heck of a racket.
So we called LG. Disclaimer, because there are rules governing people who get freebies because they are bloggers and will write stellar reviews, I did not get this dishwasher for free. I knew you were wondering.

Back to the story. I called LG because my manual said if I got the E1 error, to call customer service. They were very nice and asked me thoughtful probing questions such as, “Do you load your pots in right side up, which would cause the sensors to register a water drop?” I laugh, but in my laughter I realize they probably have customers daft enough to do that.

When all the obvious and/or ridiculous questions are out of the way, warranty service was ordered.

Todd showed up at my house. He was polite, thorough and knowledgeable. He took the thing apart, went out to his truck and fired up his Internet (God bless the Internet) and not only found the problem, but also the solution. Yay, part to be replaced next week.

Along the way to that lovely conclusion, he told me some interesting things about dishwashers, which I list here for your edification.

If you have soft water, the gel packs have too much detergent. They are packaged for hard water areas and will cause enough foam that your pump may suds lock. Best to use no more than a tablespoon of powder.
Scrape the chunks off your dishes, but do not rinse them all the way off. If there is nothing to neutralize the soap, it will etch your dishes, particularly your glasses.
If you do have a suds lock, fill a small bowl (Pyrex, for example) with vinegar and place it upright in the top rack. As the machine cycles through, it will gradually incorporate vinegar into the water, which should cure your suds problem.

Don’t you feel ed-u-macated? Glad I could be of service.