Clear the space and the path to it, empty the adjacent cabinet, know where your water shutoff is, and decide what happens to the old unit. Everything else — the connections, the drain configuration, the electrical — is ours to handle.
Before Installation Day
- Empty the dishwasher and remove anything stored on top of or inside it.
- Clear the cabinet under the sink. The water supply, drain connection, and often the electrical all come through here, and it has to be accessible.
- Clear a path from the door to the kitchen. Dishwashers are heavy and awkward, and floor protection works better when the route is open.
- Move anything fragile off nearby counters.
- Decide about the old unit. Confirm whether removal and disposal are included, and let us know if you want it left for a different purpose.
- Secure pets, since doors stay open during the move.
Useful Things to Know or Check
Where your main water shutoff is. If the valve under the sink will not close — common in older Albuquerque homes — we need the main. Worth locating and confirming it turns regardless.
Whether there is a dedicated outlet or hardwired connection in the cabinet. If you are adding a dishwasher where there was not one, electrical availability is the main variable in scope.
Your cabinet opening dimensions if you have already purchased a unit. Older openings occasionally do not match modern dishwasher sizes, and countertop overhang sometimes interferes.
What We Handle
Shutoff valve and supply line replacement rather than reusing old ones, the drain connection with a proper high loop or air gap, removing the knockout plug on a disposal if the drain ties in there — the single most common cause of a new dishwasher that will not drain — leveling, and a full test cycle before we leave.
Worth Asking About
Albuquerque’s hard water scales dishwasher components and leaves film on dishes that no rinse aid fully solves. A water softener improves performance and extends the unit’s life.
Contact B. Carlson about kitchen plumbing in Albuquerque.
