Installing a New Dishwasher

This is episode number 160 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could join us here live from The Homeowner Show studios. How you doing, Kev?

I am fantastic. How are you?

I'm good, man. I think this wire on the back of my— I think the volume's up on your phone.

Oh, well, I can just turn that right off. Yeah, no, man, I'm, I'm doing good, doing good. It's been busy. Things have been crazy. Lots of football and work and other things going on. But, um, I'll tell you what, I woke up this morning after having a miserable night.

Yep.

Because it was disgusting outside.

It was disgusting.

Disgusting. It was— the humidity was about 4 million percent. It was hot. It was gross outside. I woke up this morning and went, okay, I like life again. Because fall has arrived.

That's right. Yeah, it snuck into September.

It did.

What's up with that?

Well, I mean, fall was like today or yesterday. When did— when did it begin officially? Like, that was yesterday.

I think it officially— well, the only— I think it officially begins tomorrow.

Oh, well, okay. Either way, somehow we lined up with fall in Houston as far as the temperature goes, at least. I don't know. Yeah, it absolutely beautiful today.

I mean, yeah, people, people around town are like, it's 85.

That is glorious. Yeah, well, people were walking around with like long sleeve shirts on this morning. And it was like, dude, it's 62 degrees outside. You can take that off.

You're fine.

You're fine. But anyway, things are good with me. How are things with you, man?

Good, man. So one, like, I'm debating whether or not I like this new camera setup.

Well, I can't see you.

They're making the iPhones too big now. That's the problem. So we were using a different iPhone for my camera. Yeah. And I can't see Kevin.

Right.

Um, which you could, you could debate whether or not this is a good or a bad thing. I don't know.

That's true. I think maybe, what if we like put it over here and then zoom in? Ooh, that could be fun. Yeah, we'll figure it out.

But if we had a guest, that might be, I don't know. We'll play around with it.

Yeah, we'll figure it out.

Let us know if you like it being this close. I don't know. Um, I, I kind of feel like we're the Late Late Show of Home Improvement.

At least, at least now we should like, we should talk in our soothing voices.

But, you know, like, we're not, we're not Dave Letterman.

No.

But we're like, whoever was the joker that came on after him.

Oh, yeah. The late, the late, late night guy.

Yeah.

So we're like the—

Although Letterman hasn't been on in like close to 10 years.

Yeah. What are you, like 50?

Something. I'm, I'm getting close. Who is, who even, like, here's the problem is all the people that came after those guys suck.

No.

No one cares about them anymore.

Maybe. But I mean, like, whether you liked him or hated him, Jay Leno had a good run.

No, no, no, no, no. I mean, like, the people that, that took over after those guys, like, after Jay, after Dave.

The late guys, for sure.

Well, yeah, everyone that took those time slots, like, they're all making it about politics and no one cares. Then they're not even that funny.

No.

And, and some of them had been funny in the past, but now they've— they're not funny anymore.

Really, the best is Jimmy Fallon.

Yeah, I like Jimmy.

I mean, just because he's super talented.

He is crazy talented.

But I mean, yeah, he's just stupid talented.

Yeah. So I, I like him, but like, I, I feel no desire to watch his show.

Yeah. Oh, I did.

Although I never felt really the desire to watch those other guys' shows. Like, I like Dave Letterman, like, I like Jay Leno, but like, I was never like, ah, I gotta watch it tonight.

Because they're— I mean, here's the weird thing. They were like comedians, right?

Oh yeah.

That was their thing.

Yeah, they were all stand-up comics.

But they weren't very funny.

Who?

Like Jay Leno.

Oh, Jay Leno's like— he was—

he—

well, I mean, like, if you talk to other— like, most of those guys are comics comics.

Yes.

They're not— they're not— yeah.

Right. And so, look, but like, I mean, you don't— you don't watch their show and just laugh at Jay Leno the whole time, right? I mean, I didn't. Well, maybe I just was too young to really fully understand the jokes.

But, well, you know, and did you ever— I mean, like, well, and here's the thing is like, I think people say that— have you ever watched a Jay Leno routine before he got on— what was it?

The Tonight Show. It was The Tonight Show. Yeah.

Yeah. You ever watch the stand-up routine he did?

No.

See, there you go. He could have been— he could have been awesome. I don't know, because I think he actually did stand-up on Carson.

Okay.

Um, might be worth looking into to see if he was actually funny.

Yeah, I'm probably not gonna do that. So, um, it's—

it's out there if you guys want to watch it.

I'm sure it is.

Yeah.

But I, I don't care that much.

Well, I— so, I mean, if we're talking about comics, I mean, one of the things that, that happened over the last week, I mean, like, the, the thing that really has exploded on YouTube and the internet— Norm Macdonald passed away.

Oh man, and that dude was funny.

Yes.

I mean, not just funny, that guy was side-splitting hilarious.

Well, like, here, like, listening to a lot of people talk about him, because I've listened to some stuff And what part of what made him funny is sometimes he would be intentionally unfunny for a laugh for himself.

Yes.

And so he could care less whether or not you were laughing. It was whether or not it was funny to him.

Yeah.

And so it was sometimes it was more funny to him to make it awkward.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. But one of his most famous things that he kind of said in his dying days was like, look, Our whole deal is to beat cancer, but ultimately I'm going to the grave with cancer, which means I won and it dies whenever I do.

What he— I think what he said, he goes, he goes, I mean, worst case scenario, it's a draw.

Yeah, that's right, that's right.

And so like, I mean, like, it died in me, so it died.

And that— I mean, you got to give him credit, like That's funny in a really morbid way, right?

Yes.

But man, that guy was— oh, he was so funny.

So one of the bits that he did was, I think one of the ones I actually showed you after a show one night was the Courtney Thorne bit where he—

So good.

He ribs on Carrot Top for the whole interview. So good.

So good.

If you guys haven't watched that, I think it's up to 2 million views. It was a Conan O'Brien interview.

17 of those are me. Just, like, putting it on repeat. It's so funny. That was one night.

Yeah. That was one.

Yeah. I had to watch it again. I had to watch it again.

So, yeah. I've got some other ones I can show you too.

Okay.

So, but, like, so, one of the things we wanted to be sure and talk about is this video that we posted—

The whole man.

Earlier this week of this contractor in Colorado that decided to repo a bathroom.

Yeah. So this guy, Basically, you see him on video inside this bathroom. It's a small bathroom.

And let's just, let's just offer a preamble here.

Okay. What a freaking moron.

I mean, like, it's— so here's, here's the thing about this, this whole situation. Like, I understand getting upset with a customer.

Yeah.

I understand his visceral response to it.

Yeah.

I don't understand him acting upon it.

Over and over and over.

But the part I really don't understand is why he insisted on videotaping it himself. Yeah, because he clearly has 1 or 2 staff people there with him to chronicle what's going on.

Right.

And so there's, there's an element of premeditation that's going on here.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So all that being said, Take it away, Kevin.

Okay, so this guy walks in his bathroom that he has redone poorly, by the way. Um, in fact, I think our friend Eric, uh, Eric G was like, he did a horrible job putting that bathroom together to begin with.

Yeah, let's circle back around to that because Eric actually called me about the video. I gotta tell you about what he said.

Okay, so, um, the homeowner's going, what are you doing? Why are you here? Like, you And he's like, well, you didn't pay me, and so I'm gonna rip up the work, the job that I did. And she was like, you're destroying my house. And he was like, this isn't yours. I'm the one that bought it and put this stuff in here. It's my— this is my stuff. I, I can beat up this tile if I want to. I bought it. You didn't pay for it. And so since you owe me money, uh, I'm choosing to destroy my own property.

Right.

And she's like, you're literally on my property taking a sledgehammer to the shower and the dude just goes off like, like punching holes with a sledgehammer in the wall, breaking the tile over and over for like 5 minutes.

Yeah.

And then he's just like, this is your fault and walks out. But his staff member is standing there in front of the camera that's filming.

And it's totally okay. Totally okay with what's going on.

Yeah.

That's no big deal.

Yeah. As if it's happened before.

This is Tuesday. This is what we do on Tuesday.

That's exactly right.

We do a job, we go in, we bust it up.

Especially when they don't pay.

Just so everybody else knows that if you don't pay on time, this is the company that will come. This— we're the guidos. Right.

Don't mess with us. Hire us and pay us or else.

Yeah. So my, my caption on this, on the video I posted, I, I posted a couple different places, but I was like, how to lose all of your customers in one simple step.

Oh my goodness.

And it's like, look, I mean, like, if you want to portray your company as having like the worst customer service on the face of the planet, that's the way to portray yourself.

No doubt.

I mean, knock yourself out, man.

Right.

And so not only that, Eric— so we posted the video and then Eric calls me.

Yeah.

From Portland. And he's like, hey, man, I saw this video that you posted. Do you know the backstory on this? And I was like, no. And he goes, my buddy, who does, who does tile work. He saw the video. Um, he sent me some pictures of what this guy did. He's like, it looks like an 8-year-old did his very first tile job. And he's like, he actually did this lady a massive favor by going ahead and demoing it because it was going to have to be redone anyway.

Oh my goodness.

And I think Chris Turner actually mentioned that too. He's like, man, I'm watching the guy smack it with a hammer and it's just coming off the wall. He goes, that's not supposed to happen. Right. And anyway, so—

Yeah, like literally, like, pieces of tile just falling down.

Yes.

And he didn't hit that piece of tile.

So there's, there's a moment in the video where the guy says, there is not a contractor in the state of Colorado that you're gonna get to come and fix this once they find out that you didn't pay me.

Right.

So Eric's buddy, who's a tile guy, goes, well, I'll go do it. Now that he said that no one will do it, I'll go do it.

Okay.

So he's gonna go do it for free.

Really?

Yes. Fix it and make it right. And, you know, actually, you know, where it doesn't look like an 8-year-old did it.

And that's amazing.

Fix her bathroom.

Wow.

So, and Eric and the, the crew over there at, uh, Around the House is going to document it and put all the videos up. So we'll share all that kind of stuff.

So how did they get in touch with her?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I'm sure they just reached out to her and, you know, through—

And they're like, look, we saw this. We want to do it for free. And she's probably like, can he come tomorrow? Yeah.

I mean, like, I mean, from the looks of the video, I mean, it looks like just a regular family. I mean, it looks like an upstairs bathroom. It's probably a kid's bathroom.

Yeah, it's, I mean, it's, it's a pretty small bathroom. It's a shower.

So she's probably been without that upstairs bathroom for like 2 months.

Probably, you know, long enough. She's ready to have it done.

And now she still doesn't have a bathroom. In fact, she's got a beat-up bathroom. So I'm sure she's happy to have any help she can have.

No doubt.

And I, you know, I don't know the situation between that guy and, and whatever was going on between, that, that lady. But those things are complicated, man. You can't explain it in a simple YouTube video or a TikTok or anything like that. No one knows what happened behind the scenes, right?

I mean, it very well could have been like she said, look, this is shoddy work. I don't want to pay for something that I don't think is up to standard.

Well, I think what Eric told me is they were still waiting. Apparently that shower was supposed to have glass doors.

Okay, so it wasn't done and he wanted to get paid for something that wasn't finished, right? And she's going, no, once you finish it, I pay you.

And, and any moron knows that you don't finish paying for a project that's uncompleted, right? No.

And like, you lose all your leverage at that point. I mean, you can't— what if he never comes back?

And I'm sorry if I'm pissing off like contractors out there like who are overleveraged. But like, that's— you can't run your business that way. You have to finish the project before you get paid every time. So, and like, anyone who's not operating under those conditions is not going to be— I mean, like, this is, this is the, this consistent story that you hear from little old ladies, like, I paid this guy 4 grand and then he never came back again. It's like every time you hear that, it's like everyone knows, like, you don't pay up Right. You pay once upon completion.

Right.

And, you know, and all these contractors that get frustrated when homeowners are like, well, I'll just pay for the materials and then pay for your labor once I'm done. Like, these are the— this, this is— you can thank your compatriots out there who are operating shady businesses who run off with old ladies' money for the, you know, the work conditions that you are now existing in because no one now wants to pay upfront.

Right.

And it, it, you know, it used to be different. Yeah.

And you're, you're just gonna have to run your business in a way where you know that.

Mm-hmm.

You're gonna have to know, I'm not gonna get paid for this until I do it. So go do the work, get paid.

Yeah.

I mean, and if they don't pay at that point, put a lien on their house.

Yeah.

Right.

I mean, like, which, I mean, and I like, let me, let me speak a bit of compassion here. Like, because I get it. Like all you contractors out there, all you service providers, Like, a lien is a joke.

Sure.

Like, you're not getting your money.

No.

It's, it's a, it's a principled stance at that point.

Yeah.

To say that, like, this person is dishonest.

Yeah.

But you're not getting your money.

No.

Um, you know, I mean, like, because, like, that person dies in that house, then what? Yeah. Good luck.

Right. And, and if you could get the, the money, the amount of paperwork They're gonna have to go through hiring a lawyer, all that kind of stuff. You're not gonna—

it's not worth it because a lien is only enforced if they ever decide to sell.

Sure.

So I mean, like, if it's 20 years later, I mean, what are you gonna do? Do you even care?

I need that $4,000, by the way. You owe me.

I mean, like, I, I appreciate that there's an avenue.

Yeah.

For, for, for some, some, some sort of comeuppance.

Sure.

Amongst, you you know, the honorable trades.

Yeah.

But like, let's just face it, some people are gonna be jerks and not pay.

Of course.

And I think, you know, we just need to be prepared that like, unfortunately, in business, we have to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find a few princes.

Yeah.

You know, but that's just the way it is.

I agree. But that's not what we're here to talk about.

No.

I mean, not even close.

No. Tonight we're gonna be, uh, doing a little bit of a— can we call it a deep dive? We're gonna be doing a shallow dive on installing a dishwasher. Yeah.

Well, because good dishwashers use very little water, Craig.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Like 2 gallons. Seriously.

Is that a little bit of water?

For an entire wash load? Uh-huh.

Yeah. Why is it only 2 gallons?

Because it just doesn't need more than that.

Do older dishwashers use more water?

Yeah.

I haven't actually done the— I've never done the research on water usage in dishwashers.

Well, they, they do.

Is this like a statistic that they all like put out? Like how much, how much water they use?

I think you can find that information.

I'm sure you could.

But I'm asking if you know. I know from a recent podcast I listened to on specifically dishwashing by hand. or dishwashing in a dishwasher. Uh-huh. And which one's better? And at the end of the day—

In the sink, I would imagine, is better. No matter what.

It's not.

Really?

That's what you would think.

Okay. Well, hang on. Is, is that considering prewash?

It is basically saying do not prewash.

Okay.

You're wasting water.

Which no one does. Everyone prewashes.

They do only, but you know why? is because dishwashers used to suck. They used to be so bad that you had to pretty much wash it before you put it in the dishwasher. Here's the thing though, newer dishwashers are way better. And the way they force air and do other things, they heat the water up, you know, for you.

Yeah.

All of these sorts of things, you don't have to pre-wash anymore. And so the, the whole issue—

Well, okay.

Around this podcast I listened to was less about cleanliness because they're saying, look, it's gonna get clean either way, but you're using a ton less water.

What show was this? I need to look at this.

Stuff You Should Know.

Okay. I know those guys.

Yeah.

Sometimes they're morons. Yeah.

I would agree with that.

Yeah.

But I mean, the whole, at the end of the day, the podcast was about water.

Sure.

More than it was dishwashing.

Oh, it was about water.

It was about water. And I, and one of the things I learned on there is that dishwashers use way less water than you would use to wash in the sink.

I, I feel like this research didn't take into account fried eggs.

What? And like, if you don't— You definitely have to at least rinse those off.

If you don't eat fried eggs, I mean, like, I'm—

What's wrong with you?

Yeah, I mean, it's not credible information.

Well, but okay, so we're gonna be talking about your dishwasher.

Yes.

I'm curious if you don't pre-wash, I mean, you eat fried eggs, obviously, so—

Pretty much every day.

Yeah, so you need to not pre-wash that, put it, and put it in this.

Well, here's, here's, here's the thing is like my, my 8-year-old son has now— he loves fried eggs.

My daughter does too.

And not only does he like fried eggs, he has learned how to make them for himself.

Oh, that's—

So it's like breakfast, afternoon snack.

Interesting.

It's like his favorite thing.

Really?

And now my youngest, my 6-year-old, Because she's been watching the 8-year-old eat fried eggs. She's like, hey, those look pretty good. Will you make me one? So now, like, the—

And y'all have an endless supply of eggs.

Yes.

But that helps. But the funny— let me just tell you.

They're rich.

Oh, yeah.

The yolk is rich.

They're better whenever they're fresh.

Yes.

And so what my daughter says is, Daddy, I want the fluffy eggs.

The fluffy eggs. And I'm like—

Do you just want scrambled eggs?

No.

She calls, she calls the runny yolk fluffy. I have no idea why.

I couldn't eat it if somebody called it fluffy.

Yeah.

Uh, taste it if it's fluffy. I don't want it. I don't want it.

She definitely eats them the correct way, which is over easy.

Okay.

Uh, but she, I don't know why she calls them, I'm like, so you want for scrambles? She does not want scrambled.

And somebody needs to tell me this. Like, I don't know. Uh, a friend of mine from Canada, we were at, uh, I think it was a Cracker Barrel one time. And he asked the waitress if she could cook them a specific way. And I went like— she left because I didn't want to look like an idiot. And I was like, what the hell was that? And he's like, well, it's, it's this version where you put the lid over the egg and poached it. No, it's not poached. It's a fried egg. But then you put the lid over the top of the pan and the steam cooks the top of the egg. So you get a runnier yolk.

But it cooks the rest of the egg around it quicker. And I forget the method of it. Somebody's gonna have to comment in and tell me what that is, or I'm gonna have to look it up. But anyway, I've tried it a few times. Okay. Because like, I only have a few pans I can do that in, but when I've done it, it's awesome. Really?

Yes. Well, I— the proof is going to be in the pudding. I need to see it.

Yeah. Which is weird that I made a pudding joke just now about fried— anyway, uh, especially if you put cheese on your fried egg, which I do.

Oh yeah. So, well, I mean, you should.

Yeah, why wouldn't you?

No, I mean, why wouldn't you put cheese on anything?

Yeah.

As long as that's an option, put cheese on it.

So, long lead-in, I recently, uh, swapped out—

Or 21 minutes.

That's right. Way to bury the lead, homeowner show. Uh, so I, I swapped out my dishwasher recently.

Yes.

So, and I—

you needed to.

I— yeah. So long story short, if you've been listening to the show any amount of time, you already know this. But like, for those that are just joining us for the first time, I have a weird house. I have a weird kitchen. My kitchen is on the second and a half floor. So it became rather apparent when there was a leak in the dishwasher on the first floor.

Because at that point it had gone through 2 floors. 1 and a half floors.

Yes. But 2 floors.

2 floors. 1 and a half stories.

Yes. Um, so it was a weird deal, man. Like, the, the frame of the dishwasher cracked. Um, and the dishwasher was 6 years old.

That's not that old.

And a good brand. It was KitchenAid. Okay. Yeah. Um, really good brand. And I, I mean, just full disclosure, I went ahead and swapped it out for another KitchenAid.

Great.

Because the rest of my appliances are KitchenAid and I like to keep it consistent.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, um, so we went with a newer model, uh, like the— we— so we went for the fancy— The stainless—

this has got the stainless steel.

Yeah.

On the inside, not the plastic.

Yep.

Which, nothing wrong with the plastic, but the stainless steel is a little bit— it's more durable. It'll last longer. So, and, uh, so we went from 2 trays to Oh, so it's got that like top tray for your like your cups and spatulas and things.

Yes. Well, this one can actually fit like bowls and coffee cups on the top, on the top deck.

Interesting.

Yeah, it's, it's super cool.

If I drank coffee, that would be helpful.

Yeah.

So, but I don't drink coffee.

I drink a lot of coffee. Yeah, so it's super helpful. Well, you could drink tea, Kev.

No.

You could be dainty.

Oh, I am not drinking tea. If I'm— I'll learn to drink coffee. I am not holding my pinky up whenever I drink tea.

There's something along—

I'm not gonna—

Little English breakfast?

No.

Slice of lemon?

That's not me.

It's good.

Give me some water.

A little honey?

Water. So just give me water.

It's good for the throat.

Okay, whatever.

Um, so anyway, I learned— I installed the first dishwasher.

Okay.

But you forget a lot over 6 years.

Oh yeah, you do.

So I do.

Yeah, yeah.

I got that. Um, so, so we went, we went back in with the KitchenAid, and I was— and in my brain, I was going, okay, cool, let's just buy a new dishwasher. Like, we unplug the old one, we plug the new one back in.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's got the same parts, right? It's the same brand. You just unhook, rehook, boom, bada bing, done.

And I should, I should also state that when I bought the house that I'm in, it did not have a dishwasher.

So you had to create a space for the dishwasher.

As well as the plumbing.

Okay.

The electrical.

Yep.

All that kind of stuff.

Yep.

So there's, there's, you know, with it, with a dishwasher, there's, there's 2 basic ways that you can install it.

Yes.

You can install it with a plug, or you can hardwire it in.

Yeah. And most newer homes are going to just have a plug back there.

Yeah.

But not all of them.

Not all of them. Some of them hardwire them in. I don't really understand the benefit between one versus the other.

I think it just depends on how it was hooked in the first time.

Yeah, I think, you know, it's convenience.

Yeah.

Um, and, and, and the electrical part of the dishwasher is really going to be the biggest, uh, problem that you're gonna have when you're swapping out a dishwasher these days.

Okay.

Um, but all that to say, if you have never swapped out a dishwasher before, we want to give you some valuable information.

Yeah.

One, if you buy a brand new dishwasher, that is all you get.

Yeah, you're gonna have to buy the cord.

You're gonna have to buy the electrical cord.

The electrical cord. You're gonna have to buy the hoses.

And that's if it's hardwired or if it's a plug-in. And you need to know that And you can, most dishwashers, you can do either or. And there are instructions for both, but you do not get an electrical cord.

Yeah, but you're, but that's the thing. You're gonna have to know that whenever you go to the store to buy it, because you're, you gotta buy the right one. Otherwise you're buying both and having to take one back.

Right. And, and so I think figure that in when you're, you know, pricing it.

Because those are like $20, aren't they?

Yes. Yeah. At least. Yeah. And sometimes more.

Sure.

Well, especially now, I think you can pay up to like $30 or $40 for electrical cord now.

Wow.

So they're not cheap. Yeah.

This is true for a dryer as well, like a washer dryer, whatever. A lot of times you have to buy the cord separate.

Sometimes, sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Yeah, it just depends.

It really— and so like, it's good to ask that question. And it's also good to get the response from the idiot technician on the floor who probably doesn't know what they're actually talking about.

Good point. You know, that's why you order from Renova Appliances. Yes, our friend Megan Anderson, because she is going to make sure that you Right.

They're not gonna give you an appliance without the ability to turn it on.

Right.

You know? And so having power to it is, is crucial. And let's, let's circle back around to that because power specifically in dishwashers has changed.

Okay. In what way?

In the way, in the way in which you buy the power cord.

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.

So it's a different cord than what you used to buy.

So you couldn't just swap out. And in fact, they tell you, when you buy a new appliance, buy a new cord. Yes, every single time. But there are people out there who are gonna go, ah, it's just a cord to cord to cord, right? And it's the same one, but you're telling me it won't even work.

Well, if it— okay, so yes, if you don't have any experience or knowledge with dealing with electrical.

Yeah, because you're gonna have to go in and basically splice that in.

Yes. If you're Yeah. Which, which is what I did.

Okay.

Because I was like, this is stupid.

Right.

And I'll, I'll explain why.

Okay.

Um, also, um, they will, they will tell you you need to swap out the drains.

Okay. That, that, that's the hoses that drain?

Yes.

So it's not, not like a floor drain. This is a hose?

Yes.

Okay.

And, and part of that is because, like, you know, most dishwashers, you expect them to, to last 10 years.

Yeah, sure.

You know, and so, like, those hoses can become brittle.

Yep.

Worn.

Well, and a lot of times if it's installed improperly, it's been kinked in some way.

Right.

I mean, not that it's like full kink, but I mean, over time stuff happens.

Right. And, you know, and then like the connection to the drain chain. I mean, like, there's all kinds of stuff.

Yeah.

So, but like the whole way in which everything is routed on the dishwasher now is different.

Okay.

So it's designed in order to sort of sit up against the body rather than just go underneath.

Oh, that's actually going to prevent those kinks and such.

Yes.

Yeah.

So, but it makes it a little more complicated to install the dishwasher. And not only that, like, you know, if, if you had a different hose size prior than what this one now accepts to fit up against the body, you're gonna have to replace it. And so you could get into a real frustrating situation where you're like, well, I had this old dishwasher, I'll just unplug it and take, you know, and undo all this kind of stuff, and I'll just hook up the old one. Well, like, the ports aren't even in the same place.

Mm-hmm.

And, and so it's gonna be a whole different experience. And so if you've had A drain sitting in the same place for the last 10 years, and then you try and like maneuver it to a new one, it could potentially be rather brittle.

Sure.

And, and, you know, like old things are, they're set in their ways.

Yep.

And so they don't wanna move as much.

Right.

And, and so you need to get a new one in order to make it adjust to the way that this new dishwasher fits into the place. And, and, and so part of the reason I mentioned that this one is a new 3-rack dishwasher is because they've reduced the exterior footprint and increased the interior footprint of these dishwashers.

Interesting.

And, and so the exterior is much thinner and more compact than it used to be. And so there's less room for big hoses and connections and easy access and all this kind of stuff because they wanted to create more room inside the dishwasher so that you could have those 3 trays. Most of the new dishwashers that are the higher-end dishwashers are gonna have those 3 trays.

Sure.

Because like, you know, like for us, it was a really cool selling point. Like, hey, I'm 3 trays.

Well, that's just more stuff you can put in the dishwasher to clean.

Yes.

And for a family of 5, it would be really helpful to have a little more space.

Absolutely. And you know, and like when you start seeing families of like 5, 6, 7, 8, Like, one of the things I've noticed in kitchens as I go is multiple dishwashers.

They'll put 2 of them in there.

They'll put 2 of them in there.

Absolutely.

Especially if you have a bigger kitchen.

Yep.

Just, you know, put them right next to each other.

That's right.

So, which makes sense. I mean, you're using a lot more dishes. You need to, you know, keep them clean.

Absolutely.

So, so having more space is, you know, real estate is always valuable.

Yeah.

So they, they have kept the dishwashers the same size. But the real estate on the outside is much smaller and more compact.

Got it.

So making those connections, those junction boxes for the electrical, they're much smaller than they were before.

Yeah. So you're working in a tighter space. It's just one of those things you have to know before you get into this thing. Can you install it yourself? And, and part of that is you're gonna have to know a little bit about splicing a wire, about, you know, doing all of the things.

Right. So the older dishwashers, and this was true of the one that I, took out, which this was the thing that was really disappointing, man. It was a good dishwasher.

Yeah.

We paid a lot of money for it.

Sure.

And it was a good looking dishwasher. It was a good brand. It just, it got like a hairline crack in the base of the frame and just started dumping water all over the floor.

What are you gonna do?

So I mean, it actually caused some damage that we're gonna have to have repaired.

I mean, Flex Seal.

Flex Seal wasn't happening.

Not on that.

No.

I mean, if you can, you know, seal up a boat with it, you could surely seal up a leak in a dishwasher, right?

Kevin, we healed the Pacific with this thing.

So, uh, that, by the way, that was sarcastic.

Okay.

In case someone didn't get that. Yeah, don't do that.

Don't fix a dishwasher with Flex Seal? No.

Okay.

Okay.

Could you fix a sink? No.

Okay. What could you fix?

Nothing. Just—

A pontoon?

Like, no, you could fix something temporarily. Go buy the new thing.

So I think, I think maybe the best thing to fix that with, maybe like a, uh, like a freestanding pool.

Yeah.

Like a vinyl pool.

Yeah.

That might be worth it.

Maybe.

If it worked. Yeah.

Well, yeah, I mean, they say it does, but I don't rely on it.

What's the guarantee on that? Like, I put it on there, it doesn't work, would you buy me a new pool?

I guarantee you'll buy it based on the advertising.

Oh yeah.

That's the guarantee.

I like that. What is it like? It's like a boat that he's riding that he fixed with Flex Seal or something?

Yes, yes.

It's like, take better care of your boat. Right.

Now, that being said, I carry a can of Flex Seal in my camper because you never know.

That's a different, that's a different issue.

It's a little bit different.

Yeah.

So again, temporary.

Yeah.

Can I get it done until I go home in my camper? Not fixing a dishwasher with Flex Seal.

Yeah. So anyway, I'll, and like, we're not getting into like the nitty-gritty of like actually like pulling out and putting back in the—

Honestly, that's pretty simple.

The dishwasher. Yeah, it really is. Well, like, yes and no. Because like it depends on your flooring. Because if you like, let's do, let's say this for instance. If you had a dishwasher and then recently you changed the flooring out in your kitchen.

Yep.

Depending on how you change that flooring out, like, you know, and let's, let's like for whatever reason, like I don't think anybody should ever do this, but let's say you're lazy and you had linoleum down on the floor and you're like, I want to put tile down, but I don't want to rip up the linoleum because it's glued to the floor.

Yeah.

Well, when you put that tile down, it increases the clearance.

There's a lip. Yeah, it's a lip. It's a lip. It's a lip, lip, lip.

And so like, you may go to pull that dishwasher out. It's like, well, this ain't coming, right? Because all of a sudden you've got like a quarter inch.

Yep.

That wasn't there before. You know, or Or maybe you're able to get it out.

But the other one doesn't quite fit.

Doesn't the other one quite go back in?

Yeah, it's one of those deals where you probably need to pull your dishwasher out, do some measuring before you ever go try to buy a new one.

Yeah.

You need to do that. Yeah.

So, but at the end of the day, the— and I just took your phrase there. So you can't say it the rest of the show.

That is mine, isn't it?

If the, the biggest thing that they've changed in dishwashers is the electrical box.

Yeah.

So, right, what you used to have to do is have some wire nuts and, and connect those wires. So you, you have a green, a white, and a black. That was easy. It is to match those up. And so what you would do is you would match those up, you'd, you know, twist them together, you put a wire nut on it, and then you electrical tape it.

Right.

And I think the companies that are building these dishwashers said like, that's probably not the best option for our clients.

It's not the safest.

It's not the safest. So what they have now are these junction boxes.

Yeah.

Where what you do is you open, you literally have to like flip the dishwasher on its side or on its back and you open that junction. And then like there's this whole process of taking the bottom end off of the dishwasher to even get to it.

Yep.

So you, you take all that stuff off and you— there's like 3 layers that you have to take off to even get to it. So you have to kind of remember, okay, I took that off and then I took that off and then I took that off. I gotta put it where— you gotta put it back in that order. Um, but then when you get to the junction box, you know, if you try and use the power cable off of your old dishwasher, it's gonna be like, what, where does this go?

Right.

Because what it's designed to do is to use these, uh, These O-nuts, and I guess that's what they're called. They're like little there's circles with holes in the middle that are connected. They're clamped onto the wires.

Oh yeah yeah yeah. I don't know what they're called, but I know exactly what you're talking about.

And so like they're designed to go over a screw that you then you and tighten a bolt down over the top of them.

Right.

Man, what are they called? There's like a name for them. People are gonna be like, "I know." Yeah, well, you're not here in the studio.

Yeah.

So start your own podcast.

What are they? I don't know.

Anyway, you can't, you can't wire nut these in.

No, they, they, they've got a specific place that they go to, and you basically bolt that to the, to the wall of the junction box.

So the, the end around to that is, I mean, you can go buy a new power cord, and it's gonna be way easier.

Yeah.

You just slip them over the nut, over the bolt, and then you, you screw down the, the washer and the nut. What you can do, and this, you know, people have been wiring stuff like this for years, so it's not that complicated. You, I mean, like, if you really wanted to, you could even solder in the wires to those bolts.

Sure.

And then you wouldn't necessarily even need the nuts. But I mean, the nuts would be an extra, you know, safety measure or whatever.

Sure.

But what you can do is you can actually create a loop out of the existing wire Put it around the bolt, and then they make washers that actually have some teeth on them.

Yeah.

That you can slide down over that bolt that grabs a hold of the wire, and as you tighten the nut down, actually grabs the wire. So when, you know, yes, would it be best to go buy the new power cable that fits over those for the new design? Yes. And that's actually the game that they're playing. They want you— like, they're in cahoots They want you to go buy the new wire because they made— and this is why they did the design change. Yes, it's safer and, and all these kinds of things. Yeah.

That's absolutely true. Yeah. But that wire costs them $1.29.

Yes.

To put together and they're selling it to you for between $20 and $40.

Yes.

And making buttload of money off of it.

Like anyone that's ever worked in any electronic store will tell you that cables are the most profitable thing that they have in the store.

Super cheap to make.

Yes. Like, I, I, I remember—

that's why you see them all over gas stations.

Yes.

They're so inexpensive to make.

I, I had a buddy one time that worked at, uh, Best Buy, and he was like, I remember when HDMI cables first came out.

Oh yeah.

And they were like $60 apiece.

They were so much.

And he was like, and I, he was telling me, he's like, he's like, man, as an employee, I get like an 80% discount on HDMI cables. And it's because they're still making money when I pay, when I get an 80% discount. That's because everyone else is getting raped and pillaged.

Yep.

And so anyway, wires are wires are wires, right?

For the most part. Yeah.

Um, but anyway, so you can, you can use an old existing cable. You just have to have a little bit of electrical background in order to swap these things out. Yeah, it's not that complicated. Don't feel overwhelmed. There's plenty of tutorials on YouTube and other places where you can watch guys wire these things up. But if you feel uncomfortable, like, $25 is, is really not that big of a deal in the big scheme of things.

Yeah, because the other option, if you feel uncomfortable with it, the other option is to call an electrician.

Right.

And, and you don't— I mean, as great as Weston is, love you Weston, um, he doesn't, he doesn't want to be doing that either. He doesn't want to come And even charge, he doesn't wanna charge you for his, you know, 3 minutes he's gonna be working on it, charge you $100 or whatever it is for his service fee.

Right.

To come out for an hour, 'cause he's gotta charge a minimum of an hour in order to make it worth it.

Yep.

For $25, you can buy the cord that just bolts on. Anybody can bolt something on.

Right.

Right? So.

Absolutely.

That's, you're right. They've got you over, you know, bent over. It is the way it is, you know.

Yeah.

You gotta do it. You gotta buy the new one or, like you said, just know how to wire it up differently.

Yeah. And like, in, in my case, my dishwasher was relatively young. I mean, like most— like I was saying, most dishwashers should last about 10 years.

Sure.

Mine lasted between 5 and 6. I didn't feel the need to swap out my cables and my, my drains and all, all that kind of stuff.

Was it a hiding spot for your youngest daughter?

Was what?

Is that why it cracked?

No, I honestly— seriously, I honestly have no idea why it cracked.

She— I could see her hiding in there. I didn't go see. She's like, they're never finding me in here.

Or that could be— yeah, it's not outside the realm of possibility. Um, but where, where it was leaking was on the bottom.

Well, and there's where she would sit.

Well, no, I mean—

Oh, on the very bottom.

The very bottom. Yeah, there's no space underneath there. I mean, it's barely enough room for a cockroach in there.

Uh, so, but although they're probably in there.

Yeah, not in mine.

Not in your house.

But, uh, one of the other things that they recommend is they say like, look, if you're not going to, you know, swap out your, your drain lines, um, which apparently is something pretty common, like, you know, like the drain lines tend to be pretty universal if they don't have a lot of wear and tear on them. What they do recommend changing out is the clamps.

The, yeah, the hose clamps. The hose clamps.

Yeah. Particularly if the, if the dishwasher is older than 10 years.

Yeah, but I mean, aren't, aren't a lot of hose clamps like the, the metal?

Yes.

I mean, just the ones that you screw.

They're kind of like—

Screw down.

No, you can use those.

Yeah.

And I think, I think if you had those, you probably wouldn't need to swap them out.

I wouldn't think so either.

But most of What they use on dishwashers are actually the spring-loaded ones.

Oh, where you just kind of, you kind of squeeze them together and then they tighten.

And, you know, those are obviously going to give over time. Yeah. Um, whereas the, you know, like the ones you're talking about, like the, the ratcheted screw ones, I mean, you can, you could go back through and retighten those and then probably be fine.

Yeah.

Um, but the ones that are typically used on there are the spring-loaded ones.

And I think part of the reason is because with those hose clamps that I'm talking about, I mean, You can crack a PVC pipe pretty, pretty easily with those.

Yeah, you, you can. You can crack them pretty easy if you overtighten them. And most people, I think, would tend towards overtightening.

I would think so.

So don't overtighten.

Right. Yeah, give it a tug. If it comes off, tighten it. If it doesn't, you're good.

So, but that's about it, man. I mean, it was, it was a pretty simple process.

I mean, have you used it?

Oh yeah, it's fantastic.

Works great?

Yes. So it's, it's a KitchenAid.

Yeah.

Um, it's, you know, top of the line KitchenAid brand.

Sure.

Um, it's got that.

And those aren't cheap, man.

No.

Like, I mean, they're like double. Once you get into the stainless, they're like double what the other ones are, but they're so much better.

Yeah.

A lot of them had— does yours have the jets from the back?

Oh yeah.

And it's such a— those are such good dishwashers.

Spared no expense.

They, they only use about 2 gallons of water. I mean, you don't need to pre-wash. Don't pre-wash. I, I don't pre-wash.

I want to test.

I want to test. What's the worst that could happen? You have to rewash? Well, then I need 4 gallons. Well, but I mean, still, twice the water. Kevin, this is a test. It's worth it. This is only a test.

My wife won't do it, man.

Do it.

She's paranoid.

No, don't tell her. Just do it. I mean, She did. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. She's not listening to this.

I know I could say that.

I'm gonna look over my shoulder, but don't do it.

I'm gonna try.

I mean, just tell her, look, you're assuming that I do the dishes. No, I don't think you do. You probably do.

That's why I have 3 children.

Yeah, exactly. So just tell your oldest, look, don't pre-wash. Whenever you put this in, don't pre-wash. And she's gonna look at you like, what's wrong with you, Daddy? You told me to pre-wash everything. Yeah, it's an experiment. This is a science lesson now, and they're gonna get credit for it.

When you say pre-wash, do you mean don't rinse at all?

Yes.

No, get— don't get any of the food particles off.

I mean, I would— I tend to— so for me, I would tend to get the chunks off.

Uh-huh.

Because, I mean, again, depending on how the, how the dishwasher is set up, most dishwashers are going through a garbage disposal.

Right.

Most of them.

Mine isn't.

If you don't have a garbage disposal, or if it's going to the other side of the sink, um, then those chunks have to go somewhere.

Mm-hmm.

And that's just gonna cause a problem. So I, I get the chunks off, but I, I get the chunks off by Putting them in the trash can.

That's what we do.

Yeah. So get the chunks off, but whatever else you got on there, just leave it and see what happens.

All right.

I, I—

If I'm divorced in a month, it's your fault. It's gonna be from that one fight.

That one fight. I think it's worth trying. It's worth it to me.

Well, yeah, it's not your marriage.

Uh, what was that the other day? Whatever you were to— you told me, you said, how bad is it gonna be?

I was like, put it all on black, Craig.

I'm gonna put it all on black.

Why would I do that? It's not my money. Okay. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Yeah.

You literally told me the other day, he was like, how long is she gonna be mad at you? I said, probably a week. And she's worth it. No, no, it's worth it to you, maybe. It's not worth it to me.

Yeah, she's not mad at me.

Yeah, it's not mad at you. Craig did it.

You can blame it on me. She's still not gonna be mad at me.

Nope.

Well, at least she's not gonna take it out on me.

Oh, she's not gonna be mad at you. Yeah, don't do it. Try it once.

All right. Okay, we'll do it. Okay, anything else?

We're gonna report back on this.

Okay.

Okay, like the Tupperware thing.

Yes.

We're gonna report back.

You didn't give a full report.

Well, it was enough. I told you I bought some things.

Okay, that's like the most nondescript sentence ever.

Well, I mean, it's all the same. All the Tupperware stuff.

I bought some things. Like, where were you?

At the Tupperware conference.

Like, do you buy like some marijuana?

No, Tupperware is plastic.

Some things.

It's plastic that goes whenever you close it.

It goes. Why does it do that?

Oh my gosh! I think you've never seen the commercials.

I think you're packing it wrong.

No. What are you putting in there? No, no. Whatever you. Oh my goodness. People, I have to sit across from this guy. He doesn't even know what he's talking about.

Okay, seriously, who would it— why would it make that sound?

It's, it's like the whole thing. It's, it's whenever you close it.

Is this like a commercial or something?

Yes, it's like you close it, close the lid of the Tupperware, and then you release the air out of it to keep it sealed. And it— whenever you—

How do you release the air out of it?

Y'all, I don't even, I don't even know what to do with him. Seriously, there's a little tab on the— I mean, do you use Tupperware?

Like, you're shaming me into not going to a Tupperware party, like, which I'm perfectly okay with. Like, I've never gone to a Tupperware party. I think you're just telling everybody that you've been to multiple Tupperware parties.

Well, that was last week, but all right, we're off the rails. Let's put it back on the rails.

Well, no, no, no, no. Like, now that you're ashamed, I kind of want to explore.

I'm not ashamed. I just told someone I went to multiple Tupperware parties last week.

You're, you're not ashamed that you have a, uh, a Tupperware thing?

No.

You kind of have like a little thing, little thing for Tupperware?

No, I got no problem with it.

Okay.

Yeah. Okay. I can't— I'm, I literally am beside myself that you don't know about like the letting, you know—

Why would I know about that?

Why wouldn't you know about it?

Because I don't have Tupperware.

Oh, now we know.

Yeah.

He's a Rubbermaid guy.

I don't even know if I have that.

He's a Ziploc guy.

That we have. I'm not even sure if it's the brand though.

Yeah, it's Great Value.

It's something, I don't know, it's probably like somewhere like 3 steps down from that.

It's only got one sealed zipper. That's not the double zipper.

It's gotta last 2 hours from the time I loaded it In lunchbox till they get till eleven o'clock.

That's right.

And is that his durability?

Great. And what's funny about that is it half of that winds up in the trash too. Yes. I was talking. I didn't have time to finish my lunch, Daddy.

Here's what I don't get. Okay. With my kids' lunch.

Yeah.

Like because yes, that's true. They don't eat it.

Right.

I don't understand why they put it back.

I know.

Throw it away.

I don't want it back in there.

I don't— why do I want to unload this? You're the one that didn't eat it, you ungrateful little wretch.

Put it in the trash can. Now I've got to clean the inside of this.

Yes, because it's lunchbox, because it was pickles and you didn't close it all the way, and now it smells like vinegar.

Oh, we had peanut butter and jelly too, so—

Nothing like peanut and vinegar.

I just realized how disgusting that sounds. I'd probably eat it.

We need a new fragrance for men.

That's right. Oh, and we had oranges also, huh? We had to peel an or— anyway, it gets disgusting.

This is actually beginning to sound like an Asian dish.

It's true. Oh, did I mention peanuts?

Kung pao chicken.

Yeah, some peanuts in there. All right, y'all, we are done. Thank you for listening to Dishwashers. Yes. Hey, go get a KitchenAid. Uh, if you have any questions, call Craig. He knows how to do it.

Well, get any branded dishwasher. Just make sure that you have the right stuff to, you know, plug, you know, install it.