Installing our new dishwasher

A dishwasher in the kitchen is becoming one of those needed appliances. When we renovated our kitchen, I was sure to make room under the counter for a dishwasher, since I was the one who seemed to do the dishes more often than not. When planning our kitchen we left a 24 inch opening under the counter top next to the sink. Right next to the sink is the most convenient place for this appliance from both the user and installer’s stand point. This is a picture of the finished project:

First of all, I needed to have a separate 15 or 20 amp appliance circuit (depends on the rating of the appliance) dedicated to the dishwasher as required by the NEC 2005. I ran this from the electrical panel in the basement myself using #12/2 NM (aka “romex”) to a metal box on the floor near the wall. From the dishwasher, I used a #12 two wire plus ground “stinger” to a single outlet. This allows the dishwasher to be easily pulled out from under the counter for maintenance or replacement.

Then I connected the hot water supply feed. I tapped into the sink hot water supply, putting a shutoff valve on the supply line. It was a pain, but I soldered in a 1/2 inch copper T in the hot water line. I used soft coper tubing carefully bent into an S to get the supply line to the inside of the dishwasher opening under the counter top. On the dishwasher side, I used a flexible metal jacketed hose to connect the copper pipe to the dishwasher water supply. I used a metal jacketed hose because of the potential mouse mischief. In our rental house, mice chewed through the plastic water supply hose on the dishwasher creating a flood.

Finally, I installed a special “tail” with a dishwasher drain on the sink drain. This replaces the original tail that came with the sink. I ran the dishwasher drain to the tail and secured
with hose clamps.

Once all that was connected, I tested the unit. All worked well, so I slid it into its space in between the cabinets and secured it with two screws to the underside of the counter and installed the kit plate.

All done. The installation instructions that came with the dishwasher were easy to follow and understand, but I say a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a Kenmore model 363.1522 dishwasher.