Dishwasher of Death

I've never met a dishwasher I didn't like....until I met my aunt's dishwasher. It all began with a visit to the Capital city of Canada during Christmas holidays one year. If you love having your eyelashes freeze shut as your breath turns to icicles, and the cold air is so bitter it hurts to breathe...then you'd love Ottawa in the winter. (But bring a block heater for your vehicle!) We had a wonderful visit with relatives and stayed at my generous aunt's vacant house....she's the smart one in the family who lives in Florida for the duration of the winter.

On the last evening of our visit, I decided to wash the towels we had used so no one else would have to. I put the towels in the washing machine in the basement and went back to the kitchen to load the dishwasher. When I came down again to check on the towels, water was pouring out of the laundry tub all over the floor! I called to my husband who quickly figured out that you have to flip a switch by the tub to start the sump pump. It thankfully sucked the water away and as we mopped up the floor we were relieved the basement is unfinished and the valuable stuff was at the other side of the room. No harm done. Floor would be dry by morning. (Choke!)

NOTE!!

For best cleaning results, place dishes
on floor before operating.

It was very late by this time. I turned on the dishwasher and we all went to bed. I tossed and turned for quite a while, and finally asked my husband if he would go down to the family room and turn down or turn off the TV that my son and nephew had left on. I couldn't sleep with the noise. He was gone for several minutes. Then he popped his head in the bedroom and exclaimed...'the dishwasher's overflowing!'...and he disappeared. I really thought he was kidding because we'd already had the laundry tub overflow. Cute joke. He's probably getting something to eat.

But he didn't come back.

I went to the kitchen to find the floor quickly filling with water and edging towards the rugs in the adjoining rooms! The obvious thing to do would be to turn off the dishwasher. I thought my husband was losing it. I mean, you just open the door and it will automatically shut off. Anyone knows that. I quickly found that with this dishwasher it didn't matter what you did! You turn it off.....you open the door....it mattered not. The water flowed continuously, spewing out all over the floor.

Dishwasher may be run with or without door open.

Next course of action....shut off the water under the kitchen sink. Nope. Turning the valve under there did nothing! By now I was rolling up my pyjamas, wading through water and getting very panicky. My husband ran down to the basement to find the main water shutoff. He couldn't find it anywhere! I phoned my cousin but got an answering machine. She had left me the phone number of the neighbour in case of emergency (could she have known????) ...so at 1:30 a.m. I am waking a poor neighbour to ask her where the water shutoff valve might be in this house. "Oh, yes, she was having problems with that dishwasher.....". But no, she didn't know where the shutoff was.

More panic. It was now looking like Niagara Falls in the basement as the water from that devilish appliance was showering through the floor boards above... and we still couldn't find the shutoff! We eyed the computer sitting on a desk not too far from Niagara and wondered how long before it would be on a Maid of the Mist voyage - hopefully near and not under the Falls. My cousin finally returned our frantic phone call and she was hysterically laughing on the other end. I tried to explain that we would need a wet-vac to suck up all this water that had now reached the rugs and showed no sign of stopping. She said we could just throw down some towels. Well, this would not only take every towel in the house, but every blanket, bedsheet, and maybe the drapes too! My husband triumphantly proclaimed he had found the shutoff valve and to our profound relief the water flow stopped.

This appliance washes both dishes
and floors simultaneously.

We spent the next hour or two mopping and mopping to prevent damage to the rugs. Later when we got up after a few hours sleep, we held our breath as we turned on the main water supply again. Thankfully the dishwasher had finished its rant and did not start up again on its own. More hours were spent mopping in the basement with my cousin helping....and still laughing. Apparently the basement of this house she'd grown up in had seen its share of floods and this was just another.

I have tried not to imagine the horrible damage that would have incurred had I not been bothered by the TV and we had slept through the flooding of the house. It has taken a long time for me before I could really laugh about it. This story has become a recurring joke in the family and even my aunt thought the whole thing was very funny. We recommend people wear lifejackets if they sleep at her house.

This past weekend we went back to the scene of the crime to that very house for a surprise birthday party for my aunt. I didn't go near the kitchen. We presented my aunt with a gift of water wings, dishwasher soap, sponges, and towels. In her card we enclosed magnets with the various illustrations you see in this blog. I'm glad she thought the whole incident was hilarious...I can laugh now....but I won't get anywhere near that dishwasher! It's possessed!

CAUTION!! Use only while lifeguard on duty! Keep lifesaver nearby!