by Roxanne Prather, Member Services Representative

Have you ever had the lights on your dishwasher start to blink and wondered why? This happened to me when I installed a dishwasher for my mom. I installed it and there were lights flashing, I had no clue why.  I looked at the instructions a few times, they were not very clear instructions, and nothing was jumping out at me. I told her she was going to have to call someone who knows more about them than I did. 

Mom called a plumber, and he knew right away what I did wrong. I forgot to hook the dishwasher drain hose to the garbage disposal. Someone had recently replaced the garbage disposal and never punched the knockout out for the dishwasher hose, therefore he never hooked her dishwasher back up.  I was just going by what saw on the old one. I felt bad, her old one had been torn out and disposed of already, and there was probably nothing wrong with it, other than that the hose never got attached.

Lights flashing on a dishwasher can be one of three things:

1. A bad heating element.

You can test the element with an ohmmeter, if there is no continuity replace the element.

2. A defective touch pad or control panel.

If some of the buttons are not working properly you may need to replace one or both of these, depending on the model.

3. A malfunctioning drain pump.

The drain pump can be tested with an ohmmeter. If the pump is bad, it will need to be replaced.

Note: I’m sure the lights on my mom’s dishwasher were flashing because it was reading it as a malfunctioning drain pump.  Remember you can go to RepairClinic.com to order parts, and watch videos on how to repair appliances. That’s what I should have done while working on my mom’s. Sometimes we learn the hard way.