Home Ec, Machine Shop, Oddities

Kenmore Dishwasher Sound Deadening Sheets: Slip Sliding Away, Redux

The springs balancing the dishwasher door started twanging again, which I now know is the diagnostic sign that an asphalt sound deadening sheet has slipped off the tub. A sheet on the right side almost perpetrated a clean escape, but the flap drooping over the spring gave it away:

Dishwasher sound deadener - slipped away
Dishwasher sound deadener – slipped away

Another sheet on the left side was inching away, but hadn’t quite gotten over the fence:

Dishwasher sound deadener - slipping away
Dishwasher sound deadener – slipping away

They’re pretty much a rigid solid at room temperature:

Dishwasher sound deadener - wrinkled asphalt sheet
Dishwasher sound deadener – wrinkled asphalt sheet

It puts one in mind of the pitch drop experiments now running in various labs. In this case, we now know it takes about four years for an asphalt sheet to slide completely off the tub; those two sheets were definitely in place when I buttoned it up after the previous one broke free.

I applied a heat gun to soften the sheets, then smoothed them around the tub again. This time I applied long strips of Gorilla Tape from one side to the other, rather than short strips of ordinary duct tape along the edges, and maybe this fix will outlast either the dishwasher or our tenure here, whichever comes first…

3 thoughts on “Kenmore Dishwasher Sound Deadening Sheets: Slip Sliding Away, Redux”

  1. They sell (essentially) this stuff for sound deadening in car doors. I installed some a few years ago, I should open it up and see if it too has walked.

    1. It won’t get very far in winter, but summertime sun could move it right along.

      Maybe just pull a drain cap and check for a layer of black ice molded atop it?

  2. whichever comes first…

    We’ve had to give that consideration a thought. Considering our real estate values are in the tank (with poor prospects of recovering soon), we’re looking at longer payback projects. The local economy was based on logging and building materials (doors and windows), not currently growth viable industries. Now, if more people get fed up with California and can sell out (yeah, right), we’ll get a market again. Maybe.

    Next appliance is a new dishwasher, eventually. I’ve got one room refloored in engineered wood (Shaw makes nice stuff) and we’re clearing the rest of the project space next week. Julie has been talking about a grid-tie/battery PV hybrid system lately. Whee!

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