HANDY, MAN

Not bad for a Luddite. I fixed the handles on the F & P twin dishwasher today.

This probably sounds easy to you handymen out there but these sorts of things are always a challenge for me.
I had to get out The Old Girl's tool set - pliers, screwdrivers - you know the drill. No. not the drill as such, I'm not allowed to use her Black & Decker drill. The drill. You know, the drill.

The handles on this model of dishwasher (bought in 2014) come apart after much use.

The plastic handle bracket in the centre detaches from the panel

We had one give way about a year ago and I 'fixed' it with Araldite until it started to come apart again. A couple of months ago the second drawer handle detached so I thought I'd better get them replaced. I managed to buy the parts on-line from a F&P supplier which is pretty good follow up service for something a few years old. You have to buy the entire display panels that have the handle incorporated.  The price wasn't too bad - $140 - compared to the cost of getting a service person around. The panels turned up while I was away so I installed them this morning. As per usual the 'instruction' document included was hopeless so I searched the internet and found an excellent 'how-to' video which I followed.

The procedure was a bit complicated and involved taking off the entire front of each dish-drawer, disconnecting earthing wires and disabling the control panel. The removal and replacement was fiddly given the cramped space I had on one side of the machine and the sequence had to be followed carefully but I managed it with the assistance of the unnamed technician on the video. Thanks mate!

Luckily this didn't happen

In the box that was delivered were several brackets and a letter. The letter said that in order to take the stress off the handles new brackets needed to be fitted. Obviously F & P have become aware of the handle problem and improved the brackets that support each drawer. I looked at these and the hopeless fitting instructions, had a quick think about it and decided that it was too complicated so put them back in the box which will be relegated to the shed later.

There's only so much that a Luddite can do on one day.