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This is far from a new dishwasher and as such it is not unexpected that things will go wrong. Well this time a spring that helps counterbalance the door broke. The good thing is that my wife didn't get whacked by it when it fell.

Had to take off a couple of panels to get to it but not a big deal. Not sure why it broke where it did but there is no repairing it.
So I checked a couple of local hardware stores but didn't find what I would say was a good replacement. It is quite stiff and coated, I would guess that is to prevent corrosion or to keep it quieter?? Springs that were in that general size range are about $7. OK then off to check online at the Maytag store. I was guessing say 3x the cost....

I was rather shocked that it is $48.11 !!!!

Still cheaper then a new dishwasher but that seems like a lot of money for a spring. Next step is to start checking other parts places for a better price.

So how is your morning going?

Ed

That's about 10% of the price for a pretty good dishwasher these days. I'm guessing it's less than 1% of the cost in making the thing. Pretty good business to be in.

A used appliance place near me has provided some used replacement parts at reasonable cost over the years. It's like getting used parts for cars at the auto junkyard, they have the old appliances people get rid of.

I had a similar looking spring on a Thermador dishwasher break, but it was close to one end and I was able to bend a new hook on it.

Maybe you can find a free or low cost dishwasher on Craigslist, just for that part. Most of those springs are probably very similar. I too couldn't find a similar spring at any of the hardware stores.

Ed,

I don't know if this is the right spring because I don't know your Maytag part #, but it looks almost identical and is less than $20 from RepairClinic.com. I get all my appliance repairs parts from either RepairClinic or AppliancePartsPros. I have used them for several years now and always had good results from them. I check between the two to compare prices and swap depending on price and availability. The problem of course is shipping costs and maybe that is already included in the $48 you quoted. Another option, if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, is you can find quite a few appliance parts sometimes on there and you get free shipping with Prime. Hope this helps.

https://www.repairclinic.com/

https://www.appliancepartspros.com/

https://www.repairclinic.com/PartDetail ... 652/740040

My brother had a couple of good suggestions to add, auto parts stores and lawn mower repair places.....

Anyway I had to do some modifications to the springs, got two different versions to try out. The first one was the right length but larger diameter and thicker material. Well, it fit but it but way to strong. I've contacted NASA about it use for launching low orbit satellites..... You can get the door down but it self closes very quickly and strongly. In other words a no go.

The second option is on the machine now. It was two shorter springs that when put together in series has the right length sort of..... They too had to have some mods done to get them to fit. It is still not balanced but close. The door still self closes but at a much slower speed and with a lot less force. It is so close to working.

The dishwasher has two lighter springs, one on each side and two heavier springs, again one on each side. The broken one is a heavier one. There are also two attachment points for the heavy spring. I'm assuming that changes to balance and will play with that tomorrow. I may also try taking one of the lighter springs off and see what effect that has on the balance.

Springs were under $5 for the one and the two pack. At one of the online places a replacement at $27.69 but not a Maytag OEM one. That was without postage and not in stock.

Ed