Learn me dishwashers

In my ongoing education of basic household maintenance (almost 4 years into home ownership, still finding new stuff to fix), I need to receive some education on dishwashers.

I have a cheapo Frigidaire dishwasher (most likely the bottom-rung unit you can get at a big box store with a matching fridge and microwave) that isn't draining properly. I have done the basics like clean out the food trap (which wasn't bad), but it's still not functioning properly. I would say it's draining sluggishly, or maybe not at the right time in the cycle, because it's certainly draining somewhat, since it's not full of water and overflowing. Yet.

So...I really have no idea what I'm doing. I've never cracked one of these things open before. Where should I start?

In reply to alex:

Check to make sure that the discharge tube from the pump to the drain is not obstructed. If it's clear, then maybe a new pump?

Mine didn't want to drain a couple of weeks ago, I pulled the hose off at the sink trap and found some rubbery thing stuck in it. No idea of what it was. Yanked it out, DW now works like a champ.

Some guys find that taking them out to dinner every once in a while and making them feel "special" really helps.

If you run a restaurant, make sure they are legal....

I dunno how that would work for me since I'm usually the one doing the dishes, since she cooks so much better than I do ;)

Joking aside, ours had a plugged drain hose that required pulling the hose and clearing the gunk that was trapped in there from the garbage disposal (since they share a drain pipe in our house).

If you have really hard water - fill that berkeleyer with CLR and run it. If that doesn't cure it, check the other suggestions above then pull the pump.

turboswede wrote: Joking aside, ours had a plugged drain hose that required pulling the hose and clearing the gunk that was trapped in there from the garbage disposal (since they share a drain pipe in our house).

Ooh, good call here. I'm willing to bet ours does, too.

I'll have to poke under the sink tomorrow. I've used up my crawling-around-for-gross-stuff quotient for the day - had to fish a stinking, decomposing mouse carcass out of the bottom chassis of my fridge with forceps today. I got most of the guts out...

Yeah most dishwashers empty into the disposer. I have within the last couple months replaced BOTH a dishwasher AND a disposer, so I'm more familiar with both than I care to be. The disposer has a knockout in the side of the housing that allows attachment of a standard dishwasher drain hose. It's not a huge hole, so yeah, I'd check to make sure that's not gunked up first.

Another thing, if your sink is sluggish to drain it will sometimes back flow into the dishwasher. Then every time you open the dishwasher there is water standing in the bottom. It will make you think the dishwasher isn't draining properly.

Double post because the board is being irritating. How can it give me a 504 and still add the post? Stupid electrons.

also make sure you've got a loop up above where it empties into the disposer, sometimes the loop comes undone and you get backflow or slow draining.

This is where a shopvac and some duct tape comes in handy if there is a clog at the disposal or the line out of the dishwasher. Take some drain pipes off and start sucking what you can. The drain pipes usually have lots of tight turns that catch all kinds of annoying stuff.