Dishwasher Oops!

Can you believe this night marks a fell week since our move into our new place.  It had been over ten years since I had a home of my own to run.  It shows in some of the oddest ways.

Last night, after Ed had gone to bed, I loaded and ran the dishwasher.  Since there wasn't much in the way of dishes from meals I filled it up with the second half of the set of china our neighbor gave us.  And since there was a couple of somewhat goopy pans I set the cycle for 'pots and pans'.

Or so I thought.

about twenty minutes later I came out of my office where I'd been on the computer and my nose was assaulted with a strong smell of something hot and electrical.  I hastened to shut off the halogen lamps in the living room but that didn't lessen it so I walked into the kitchen sniffing and it was strongest by the dishwasher so I opened it and then did a walk about the house sniffing.  The heat was on and blowing air thru the vents so the smell was being moved around the house but it was still strongest in the kitchen but was no lessening.

I was fairly sure now it was the dishwasher and since the landlord and his friends had been working on it the day we moved in there was no telling if something might have been put back wrong.  After all last Thursday night the dishwasher had fallen out of its cubby when I pulled the rack out to unload it.  What else might have gone wrong. It was the hose and not the wiring they were working on but still....  My imagination was going wild.

I couldn't finish running the load of course nor did I want to go to bed while Ed was still asleep in case something was still going to happen with it.  Suddenly I was very uncomfortable with the thought of leaving my computer (which contains the only copy of hundreds of pages of manuscripts and notes) at one of the house to sleep at the other end.  Suddenly I was remembering the comfort of sleeping with my netbook less than an arm's length away and easy to grab up in case of emergency.

So for the first time since we moved in, I stayed up until Ed got up.  I had been laying down 3ish most mornings and waking 10ish when the sun lit up our bedroom.  So it was almost eight before I got to sleep and I still got woke up by the sun at 10 and also by the sound of voices and men working as the landlord and his friends were cleaning up our carport, sheds and back yard of the mess the previous tenant left behind.  I managed to get back to sleep with a blanket over my eyes and slept until noon.

About an hour after I woke up, I decided to unload the dishes in the dishwasher, thinking they had run thru the cycle since it was on dry when I opened it.  But oddly there was a gritty feel to them and a few I had to rinse before putting on the shelf.  And then I discovered a really dirty ladle and then noticed that the soap box was still latched shut.

So I closed the dishwasher to get a good look at the dial and after a few confused moments I think I figured out what happened.

I had to get on my knees to get a good look thru my bi-focals which I had not done when I set it last night.  For a brief moment I thought the dial was pointing at 'light/china' but then realized I was looking at the wrong end and then the thought hit that that was probably what happened when I set the dial last night.  And since i set it for 'pots and pans' it must have actually been pointing mid rinse cycle.  If so it had run half a rinse cycle with no water and then half a dry cycle.

No wonder it smelled hot.

So Ed ran the dishwasher again while he was making dinner (yes, he's our main chef as food prep his his joy) and could monitor it and it ran without a hitch and no odor of burning he noticed.  I ran it again after dinner, reloading the same china dishes I'd taken out this afternoon.

I think I'm going to have to put a bright sticker on the right end of that dial and another one on the 'normal' line so I can see where to aim it without getting on my knees.  The view of the dial in that picture is the best one I've had.