Pay Attention To Your Dishwasher Air Gap

Do you ever pay attention to the air gap on your kitchen dishwasher? Thats the thing that mounts either directly to your kitchen sink, or to the counter top. The air gap looks like a cup that is upside down and has little vent holes and it is part of your plumbing. This little gadget makes sure that if water backs up in your dishwasher, the backed up water flows into your sink and not on your floor.

It’s amazing how every time you turn around, the air gap is pointed away from the kitchen sink. The air gap needs to point at the kitchen sink in order to work properly. If you have an inattentive spouse or house cleaners, the dishwasher air gap seems to constantly point in any direction other than the kitchen sink.

In this condition, if your dishwasher were to back up, the water would spill from the air gap all over the place, all over the remodeled counter top, down the refaced cabinets, into the cabinets, and onto the floor – probably ruining that expensive new kitchen cabinet refacing job that looks so good. You even have the possibility of doing some damage to your flooring, depending on what material it is made of.

Some models of air gaps may be designed so that they can’t be rotated out of position, but most don not have that ability.[source]

If your dishwasher air gap has a habit of getting rotated around until it no longer points into your sink, it would be a good idea to make a habit of taking note of it whenever you use the sink – correct the situation and make sure it points into the kitchen sink. If your dishwasher backs up, you will be glad that you did.

Local SW Florida Plumbers, Protek Plumbing and Drain Specialists, are available for all of your plumbing needs.