2026, Family, home, Uncategorized

Is That Smoke?

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Our son’s dishwasher has been making the most dreadful noises all summer. He was hoping to wait until September to get it looked at by the appliance repair folks.

We are currently staying with our son and Dil looking after our grandson. Yesterday I started the dishwasher after I had finished making some Franzbrotchen, a Hamburg pastry. The dishwasher made its usual grinding noises. Not too far into the cycle it stopped and a warning signal began beeping and a special code popped up on the display to indicate what the trouble was. Husband and I were the only adults home. We contacted our son and he sent us the on-line information of what to do in this circumstance with this particular warning code. It said to unplug the dishwasher for 5 minutes, then restart it.

I followed the instructions. After I restarted the machine it no longer made the awful noise. Then, however, I noticed that something that looked like steam but had a burning, electrical smell was wafting out of the top of the door. I checked, then double checked and decided it was actual smoke. I immediately turned off the dishwasher and unplugged it. I removed the bottom access plate to see if anything was burning under the machine, felt all around on the floor and cupboards to see if anything felt hot, then checked the ceiling in the basement where the dishwasher was perched. It was ok.

For some reason when I woke up yesterday morning I distinctly remember thinking that Son needed to get that dishwasher replaced because the awful noise it made could mean it might start a fire. How weird is that? PI never have had a premonition, but this is pretty close. We helped him choose out a new dishwasher late yesterday afternoon.

Ever had a premonition? Any memorable appliance fails?

32 thoughts on “Is That Smoke?”

  1. No premonitions.

    Twice, when I was in high school, my folks bought a side of beef. I have no idea where they got this and I don’t remember any discussion of ahead of time, but I do remember all of the packages neatly wrapped in white butcher paper and labeled. Freya, what are you doing dingleberry stop it drop it drop it. These all went into the freezer downstairs. At some point, during this period, the basement freezer went out. I remember us having to take all of the laundry baskets down to the basement, fill them up and drive them to my aunt Joan Marie‘s house, because she had room in her freezer for a few days until we got our freezer fixed. Then of course we had to haul all those packages back from my aunt Joan Marie’s and get them back to the basement. What a pain in the patootie. And for meat no less (which I wasn’t eating any longer).

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        1. Yep, I cleaned the post up a bit anfter dictating and didn’t even notice that the talking to Freya made it in there. “Freya stop it drop it drop it” are probably most common things I say these days!!

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    2. “Freya, what are you doing dingleberry stop it drop it drop it” should be our code for “I am dictating this comment!” Thanks for the laugh! I needed it!

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  2. I remember replacing an electric with a gas stove when we first moved into the Robbinsdale house. And we’ve replaced a fridge here several years ago, hoping to find something quieter, but we must have bought a similar cheap model.
    Toaster oven… Heck, we still have the microwave Michael & Joel gave me for my birthday in maybe 1997!

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  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Right now I have a refrigerator I am not crazy about and I do not trust it. Probably, when I am back from the upcoming trip, I will replace it. My premonition is that it will not hold up. In 2009 the icemaker hose on that refridgerator burst, dumping gallons of water into the basement below. I went downstairs to let the dog outin the morning to find water leaking from the heat vent. HMMM. That is not to be there. $15000 of damage. 15 or 16 years ago at Christmas, our furnace died. Son and his then girlfriend were headed over and we huddled on the porch which had its own heat source. We lived out there until the furnace was replaced. (PS, I really did not like that girlfriend. She also had glitches. Thank goodness he did not marry her).

    Years ago when I worked in Adolescent/young adult chemical dependency treatment, I would often know when someone was using drugs in treatment. Yes, addicts will do that. This was not a premonition, but it was premonition-like. All of a sudden in staff meetings, the staff was anxious and tense, and they did not trust anything about the process. They would look at me to determine what I thought. I was usually right. They would search and find a stash somewhere. Twice I told them they had to get so-and-so off the treatment unit because the group dynamics would get so crazy. Once a new kid brought a deck of Tarot cards onto the site, and he was scaring the kids so badly with them. That kid was really good at Tarot cards and really dangerous. He went into a psych facility, thank goodness.

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  5. Every 30 or 40 rounds of golf I play, as I stand over a long putt (roughly 15-30 feet), I have this strong feeling that I’ll sink it. And I do. Sort of a premonition, I suppose. But I don’t consciously think to myself before every single putt, “This is going in.” Maybe I should.

    We’re finally getting rid of our dishwasher from Heck. Installation problems, had the electronics repaired, developed a leak that couldn’t be fixed for less than the cost of the dishwasher itself. Now we find out that the guy from the appliance store can’t install the new one we bought from himi because the plumbers had to install the old one. So the plumbers now have to install the new one for some reason. We hope it’ll happen today. Haven’t had the use of the DW for almost a month now, since we found out about the leak.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  6. While the bathroom was getting done, I got a really twitchy feeling about the furnace, so we replaced that. Does a pre-emptive premonition count?

    That furnace was well over 30 years old, so it did need to be replaced, but I had been thinking a year or so could have gotten squeaked out, and then I started to worry…

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    1. I’ve been thinking the same thing about our furnace and AC. It’s over 30 years old and if I replace it preemptively I can perhaps arrange to do it when neither the AC nor the furnace are critically needed.

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      1. That a washer with a hole rusted through the tub. We did fix that with Bondo (?) and that gave us another 5+ years, but the mechanism that cycles the machine finally went, so we gave up on it, as that is beyond me.

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  7. I just looked up the average lifespan of a dishwasher and got a result of 7-13 years with an average of 10. Not very long.

    Years ago I had a dishwasher that tended to go through pumps. I had to replace the part every couple of years. Fortunately there was a place where I could get replacements. Finally, when I remodeled the kitchen, I put in a new dishwasher (it’s not that difficult.)

    When we had our kitchen redone last winter we added a dishwasher. Previously there had never been one. Our habits and the small number of dishes we dirty in the course of a day has meant we’ve only used the dishwasher three times since March. At that rate it should outlive us.

    We are still using the washing machine that was in the house when we moved here 22 years ago. I have no idea how old it was at that point. The good thing about a machine that old is that they are easy to repair and I have done so a couple of times. About the only circumstance I can foresee that would dictate replacement would be if the control panel malfunctions.

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    1. I’ve got you beat there, knock on wood. I got a new washer and dryer when I moved into this house in April 1991. Both still working but about two years ago, I signed up for the insurance on them so that when they go belly up, I’ll be able to get new ones at a massive discount.

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  8. Premonitions are typically that something bad is going to happen.
    I get them from simply observing patterns. If my bank account seems to be collecting a surplus, it’s for sure there will be something happening that will drain it. But that’s why rainy day accounts work.

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  9. OK now I remembered a failure that happened to me and not technically to my parents.

    About 10 years ago, the boiler went out and when I called the guys to come deal with it apparently the carbon monoxide wasn’t venting out of the chimney well because the chimney tiles had started to come down on the inside. Because the carbon monoxide wasn’t venting properly, the boiler turned off. Unfortunately, it was the first week of November and it was the coldest first week in November that we’ve had as long as I’ve lived here. To fix it, I had to actually get chimney guys out and they came in and out and in and out. it was in the teens and they were very nice and brought me two nice space heaters while I sat on the sofa covered up with blankets with the dog. They were done after about six hours and said I should crank up the heat and to just leave it on for several hours. I went upstairs into my room, shut myself and the dog in with both the space heaters. YA got home a couple of hours later and when she came into my room, she said “It’s like a tropical sauna in here”. I took that as a sign that I had cranked up the heat long enough.

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    1. That reminds me that once our furnace shut down for no apparent reason. A friend with furnace installation experience came over and we took apart the vent piping. there was a dead bird in there—that was before I had a cap on the chimney pipe. Apparently the bird blocked enough of the pipe to trigger the CO shutoff. With bird removed, the furnace restarted without further issues.

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  10. I have to say, electric heat doesn’t cause any issues and is maintenance free.
    Way back when, The Rep theater was in an old building and it had two furnaces up in a room that also was the lighting and sound booth. One of our directors, who hated winter and was always cold, would come up there, bundled up with a scarf and hat pulled down so only he eyes showed, and he’s sneak into that furnace room, where it was 90 degree’s, and warm up. He’d come out 10 minutes later.
    But when the wind blew, the pilot light would go out on one furnace, And that’s where I learned about furnaces and pilot lights. Often was re-lighting that. And when it wouldn’t the hardware store right next to us was good at selling me ‘thermocouplers’ and such. I always say I have learned alot from theater.

    We were getting a new washer and dryer a few years ago. We had take the old ones out. I had a wire and a rag and was cleaning out the dryer vent. Course I snagged the rag in there. An hour later the new stuff has arrived and I’m in there with a 20′ long pipe still trying to get this rag moved one way or the other. They put the washer in and were about to leave when I finally got the rag out and they could finish installation. Jeepers.

    Premonitions. That little voice in your head… it usually means something. The trick is listening.

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  11. The premonition I had wasn’t about an appliance. It was about a gig I played with a group of women called the Downhome Divas in Mankato at the Coffee Hag. I felt more and more dread in the days leading up to that gig. I had a strong feeling that I shouldn’t do it, some inner voice telling me not to do it.

    The day arrived and I was setting up. I tuned my beloved handmade guitar and set it along the wall, near the edge of the stage where I thought it would be safe, and I returned to setting up the sound system. The stage was tiny, and I think there were 6 or 7 of us, everyone excited and trying to carve out a small space on that tiny stage. In all the activity, my guitar plunged off the stage and onto the floor. The headstock broke off at the top of the neck.

    I went home. I tried to sing, but I couldn’t, so I went home. I was devastated. My guitar was repaired by the guy who made it. It took him a while, which was okay. I just wanted it fixed. He was pretty disgusted with me. He thought it was my fault and that I had been careless.

    I’ve had pretty good luck with appliances, I guess. I was convinced the Beast would give out on me at my former house, but it didn’t. It was a pretty good refrigerator, I guess. They intentionally make appliances that don’t last these days. Planned obsolescence has really gone too far. The new stuff I got when I moved here is super junky, and I don’t think it will last long. I moved my Speed Queen washer and dryer when I moved here. It was worth paying the extra fees for moving them.

    In other news: I thought I had asthmatic bronchitis, but I actually have pneumonia. Ugh.

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