Dishwasher Door Stuck Closed

[stuckdishes]

We have a portable 18" Kenmore dishwasher that we purchased 2 years ago that we use in our apartment. The model # is inside the dishwasher, but unfortunately the stuck door is preventing us from seeing it. I believe the model number is #461.17352.

Basically the door is a simple latch that snaps close and then you pull the handle towards you to open. It appears something may have broken inside the latch and now it is impossible to open the door.

We have tried everything we could think of to open the door, but aside from using a crowbar or sledge hammer we have run out of ideas. (1/2 our dishes are still trapped inside.)

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[HayZee518]

the door latch is a "toggle over center" type of latch. all this means is that the latch hook travels over the center point to provide an inward pull on the door to seal it against the gasket. short of using a crowbar, take a clothes hanger and straighten it out. form an L shaped bend in one end - leave the tail abour 1/2 inch long. now see if you can work it into the slot at an angle about three inches inward and rotate it ninety degrees. with luck you may be behind the latch bar. pull hard outward at an angle. while pulling the opening handle also. the combined forces may dislodge the latch hook.

[stuckdishes]

Thanks for the suggestion. I used the coat hanger for over an hour, but in the end I had to resort to simple brute force. I took two of the largest flathead screwdrivers I had, slid one on each side of the door and pulled. It managed to pop the latch without happily damaging the door.

Once I had the door open, I was able to remove the top control panel and take a look. Sure enough the two small arms of the plastic handle where it hooks onto the latch had broken.

Now that I can see the model number, I can order a replacement part.

Thank you!

[Beanz]

I had the same problem with my NOBEL dishwasher door getting stuck in the locked position and no matter how hard I pulled the door, it just would not budge.

So, having read online about others having this problem, I switched off the mains to the dishwasher (d.w) and then got a 4mm thick piece of ply I had in the garage (about 3mm wide by 600mm long), eased it in the gap between the door and the top of the d.w and then pushed the plywood 'upwards'. The door immediately sprang open completely undamaged but still not working properly.

It was obvious that the problem was with the locking mechanism itself. So, I proceeded to take loads of photos (so I would know how to put everything back together again later on) and carefully removed firstly the metal front panel (that you normally see when you look at the front of the d.w) by unscrewing about 8 or so Phillips heads screws. I then unscrewed the plastic panel that held the switches, at the top half of the door and, once again, taking loads of pics, I carefully removed the cream coloured locking mechanism (by unscrewing the 6 screws).

I then spent two days (!) scratching my head, showing mates the mechanism yet none of us could figure out what was wrong with it.

Eventually I worked out that within the mechanism, there's an angled piece of plastic about 25mm wide that has a sort of 'tongue' sticking out either side of it. (We'll call it 'A') Effectively it sits between the two main parts that hinge against each other when the door mechanism is operated properly. There's a 'cam' (a hooked shaped device) that is supposed to turn and hook around the plastic clip on the main dw when the door is closed to it locks it. But even though this cam WAS closing (when I used a round screwdriver to operate it instead of the d.w clip) it wasn't returning to it's unlocked position.

After many more hours, I gently roughened up the plastic where one face of this 'A' and then, using 24 hour Araldite, I glued a 3mm thick piece of plastic between the gap of 'A's edge and where it's supposed to be in contact with. I had to make sure it could rub against the other part of the mechanism but NOT get glued to it.I'm sorry this sounds complicated, I tried posting a photo (which would have easily explained what I'm talking about) but the photo upload didn't work.

But anyway, after letting it dry overnight I reassembled everything and it's now working perfectly again.

To cut a long story short, it appears either something in that mechanism broke off or, for some reason, the 'A' part has moved away from where it should be. My fix was a sort of 'bodge' but has definately worked.