On the job · Downtown Charleston
The rest of the lineup.
Same $99 diagnostic, same written quote, same written warranty on every machine we fix in Downtown Charleston.
Downtown Charleston is not a hard-water town, so a dishwasher leaving film on glasses here is not fighting scale. It is fighting a weak pump, a blocked spray arm or too much detergent. We test the machine the way it runs, fill, wash, drain, with the meter on the parts that move, and write one number before anything comes out from under the counter.
Same $99 diagnostic, same written quote, same written warranty on every machine we fix in Downtown Charleston.
Charleston Water System draws from the Edisto and Bushy Park and delivers water that is moderately soft to just slightly hard. That matters for dishwashers. Owners in Harleston Village and South of Broad call about cloudy glasses expecting a scale problem and a water softener sales pitch; what they usually have is etching from too much detergent in soft water, or a wash pump that has lost pressure and stopped clearing the racks. The fix is different in each case, and one of them costs nothing. So we ask about the detergent before the machine, and check the spray arms and filter before we meter the pump. Fifteen minutes from West Ashley, six days a week.
The machines here skew toward panel-front Bosch, Miele and KitchenAid units in renovated kitchens, with compact 18-inch dishwashers in the King Street and Meeting Street condos and builder-grade Whirlpool and Frigidaire in the rentals near the College and the Citadel. Drain problems lead the list: a check valve stuck, a drain hose looped wrong under a Cannonborough-Elliotborough sink, a garbage disposal replaced with the knockout plug still in. Leaks are the calls we take most seriously, because a slow drip from a door gasket sits on heart pine or under tile until the floor moves. A Wagener Terrace kitchen found it when the cabinet toe-kick swelled; the pump seal had been weeping for a month.
The drain pump, the check valve, a clogged filter or a kinked hose. If the disposal was recently replaced we look for the knockout plug first. We run a drain with the kick panel off and meter the pump; the van carries drain pumps for the common lines. Standing water also means the filter needs a cleaning.
Low wash pressure. Spray arm ports blocked with food, a filter packed solid, a wash pump losing pressure or a circulation motor dragging. We check the arms spin freely, clean the filter, then measure the pump. In soft downtown water grit is food, not mineral, so the answer is in the machine.
In Charleston Water System water this is almost never scale. It is either etching from detergent overdose, which is permanent on the glass but easy to stop, or rinse aid that has run out or is set too low. We check the dispenser, the dose and the water temperature at the machine before touching a part.
Door gasket, a spray arm hitting the door, a failed pump seal or a cracked tub. Each leaks at a different point in the cycle. We run the machine with the kick panel off and a light underneath and watch. On panel-front units we check the panel alignment, because a misaligned panel can hold the door open a hair.
A door latch or switch that is not closing the circuit, a control board, or a thermal fuse. Salt air corrodes latch contacts on ground-floor kitchens near the harbor. We meter the latch, read any code and check the board before we call it. Often the latch just needs adjustment against a warped panel.
The heating element or its relay on the board has failed, the vent fan on drying models has stopped, or the rinse aid is out. A burning smell means a wire at the element terminal has overheated, and we want to see that today. The element is metered, the terminal inspected and repaired properly.
A dishwasher diagnosis is a cycle run in pieces. We start a fill and measure how much water arrives and how fast, which tests the inlet valve and the float. We run the wash and listen to the circulation pump under load while checking that both spray arms turn. We run the drain and meter the pump. The door latch and the heating element get checked with the meter whether or not they are the complaint, because a latch that is marginal today is a no-start call next month. On a Miele or Bosch panel-front in a South of Broad kitchen, the unit comes forward on its rails only if the repair needs it, and the panel goes back aligned to the cabinet run.
We service Bosch, Miele, KitchenAid, Thermador, JennAir, Whirlpool, GE, Samsung, LG, Frigidaire, Electrolux and Kenmore dishwashers, including the 18-inch compacts in peninsula condos. Property managers with short-term rentals off King Street and near the Battery send us the turnover window and we work inside it, texting the written number for approval so the guest never knows there was a problem. The price does not change by address. The $99 diagnostic is inside the number you approve, and if you decide against the repair, $99 is the whole bill. Book online and up to $20 comes off the repair, not the diagnostic.
Call (843) 969-4664 with the symptom, or book online and up to $20 comes off the repair. Downtown Charleston, six days a week.
