My Maytag Maytag Performa Model number PDB3600AWE isn't clean although it is filling with water. I thought I would take off the bottom spray arm and clean it and the filter underneath how does the arm unscrew?

Have you tried tighten the spray arms? They may have come lose at the fittings so need to be tightened up. You can normally tighten them with your hand. Take any traps/filters out of the dishwasher and clean them.
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It sounds like you have a faulty float switch. It's cutting off the water inlet before the tub is full.

It can be a number of things:

1/ is the upper arm mating properly with the water conduit

2/ is the water conduit or the arm itself split/damaged, therby causing a leak and resulting in no spin

2/ general low water pressure (which can be caused by a chopper or pump problem)

If you ckeck the 'easy' items (1 and 2) and they are fine, next step would be to take it apart down to the chopper, see if anything is wrong there. It's not too difficult to do this. Lemme know if you need help, and please post your brand and model #

A few things to add

*Water level on this unit should be up to the bottom of the heating element (using the element as a face of a clock, use the 9 & 3 positions) when the water shuts off if filling correctly. When the unit is done filling and you get the pause prior to the motor kicking on, look at the float switch on the left hand side behind the kick plate. The float is down to fill and will rise allowing the plunger of the switch to extend and stop the fill. If you are not getting a pause between fill and motor operation, you might not be filling with enough water. If the float is still down, add until it raises and breaks the contacts. Shut the door and start the unit, do the arms now move? If so, could be clogged screens in the valve

* Filter in the sump. Remove the lower arm, remove the torx screws holding the top part of the pump housing on. This will expose a micro-mesh filter that could be clogged to the point you are starving the pump of water. This will allow water to come out the arms but not enough pressure to move them. If they are clogged, inspect the back wash arm, that is the 4 armed spinner in the middle of the filter. The arms have verticle slots in the end of them that spray water out to clean the filter. If they have become clogged, clean them and the filter.

Hello

Water Inlet Valve

A dishwasher's water inlet valve is its most common part to fail. When your dishes are not being fully cleaned, quite often a faulty water inlet valve is to blame. Test your dishwasher's water inlet valve, and if it is no longer functioning as it should, you will have to replace it.

Upper or Lower Spray Arm


Your dishwasher has a lower spray arm. It may also have an upper spray arm at the top of the dishwasher. These spray arms are designed to shoot high pressure, high temperature water at your dishes. It is possible that the holes of the spray arms, where the water comes out, are blocked with debris, affecting wash quality. You should inspect your dishwasher's spray arms regularly. Clean out the spray arms as need be.

Heating Element

Water temperature is a key element in achieving clean dishes. A dishwasher's heating element is not designed to heat the water that enters it. Rather, the heating element is designed to maintain the heat of the water that enters the dishwasher. Its a good idea to run the hot water in your sink for a couple of minutes before you run the dishwasher. Just to make sure the water is nice and hot before it enters the dishwasher. If the water is unable to stay hot, it can adversely affect your dishwasher's cleaning ability.


Filter/Drain Grate

There is a filter in your dishwasher. Its function is to keep large particles of food and foreign objects away from the pump. Many of the newly-manufactured dishwashers have self-cleaning filters, and routine cleaning isn't a concern. However, some other dishw ashers need to have the filter removed and cleaned regularly. If the filter or grate is clogged or blocked with debris, it may interfere with the normal functioning of your dishwasher. Consult your owner's manual for specific directions for removing your dishwasher's filter and cleaning it.

Detergent or Detergent Cup

It could just be that you aren't using enough soap to completely wash your dishes. Your dishwasher may be designed to dispense soap at two different times during the wash cycle. If you don't fill all of the detergent cups, then the diswasher will lose a cleaning cycle. Also, if you use a gel-type detergent, try switching to a powered kind. Powders tend to dissolve better in hot water. And don't buy in bulk. Detergents are most effective in the first two weeks. After that, they decrease in potency.

Alternatively, your dishwasher's detergent cup could be defective in some way. It is possible that it is gunked up full of built up detergent, and a thorough cleaning may be enough to get it working again. If that doesn't do the trick, you probably need to replace the entire detergent cup assembly. If your cup isn't even opening, please see our section My dishwasher detergent cup won't open.

Your spray arm jets are probably clogged.
Depending on the model, the lower spray arm generally has a nut or thumb/butterfly screw (plastic) that you remove and then lift the spray arm off. I always soak mine in hot soapy water and then flush with hot water. If debris such as pieces of paper, bone, peelings are in there, you'll need to take a tweezer or toothpick to remove them from the jets. The upper spray arm usually has the same apparatus and you can follow the same procedure.
I hope these suggestions help your problem. If so please come back to Fixya and rate my advice!

Hi Jeanette,

Maybe I misunderstood your question, but the tablet is supposed to come out of the dispenser and fall into the bottom of the dishwasher. It needs to fall into the hot water in the bottom of the washer to dissolve. The dispenser releases the tablet at different points in the cycle depending on which wash cycle is selected. On a shorter cycle it will be released soon after starting. On longer cycles, there is usually a rinse first, so the tablet will be released a little later. There would only be a problem if the tablet wasn't being released, or wasn't dissolving completely.

There are a number of reasons for poor cleaning on the top rack. The most common are the upper spray-arm not spinning, incorrect stacking or overloading. If the upper spray-arm isn't spinning, there may be caused by a blockage in the spray-arm or the water delivery system, but, as the dishwasher is new and it's not happening every time, it's possible that the dishwasher isn't levelled correctly. The spray-arms aren't motorised, they use water pressure to spin, but they wont spin if they aren't balanced, i.e. the dishwasher isn't level.

You can check whether the spray arm/s are spinning by pointing them front-to-back, or left-to-right (so you can remember the position) and allow the dishwasher to run for a few minutes. Then open the door and check the position of the spray arms. They should continue to rotate slowly for a short while after opening the door, but if they're in the same place and static, they're not spinning. I'd suggest repeating this a couple of times to eliminate the possibility of them having stopped in the exact same place you left them.

If the spray arms are spinning, test the dishwasher with only a small load in the top rack. If the top rack comes out clean with a small load, you may be overloading it or stacking it incorrectly some of the time. There should be a correct stacking guide in your user manual.

Hope this helps. If you need further assistance, check whether the arms are spinning then post back.

Regards,
BElectric

Before drawing any serious conclusions check wash arms for blockage in spray holes, < possibly slowing delivery of water pressure > it can be calcium from hard water.

My recommendation is to switch over to a tablet and merely put the tablet on the floor of the dishwasher bypassing the soap holder all together. It should work just fine that way. good luck.

Normally when you have low water pressure and/or cleaning issues, this an indication of a clog in your main wash pump. You will need to remove the lower spray arm and the coarse screen to get to the main wash pump sump. Inspect the impeller area of the pump. This area is usually where accumulations of debris collect and keep the pump from pulling enough water. Things like orange seeds, lemon seeds, bottle cap liners, chicken bones, and jar labels are just a few of the items I have personally found. Although, dishwashers do a good job at removing most food particles, they are not garbage disposals. I bet you will find a clog in the sump somewhere. Let me know if this helps.

suspect blockage in the actual spray arms - take them out and clean under the tap. a check is to open the door when in operation and see if the spray arms are rotating. they are made to rotate only by the force of water thro angled jets at the end of the arms