MDB6709AWB0 Maytag Dishwasher - Instructions

Caviat: The actual repair is less than 15 minutes, but I spent a lot of time playing with it before I figured out it was that easy and fast. You don't need to remove the dishwasher from the counter to do this. And it will probably help to look at the new part closely so you can understand where the retainer clip is to press it and release the old pump.

First remove the water from the dishwasher pan that would not drain with a wet/dry vac. Otherwise the water will all drain on the floor when you remove the pump. Then remove the two screws on the kickplate on the front of the unit below the door. Remove the kickplate/maintainence access cover. The drain pump is on the right about 8 inches in. Using two hands you grasp the drain pump with your right hand and use the left hand to push the retaining clip down. Then the drain pump will rotate 1/4 turn counterclockwise and can be removed without pulling the dishwasher out. There is likely to be some water leak out that was traped in the pump housing that you can not reach with the vac. Disconnect the wire. Connect the wire to the new pump, put it in place and 1/4 turn clockwise to install it. Replace the kickplate and you're done.

1) Remove top and bottom dish baskets from the dishwasher, this will give you room to work. To remove top basket there are clips at the end of the slide rails.
2) Remove lower spray arm by unscrewing plastic screw, it should only be hand tight.
3) In order to remove the strainer cover, you will need to remove the plastic tube that takes water to the middle and top spray arms. Unclip this tube from the top and middle clips and then work it out of the strainer assembly tube. Now you should be able to remove the tube at the bottom of the dishwasher by unscrewing it 1/4 turn.
4) Remove the strainer cover by unscrewing the 4 Torqs screws.
5) You will now see two smaller torqs screws that hold the hold the Chopper Assembly cover down. Take these two screws out and remove the two piece cover.
6) Pull out the broken Chopper Assembly, make sure you get all the pieces!
7) Install the new Chopper Assembly. Make sure that you install the Assembly with the small part of the screen towards the bottom of the housing. Also make sure you compress the spring as you install the part. I used a small pair of neddle nose pliers to compress the spring behind the screen in order to install the chopper assembly.
8) Put everything back together and make sure it works!

I did a search on the website and read the instructions for trouble shooting. I took the inside door off by taking the screws out. I pulled the part and tested it and found it did not in fact have no ampage. I then ordered the part on line. It came in two days, I plugged it in, put the door back together and the total time was about 15-20 minutes. Easy, simple, great instructions and the entire thing only costed me the part itself. It's working great now! And I've never worked on appliances before.

Worked the new gasket into the groove with a smooth screwdriver and my fingers. No leaks and it stays in place. Parts Select had the right part and I got it fast

Printed door assembly parts list and photo from KitchenAid website. (With the absence of instructions, it was a big help.) Remove door cover. You'll need a star driver bit. Remove the old dispenser. Note how the metal clamp and black cover sheet are positioned. Install the new dispenser. Insure the wiring harness is snapped in place. Replace the door cover. Not difficult; just some patience. One more hint ... be careful when taking the door cover off and you won't have to disconnect any other wiring.

The hardest part of this was figuring out the cause of the leak. It only leaked while the washer was running (arms spinning). I thought it might be the air intake seal at the lower part of the door-but that did not look damaged.
I cleaned off the door gasket really good and that slowed the leak - so I figured the gasket was the problem (plus changing the gasket is cheap and it was old anyway).

I pulled the old gasket off (no tools required).
I cleaned the track/slot that the gasket goes into, and the area around it from all the caked-on soap and gunk.
Cleaned off the door edge that seals with the gasket too.
I took the new gasket and folded it in half to find the middle, then started with the middle, putting it into the track (used the center door latch on the frame to know the middle on the washer).
I worked the gasket into the slot just with my fingers. I found that if I pinched the part that goes into the slot with my thumb/finger that helped get it deep into the slot without tools.
I worked around one side, slowly and carefully pushing it into the slot. Did the other side the same way - starting from the middle and working down to the end at the bottom of the washer. Checked the gasket to make sure it was all set in well.
There is an inch or so of the gasket left over at the bottom - I just bent that around the bend so it was not in the way.

i removed the top screw for the water input to the spinner, which gave me enough room to replace the worn nipple pin that the spinner snaps on to. then snapped the new spinner in place. and then screwed everything back into place.

So one day passing the dishwasher while it was running, I noticed a rather pungent burning smell. Yikes, I shut it off!
I took apart the pump housing at the bottom inside the dishwasher, expecting to find some kids toy plastic bit had got caught and had jammed the motor or something. But nothing there, and my dishwasher has a little screen to keep just such things from getting to the pump anyway. Hmmm.
So, ran the dishwasher again, seemed ok now.
A week later, same thing, burning smell. Pull it apart again, but no sign of trouble. But I know something is up, so I pull the kickplate and have a look underneath... Way at the back I see a red wire that looks a little melted, but it's hard to tell, so I pull the whole dishwasher out. Sure enough, one of the heater wires is melted and burned, and the plastic locknut holding that side of the heater is badly scorched. Looks like a little electrical fire, I'm lucky it didn't get out of hand!
The heater still tests ok with an ohmeter, but I don't trust it now - order the heater and replacement locknut and washers. Didn't need to order washers, they come with the heater, oh well.
Heater removal and replacement is very straight forward, but I added some high-temp gasket silicone sealant (Ultra Blue) around the seals as I think the original problem may have ben a bit of water leakage causing a short.
Took about an hour to pull the dishwasher out, remove the heater and install the new one, put a new terminal on the heater wire, and put the whole thing back under the counter.
Working great now. But not a problem I expected to have with a 2-year-old dishwasher!

Removed the screws holding the metal front of the dishwasher on, removed the 6 screws holding the dispenser in place. Put the new part in and put all screws back in where they were. Put the front back on the dishwasher with its screws, done.

The air inlet strip has a flap and two smaller side flaps that seal the bottom of the inner door to the bottom pan that hold the water. The flaps don't form a watertight seal as they only serve to prevent the water surging during wash and rinse cycles from splashing out of the bottom pan onto the floor under the door. What I learned after dismantling the door is that the problem I was having with water dripping from the bottom of the bottom of the outer door was being caused by a loose upper round louvered vent and not he lower vent strip. If the lower vent strip were the problem, water would leak from the front lip of the bottom pan, which is located well behind the face of the front door panel.

Here's my recommendation on the lower vent srtip repair. Turn off the power to the unit at you breaker panel. The air inlet strip is fastened to the backside of the inner stainleess steel door panel. To access the screws the outer door panel must be removed. Open the door and remove the six torx head screws that fasten the outer door panel to the stainless steel inner door. Don't remove the two torx screws top dead center as they hold the door latch. After removing the screws, raise the door up to the nearly closed position. Lift up the outer door panel handle and door bottom to disengage the outer panel from the inner stainless door. The next part is a little tricky since the vent strip hex head screws are at he bottom of the stainless door panel, facing out with the door closed. The lip of the bottom stainless pan is high enough to make it a tight fit to access the screws. There is also a steel bracket that is a door stiffener and holds electrical wiring. I found removing the bracket held by a 1/4" hex head screw on each side made access to the vent strip scews easier. Lay flat on the floor. With a 3/16" nutdriver or socket wrench each of the five vent strip screws can be removed. It's a tight fit between the bottom lip and door bottom, but it can be done. Remove the old vent strip and attach the new one. Make sure it fits snugly into the slot. Best to have an extra pair of hands at this point to hold the stip securely in place while screws are reinserted from the opposite side. Reassemble everything in reverse order.

It was when I had the outer door panel off that I noticed my problem was water getting past the upper round louver vent seal and thus running down the inside of the outer panel. Simple fix was to remove and clean the scale residue from the parts and door. Then reassemble the vent and twitst tighten the vent to compress the rubber seal on the inside face of the door.

I called an experienced plumber, who balanced and installed my new dishwasher properly, using the brackets I ordered from Parts Select, after an INEXPERIENCED plumber had tossed the factory-provided mounting brackets out with the shipping carton. Relief!

After replacing the thermal fuse 5 times i noticed the new packaging came with a terminal block on then fuse harness. PLEASE USE THIS. It is a must, it supposedly is acting as some type of heat sink or something for added protection. Used the unit on all cycles now and works great. Just follow fuse instructions precisely. Hope it helps.

Before starting the repair, I turned off electrical power to the dishwasher at the circuit breaker.

Instructions for removing the door cover panel were included in my dishwasher installation manual. The instructions were in a section for adding a custom door panel. For my dishwasher, this only required removing six screws using a Torx (star shaped) driver, size T15. I found it possible to support the door cover by myself with a knee under one side and one hand wrapped around the opposite side, but another person would be helpful.

The electrical connector to the dispenser has a small tab to lock it in place. I gently pried the tab back a *little* and pulled out the connector.

There are six screws holding the dispenser in place. In this case, they were 5mm hex head screws. The screws hold a metal bracket in place and a vinyl flap is sandwiched between the bracket and the inner door panel. The vinyl flap has three holes, with two of the screws passing through the left and right holes, and the middle hold goes over a plastic tab on the dispenser.

After removing the bracket and vinyl flap, I found that there were two metal tabs holding the dispenser in place. These tabs are part of the door sheet metal. Gently prying them back a *little* released the dispenser (which would have fallen out if I hadn’t kept a hand on it).

I pushed the new dispenser through the opening until it clicked into place with the metal door tabs holding it. Then I put the vinyl flap in place with the middle hole over the plastic tab on top of the dispenser, and put the metal bracket over that and attached with the hex head screws.

Next, I reconnected the electrical wire to the dispenser, installed the door cover panel, turned on power at the circuit breaker, and tried a wash cycle. The new dispenser works great!

1. Put a towel over the bottom of the machine. (In case you drop the screw... duh!)

2. Remove the top screw.

3. Replace the snap pin (pointy end DOWN.)

4. Snap the spinner in place.

5. Replace the screw. (Or go to the hardware store to replace the screw you dropped into the bottom of the dishwasher. Dashitall!)

Pulled the dishwasher out from the counter, on the lower right hand side, about mid way back there is a bundle of all yellow wires, follow that to the sensor which mounts into the bottom of the wash tub. The sensor is easily removed by grasping it by hand and turn it about a half turn (can't remember which direction). It then just pulls out. Disconnect the wire bundle by pushing on the retaining clip and the install is the reverse.