KUCS03CTWH1 KitchenAid Trash Compactor - Instructions

I pulled the trash compactor out from under the counter.

I took out the four screws that kept the top cover in place to expose the ram.

The gear shafts were turning but the ram would not lower, at first I though the ram drive bolts were stripped and it wouldn't engage the shaft. Then I realized there was a mechanical ... Read more directional\limit switch at the top that controlled the power and direction the gear shafts were turning, this switch was broken.

Just had to take off the front plate that was held on by a number of screws and replace the switch that was held on by two more screws. It had five wires attached to it, the new switch was clearly labeled as to which color wire went where.

Pulled out compactor drawer and removed same, slid the compactor cabinet out and unpluged the appliance. Removed the two phillips head screws to release the control panel. lossened the locking nut from switch. matched the switches to be sure parts were the same,switched the wires to the new switch and reinstalled.replaced phillips screws, ... Read more all Done !!!

Pulled the Compactor from underneath cabinet, unplugged power. Removed the top plate off compactor to expose the crush piston. Removed the front control panel by removing two phillips screws, wiring and directional (limit) switch is now exposed. Removed the two screws securing switch, removed wiring one wire at a time and replaced on new ... Read more switch in same position. Replaced switch in same manner as removed, and followed reverse of above to re-assemble. Plugged back in and tested, problem resolved works like new. Only took possibly 30" to repair and saved an expensive service call.

Trash compactor started making "bumping" sounds when the RAM went through a cycle and tried to come back up. Finally, one day heard a "pop" went the RAM traveled to the bottom. The gear broke in half. Purchased the gear parts "KIT" online and repair took 15 minutes. Easy to do. Unfortunately, this was not only problem. The "cause" of ... Read more the gear breaking was the Momentary Start/Stop Switch was bad. It's failure led to the main switch not working. The unit could not tell when the RAM had reached the top of it's cycle. The other problem was that I didn't put trash in the compactor. Suggest HIGHLY to never operate the unit's RAM mechanism without the compactor being at least 1/2 full per the instruction manual. Running it empty can cause a major problem, such as the gear breaking/stripping.

Remove two screws from panel above trash bin. Remove panel and remove wires from rotary switch. Remove lock ring from switch. Install in reverse order.

Moved the compactor out from under cabinet, laid it on it's side, removed bottom casing (two nuts front, three back), remove compression pin from small drive gear shart, replace new small drive gear and install compression pin, loosen motor mounts to allow large gear replacement, remove circlip holding large drive gear to shaft, remove an ... Read more d repace damaged gear, set gear clearance and tighten motor mounts, grease gears, replace bottom casing. .

Replaced the gear and unit worked execpt the plunger hit the side of the garbage container. This appears the be the reason the gear broke in the first place. Defective assembly from the factory.

To correct I had to remove the newly installed gear system remove inside cardboard side cover, Remove the screws that hold the bea ... Read more ring for the lift screw so I could remove the chain. After removing the chain I could adjust the plunger to be level and not hit the side of the garbage container on its way down.

This product comes in a bottle with a brush like Liquid Paper. It goes on incredibly easy. A second coat might be needed. I wanted to prevent rust from setting in so I covered the scratches and dings. The paint is a little brighter since my washer is 10 years old but it still looks great.

After calling a repair man and being told my appliance was to old for him to repair I discovered your website. I simply entered the model number and a picture of the part I was looking for was easily found. I ordered online and received the replacement parts 5 day's later. I simply swapped out the old locking nuts with the new ones from ... Read more your website and the repair was complete. What could have been an easy $100 repair cost a fraction of that and the trash compactor is working just fine.

Took the under housing off to see the drive gear. It had broken in half. (Exactly like one of the suggestions said). Replaced the drive gear and re-assembled. It worked great!

Thanks.

Ordered the part here, had it delivered to my front door, and fixed it in LESS than 24 hrs.

Will definitely come back here, if I ever have a problem again. THANKS!!!

Took off front panel and replaced the directional switch which I thought was the problem. However, the problem continued. I read on line it could be the "centrifugal" switch on top of the motor. I haven't gotten around to taking it apart yet to see if that is the problem because it is more involved down under and in the back. That switch ... Read more cost $88.
Any suggestions from others?

First i removed 2 screws that holds it to the cabinet,pulled the unit out removed the cover off the bottom of the unit,then i notice the gears were damaged,but was not supprised,because the machine gets over worked.Then i removed one clip,removed one gear,the other gear had a pin,tapped the pin out with a punch ,pulled that gear off.then ... Read more replaced both gears .Got it back together and it now works like new.i am very pleased with your service,you responded right away and let me know the order had filled.i ordered it on sunday night and i recieved it on tuesday morning .i will surly use your service in the future you guys are great. thanks alot

First let me say that I read many of the other posts regarding this repair and without them I wouldn't have had a clue how to fix this. Since the ram apparently moved up and down when I shut it off and turned it back on I reasoned the directional switch must be the problem. Ordered the part, Quick delivery. To replace the switch I removed ... Read more the draw and removed two screws on the frame that hold the control panel in place. Lift up to remove. My unit is a stand alone unit although it is installed under the counter. There are two additional screws to remove the top and expose the ram and power screw drives. To remove the directional switch from the control panel you need to remove two hex head screws that hold it in place. This is a little difficult because of the small space. With the help of a small nut driver I was able to remove it. Note: the screws are held in place by a flat piece of metal that acts as a nut. Be careful not to drop it. Then simply remove the wire leads (all color and letter coded) and remove the switch. I was careful to reattach the leads to the new switch as I removed each one. Be sure to replace the switch with the limiting lever in the same position as it was in (it is vertical). Put everything back together and you should be good to go. That didn't happen for me! Problem persisted! Next on my list was the power nut. I got access to the ram and power screw drives (see above for instructions). The two power nuts are plastic wing nuts that are held in place by metal covers. The metal covers are each held down by two hex head screws. To gain access to the power nuts you have to remove the metal covers. Note the position of the nuts in relationship to the power screw shafts so that when you reassemble it they will be in the same position as when you started. In my case the top of the screw shafts were even with the top of the power nuts. (CAUTION: the ram is held by this assembly. Depending on what position your ram is when you started this repair it may fall! My ram was in the up position and when I removed the second cover it slammed down to the bottom of the drive screws). My advice is to be prepared by bracing up the ram before removing the metal covers. No harm when the ram fell but it did startle me. I then removed one of the power nuts. It was split in half. The other nut was fine but I decide to replace it anyway. Ordered parts. Quick delivery. Before I attempted to replace the power nuts I removed the ram (it just lifts out) and cleaned every thing. I put some new grease in the places that I had removed it. Then sprayed WD40 on the power screws. When I put the ram back in, I broke the new directional switch I had put in. So be careful!!! I still had the old one so I ultimately put it back in. I then replaced the power nuts. This was a little difficult because I had to hold the ram up while I was putting the metal covers back on. I would suggest you either brace the ram or get someone to hold it while you put the metal covers back on (In retrospect I suppose I could have just put the nuts on when the ram was down). Reassembled everything. Should be good to go. That didn't happen for me! Problem was still there! I turn it on, ram goes down. I turn it off, ram goes up. Desperation!! The only other thing it could be is the drive gear assembly. Ordered parts. Quick delivery. The gear drive is on the bottom of the machine. Lay the machine on it's side to gain access to the bottom cover. There are 5 hex head screws that hold it on. Remove screws and cover. It's pretty simple from here. The drive gear was missing a few teeth but the rest were in tact. This explains why the ram was still moving up and down and led me to believe it was something other than the drive. The only difficult part was the removal of the pin in the drive shaft. I wound up using a bolt the about the same diameter and a hammer to drive it out. Then just reassemble. There are some instructions that come with the gear parts that tell you how to set the spacing in the gears but I had no problem just replacing the parts without making any "adjustments". Should be good to go! Yessssss! Everything worked perfectly!!! My final words of advice. If your machine has this problem CHECK THE DRIVE FIRST. It the easiest thing to do because you can visually inspect it and know or eliminate it as the problem. It's about a 5 minute job and can may save you some of the problems I had. A big thanks to PartSelect for sponsoring these posts. The repair company that I normally use told me the machine was too old and probably wasn't worth the $100 just to come out and look at it, never mind the additional cost to repair it. All in I spent less than $100 and had I checked the drive first, I could have been done for less than $30.