Dishwasher wasn't pulling enough water to wash. Irrigation valve to the rescue!

Note: the black marks are from the previous owner's torch work on the plumbing. Yes, I agree that sharkbites aren't the best. I only use them in accessible places. I wish I took more photos, but I was more interested in getting caught up on dishes and forget. I have an old-ish dishwasher that requires a gallon+ of water per fill to wash properly. My water provider has been doing maintenance for months and the water pressure is pretty low all the time. The dishwasher fills based on a timer (with an emergency overflow shutoff) and with the low pressure, it stopped getting sufficient water during that timer. I cleaned the fill valve, no change. Replaced it; again, no change. I even teamed two of them up in parallel for a while, which fixed the problem for about 6 months. Then the pressure dropped again. I talked to a local appliance dealer and they said I was SOL with low water pressure, since all new dishwashers use a fill timer as well, and it can't be adjusted. I took another look at the valve and realized it was just 110vAC at a few watts. I went on Amazon and found this valve for like $35 that had a similar power rating. Bought it. Then, I replaced the dinky little appliance hose with a garden hose (cut off and inserted into the fill funnel), hooked that up to this valve, and soldered some spade connectors to some spare wire to extend the lead from the stock valve's mounting location to under the sink. With the quarter-turn on the Sharkbite, I can adjust how much water it gets. Full tilt overwhelms the fill funnel

May 26, 2025 - 16:22

Dishwasher wasn't pulling enough water to wash. Irrigation valve to the rescue!

Note: the black marks are from the previous owner's torch work on the plumbing. Yes, I agree that sharkbites aren't the best. I only use them in accessible places.

I wish I took more photos, but I was more interested in getting caught up on dishes and forget.

I have an old-ish dishwasher that requires a gallon+ of water per fill to wash properly. My water provider has been doing maintenance for months and the water pressure is pretty low all the time. The dishwasher fills based on a timer (with an emergency overflow shutoff) and with the low pressure, it stopped getting sufficient water during that timer. I cleaned the fill valve, no change. Replaced it; again, no change. I even teamed two of them up in parallel for a while, which fixed the problem for about 6 months. Then the pressure dropped again.

I talked to a local appliance dealer and they said I was SOL with low water pressure, since all new dishwashers use a fill timer as well, and it can't be adjusted.

I took another look at the valve and realized it was just 110vAC at a few watts. I went on Amazon and found this valve for like $35 that had a similar power rating. Bought it. Then, I replaced the dinky little appliance hose with a garden hose (cut off and inserted into the fill funnel), hooked that up to this valve, and soldered some spade connectors to some spare wire to extend the lead from the stock valve's mounting location to under the sink. With the quarter-turn on the Sharkbite, I can adjust how much water it gets. Full tilt overwhelms the fill funnel