Have you ever had to shop vac out a dishwasher entirely full of soap suds???
And I mean, the entire tub full of bubbles! Twice!
You can't even imagine the horror running through my mind at the possibility of a dishwasher out of comission. I detest hand-washing. I would rather pick up dog poop or scrub a shower...you get the idea.
Anyhow...here's how it happened:
See I washed the dinner dishes while Z and T put them into the dishwasher. When we were near completion T took out the soap to start the dishwasher (which she has done probably 50 times) and closed it up.
It never crossed my mind that we had recently finished up our old container of automatic detergent and I had purchased a new kind. It also didn't cross my mind that I had also recently purchased new dishwashing soap (for hand-washing) which looks quite a bit like the old automatic detergent.....
Thus, as the last bit of tidying was done Ryan and I began to wonder why the DW was sounding like it was trying to churn ice-cream (although, now that I think of it, that would be a wonderful feature in a DW although there would be a slight temperature issue...but I digress).
When we opened it up, bubbles were EVERYWHERE! They came out on the floor, covered the now open lid, and filled the entire DW tub. It was rather like the dishwasher was growing into the kitchen before our eyes (remember my horror)!
Ryan put towels on the floor, pulled out the bottom rack of dishes, and revved up the shop vac. Once it was empty of suds we started up the DW again and then very shortly repeated the process over two or three more times.
Fortunately it seems we caught the whole mishap in the early stages and we have a happy, non-bubbly dishwasher again.
As for T...well, she recovered after a while. She takes mistakes (even innocent ones) rather hard, but is very comforted that all is back in working order (as am I).
2 comments:
Oh my, Yes, we had that happen to us once in Long Beach. Don't remember the details and did not have a shop vac. I remember baling the water out and wiping down the inside a number of times before running the DW again and again.
Heather, your discripetion of an "ice cream machine" is a good one.
Poor T, I know just how she felt.
Glad all is back to normal again. What an adventure you will not forget anytime soon.
I think I read somewhere that if you sprinkle salt on soap bubbles, you can get rid of the suds quicker. I don't know that I would "pour" salt into the DW... Something to check out on the Internet or try as a science experiment with a sink/pan of soapy water!
Thanks for sharing! :-)
Yes, I have had this happen, but I don't have a child to blame it on. My brother and I were living in our first apartment. I don't remember who loaded the dishwasher, but I sure remember what ensued! Bubbles EVERYWHERE for what seemed like hours. We didn't have a shop vac to suck up the mess, only towels to mop up, wring out, and mop up again, over and over and OVER until the dishwasher finished its cycle. It NEVER happened again, that's for sure! And I'm sure your kids will forever remember the difference between dishwashING soap and dishwashER soap!
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