You move to a new home and find there is no dishwasher, and you don’t want to wash the dishes with your hands. Is it hard to install a dishwasher? You wonder.
Dishwasher installation involves electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. If there was already a dishwasher in place before, it’s plug and play, but if you are installing the appliance for the first time, there is a lot of work to be done and I wouldn’t recommend it to a newbie who has never done similar work before. Hire a dishwasher repair expert to help with the installation instead.
If you are a DIY ninja and don’t mind handling the dirty work, you should go ahead and do the work. To attain perfect results, follow these steps:
To avoid accidents, turn off water and electricity in your kitchen. Find the location of your home’s breaker box and turn off the electricity in your kitchen. You also should find the location of your home’s shutoff valve and turn it off too.
Determine how the dishwasher will drain
Even if you are installing the appliance in your home, you need to ensure it adheres to the local building codes and ordinances. Begin with figuring out how your dishwasher will drain. The common way the appliance drains is by plugging directly into the waste disposal system. The appliance can also drain directly to the water supply pipe under the sink.
If the house is old, contact a professional plumber and ask them to come out and ensure your setup adheres to your state’s requirements.
Evaluate your current setup
You should connect dishwashers to a grounded branch circuit. This means they should be permanently grounded, or they should come with a grounding power cord. You can sometimes wire the dishwasher directly to the wall instead of plugging into an outlet. While in other cases, you can’t.
Before you install the appliance, you need to know how to connect it according to the state’s ordinances.
Working with electrical wires is no walk in the park, so if you aren’t confident in your electrical skills, let an experienced and certified electrician handle the work.
Read the instruction manual.
If everything is still okay, now it’s time to read the instruction manual. The manual will tell you everything you need to know to set up the dishwasher and get it going properly. After reading the instructions, lay the dishwasher on its side, then connect the drain hose to the drain port and secure it with a hose clamp.
You should then connect the water supply line to the water inlet and tighten the connection with an adjustable wrench and locking pliers. Once you are done, connect the power cord on the electrical terminus then tighten all the lugs.
Move the dishwasher into position.
To place the appliance into the alcove, you need to turn the dishwasher upright and slide it towards the alcove while you feed the drain hose, water line, and power cord. You should pull the hoses and cords through as you gradually slide the dishwasher fully into the alcove. If the dishwasher is large, you might need someone to help you put it into place.
Once the appliance is in place, open the door, place a level on the floor and adjust the front feet to level your appliance. Once level, screw it to the underside of your countertop.
Connect the drain hose
Here you need to fit a hose onto the inlet port and secure it with a hose clamp. If your dishwasher doesn’t have an air gap, secure the drain hose to the underside of the countertop with a hose bracket before connecting it to the disposal or tailpiece.
Hook up the water and connect the power
Once everything is in place, screw the water hose to the free port and tighten the connection with an adjustable wrench or locking pliers. You should then turn on the shutoff valve and check for leaks.
You should then connect the circuit wire to the wires inside the dishwasher’s electrical box following the manufacturer’s wiring diagram. Make the connections with wire nuts.
It’s up to you
As you can see, it’s not an easy feat to properly install a dishwasher. If you feel you can handle all the work, hire a reputable appliance repair Northern VA expert to do the work.
