DU450 Dishwasher - Instructions

removed the door gasket by just pulling it out and pushing the new one in its place. very easy, took five minutes at most. Then removed the 7 screws holding the inside of the door in place, removed the dispenser assembly, held by two drive screws and replaced the dispenser door latch grommet. Finally, removed the insulation foam gasket. Had to scrape the old adhesive from the door as the old a\gasket had disintegrated. This took the most time. Then just pressed the new foam gasket in place. Reading the comments from others was a big help. Don't think I would have replaced the dispenser grommet had I not been warned about it. I'm sure it was part of the problem. All is well now, no leaks.

First, removed end cap in steel sliding upper rail, second, removed broken roller, third, attached new roller, you can look at other rollers to see how it goes on, fourth, feed new roller into track, replace end cap. Takes less than 10 min, saved 85. 00 Bucks.

Remove old seal by pulling out tabs one at a time.

To install new seal, I had to remove the front control panel and door panel to access the back side of all of the slots that the new seal tabs go into. Using needlenose pliers i pulled each tab individually until they were locked into place.
Replace door and control panel.

Took off old part. Modified new roller w'knife. Found a nut and bolt in scrap pile. Attached.

This ended up to be a (2) phase project. The first repair was to replace the door seal and inner door foam. Thanks to earlier online comments this part was really easy, but we still had a small leak. When I had removed the interior face of the door panel to replace the inner door foam, I had noticed the insulation was wet and deducted that the 'soap cup door latch gasket' was the real culprit so I had to place a second order (Phase 2). The order came quickly and in time for next Saturdays to to list. My advice is to replace all 4 items at the same time and save on mailing cost and repair time; reservoir O-ring, soap cup door latch gasket, inner foam gasket and door gasket. net repair time, about an hour start to finish.
Don and Rosie
Rochester, NY

The initial repair was more involved due to figuring out how to get at the problem. A foam sealer strip located at the bottom of the inner door had lost it's seal. I first sent off for one and it was of relatively thin material. It was carefully installed but still leaked. I ordered another one from Part Select and it had thicker foam. It was installed right over the previously installed strip and made a tight seal. (knock on wood)

Removed old spray arm and spray arm nut with a twist of my fingers. Screwed in new spray nut with my hand, and snapped in the new spray arm. Works PERFECTLY! I did it all by myself! Saved me a costly plumber bill! I am soooo proud of myself!

With the dishwasher door open remove the 3 srews connecting the top of the dishwasher to the bottom of the kitchen counter top. Remove the lower access panel from the dishwasher and lower the dishwasher about 1/4 inch in the front and back of the dishwasher). Once you have lowered the dishwasher enough slide the dishwasher out about 6 inches (enough to gain access to the door springs on the left and right side). Remove all broken spring parts and replace using new springs. The left side of the door contained a single heavy duty spring and the right side of the door contained a heavy duty and light duty 'helper' spring. I replaced only the right side springs since the left side spring was in excellent condition. When the springs are installed slide the dishwasher back into its original position and raise the dishwasher back up to its original height using the front and back adjustment screws. Replace the 3 screws holding the top of the dishwasher secure to the bottom of the countertop. Ensure that the door opens, closes and latches smoothly and then replace the lower access panel. Job done.

The wax motor seemed to work.
At first I thought something was broken and I tried to figure out the "theory of operation" Working the actuator of the wax motor, I COULD NOT GE THE LATCH TO MOVE THE WAY I THOUGHT IT SHOULD. I ASSUMED EITHER IT WAS BROKEN IN SOME WAY I COULD NOT DETECT OR THERE WAS A FLAW IN ITS DESIGN!

It took a long time to figure out the latch would not be worked open unless it was actually holding the lid- this positions the latch at "half mast" and allows the mechanism to "pick it up from there" and open the rest of the way. So once I figured that out, I concluded the failure was really just worn out parts that were out of tolerance for how this "half mast" position and opening was supposed to work. So I ordered all fresh pieces just to be sure, assembled it (very easy) and put it in (easy). It all works fine now.

I attempted to fix it about a year ago. Took apart the screen center stem and water spinner.
I could not find anything wrong. The machine was used very infrequently over the years. Recently my wife approached me again to fix it and knowing I didn't find any thing the first time: I took the lower panel strip off and found the translucent belt broken. I found your site matched up a belt size and ordered it. Three days later it arrived, I installed it and everything seems to work. The water drains and I'm back in business. It was so easy I was embarrassed I did not fix it the first time.

float was missing palnut and letting the float slide up too much causing small leak around the float

First I called a repairman. He saw it was a certain model Maytag and would not fix it. It washed, but would not drain, so rather than buy another I took about an hour to carefully remove the washer and the motor / bowl unit from the body. Then it was easy to see what was wrong. The problem was a broken lifter arm in the bottom of the bowl. This caused the drain solenoid piston to "travel" too far and actually dislodge from the solenoid during use. You have to remove the lower spray arm, drain grate and then the lifter is a little black plastic "arm" on a metal rod that is actuated by the solenoid under the washer. The lifter fits over the rod and is held with a snap ring. Re-assembly was easy.

I have a Kenmore model that can either be totally installed under counter, left on casters or in my case installed permanently with the 'portable' covers still on. A model that is only for installation in a cabinet may be different.
Open door part way and flex the plastic hinge 'pins' on the kick plate out of the door itself. Once these are out you can close the door and lay the kick plate down towards you. This will expose a spring that is attached to pins on either side of the kick plate and held in place by a rubber cap. Remove the cap, pull the loop of the spring off the pin, and repeat for the other side. At this point you can remove the kick plate and set aside out of the way.
There is a second plate behind the kick plate held in place by four screws. Remove the screws with a Phillips head screw driver or a 1/4 inch wrench or socket, then remove the plate and set aside.
Now you have exposed the frame rails that somewhat hide the springs, one on each side. If you are lucky, like I was, only one is broken so you can use the other as a guide. Also the installation drawings that came with the part were very helpful. The information supplied by Kenmore in the parts list was no help at all.
Follow the 'assembly' found in the kit to assemble the 3 parts of the spring. A this time you may want to open the door halfway then close it and reopen a couple of times and observe how the tail of the door hinge moves, this will show you where the spring is attached. The spring is mostly hidden behind the frame rails but the two connection points are visible with the help of a flashlight. If one of the springs in still connected, observe the two connection points, one on the tail of the door hinge (top of spring) and the other in a series of slots in the frame rail.
With the door closed, hold the spring assembly in one hand (easier said than done) and hook the top of the assembly over the hook on the door hinge. Let it hang down in place and slip the lower part of the assembly into one of the slots. Again if one of the springs is still in place just use the same location as before. If both springs are missing, use one of th slots in the middle.
Only one of my springs were broken but I installed new ones on both sides as cheap insurance against doing this again in a few months.
Step by step appears a bit complicated but the whole thing only took about 10 minutes.
Good luck.

Whoever manufactures this part, hope they read this and strenthen this part. The very thin legs break very easily.

I removed the threaded broken-off part from the extension thing. The spay arm came off, since nothing was holding it on any more. I pried the cover off below that - 4 tangs.
Then I used needle nose pliers to unto the strange pointed nut that holds the spray arm support in place. Then removed the borken support, replaced with the new and reassembled in the reverse order of disassembly. Really pretty easy.

After performing some maintenance to get the water flowing properly through the system (that's another story) the door was leaking very badly during any test run of the dishwasher.

We thought it was the gasket because the old one was calcified and dried out from years of harder water.

We ordered the new one and in minutes after receiving the new gasket we had a firm seal and our dishwasher was back in action.