Move over Rosie —

My lovely Kitchenaid dishwasher has been steadily declining in its ability to clean the dishes and finally got to the point this week where the top rack wasn’t washing at all.  I can not tell you how heartsick this made me.  $$$ were flashing before my eyes while  the dishes were having to be hand-washed.  I could live without the washer indefinitely, but I really like having it.
I figured I would look on-line to see if there was something I could do.  Back last fall I was able to fix my clothes washer when the filter needed cleared so I was slightly hopeful.  After Google-searching up a couple of useful sites,  hunting around their message boards to pin point the likely problem and reading a good deal I finally came to this page.

I grabbed my trusty tool box and proceeded to pull the dishwasher apart.  The children were sort of wide-eyed at the whole process.  Before long I was pulling some of the nastiest, smelliest junk out of my dishwasher.

I worked down another level and discovered that I was wrong in thinking that the stuff I had already dealt with was nasty.  This layer gave nasty a new definition.

I pulled out the chopper assembly and it looked very bad. Here it is after I rinsed it off:

Note how bent up the blades are.   I sat down and ordered the new part and then put the washer back together (yes, I just put the bent up one back in I figure it was working a few days ago so it will last a few more now that it is clean.)  The washer is working much, much better (and quieter) now.  The new part  should be in before the end of next week.

Sorry for the  obvious crowing, but I am rather pleased with myself.