How To Level A Dishwasher Front To Back

Are you struggling with water pooling at the bottom of your dishwasher? Annoying leaks making your days worse? Your dishwasher making weird noises even though it is perfectly in shape?

Well, if you’re dealing with either or all these nuisances, chances are, your dishwasher is not at the perfect level due to careless installation.

If that’s the case, water won’t properly drain from your device, resulting in the above issues. Hence, when installing your appliance, you need to ensure that it’s perfectly on level to avoid such unpleasant occurrences.

Luckily, you can fix your appliance’s alignment even post-installation with bare minimum tools and effort. So let’s check out how to level a dishwasher front to back like a pro all by yourself!

How To Level A Dishwasher Front To Back

Leveling your dishwasher front to back makes sure that your appliance makes room under your counter in a perfect fit. This is no daunting task and can be done in a jiffy to get your appliance up and running perfectly in no time!

If you’re wondering how to level a dishwasher at home on your own, you’ll need two main tools- an adjustable wrench, a screwdriver, and a spirit level tool.

A spirit level tool is basically a frame made of wood or metal. The frame has a super-smooth surface at the bottom which is used to perfectly measure the level of surfaces.

On top of this frame, you’ll find a small glass/transparent tube that is filled with spirit, alcohol, or some other colored liquid. The tube is not entirely full though, which results in the existence of an air bubble inside. This air bubble is the key indicator of whether your target surface is leveled perfectly or not.

The bigger the air bubble, the easier it is the determine its movement and position. The center of the glass tube is marked, indicating a central position.

When measuring a perfectly leveled surface, the air bubble will remain at the center of the tube within the marks. If it moves too much to the left or right, it indicates that your target surface is not level.

The bubble moves in the direction of where your surface is higher; for example, towards the right side when the right side is higher indicating that you need to adjust the right side of your surface. When the bubble moves to the left side, it indicates that the left side of your surface is higher.

This simple tool hence enables you to determine whether your dishwasher is level or not, allowing you to make adjustments where necessary.

• Start by turning off the power supply to your dishwasher along with the water supply.
• With the help of your screwdriver, unscrew the panel at the bottom of your dishwasher door to expose the legs.
• In order to determine the direction of where your dishwasher is tilted, backward, or forward, place your level tool on the door of your appliance while it’s still closed.
• You can also take out the lower dishracks and place the level tool on the horizontal surface inside. The air bubble moving forward means that the dishwasher is higher at the front and vice versa.
• When placing the level tool, place it on a smooth surface to get an accurate reading.
• In order to move and adjust the level of your appliance, you’ll need to unscrew the mounting bracket at the top of your dishwasher that is connected to the bottom of your counter.
• Now based on the lever tool results, you need to adjust the front or back legs of your dishwasher to level it out.
• If the bubble moves forward, it means the front side is higher. This means you need to raise both the dishwasher legs at the back, or lower both the front legs to level your appliance. The vice versa is true when the bubble moves backward.
• You can try pulling or pushing the dishwasher at the top to adjust the uneven level to some extent, while simultaneously making it more convenient to adjust the legs as some weight on the legs gets reduced.
• Based on the model of your dishwasher, look for the appropriate levelers which usually look like bolts and nuts. Usually, rotating them anticlockwise raises the legs, and doing so clockwise lowers them down. Use your hands or wrench according to your convenience.
• Once the legs have been adjusted accordingly, test the level again with your level too to confirm that the air bubble rests at the center.
• Reassemble your dishwasher and check if the dishwasher door opens and closes smoothly without any obstructions due to the new adjusted height.
• If adjusting the legs still doesn’t entirely level your dishwasher, you can use small pieces of wood to add extra height to the dishwasher legs at the front or back as needed.

The leveling method of dishwashers will slightly vary based on the model of your dishwasher as some models come with a pair of legs at the front and another pair at the back.

Some models tend to have wheels at the back and legs at the front. In that case, you can only adjust the front legs’ heights. But before that, make sure that the wheels at the back are in contact with the floor.

Once you are done leveling your appliance front to back, follow a similar method to level it from side to side by placing the level tool horizontally and adjusting the legs on the left and right accordingly.

Conclusion

In order to prevent your dishwasher from tilting too inward or outward, you need to know how to level a dishwasher front to back properly.

This is a process best done during installation but can be done at any time so that your appliance performs effectively while properly draining the water.

With a level tool, screwdriver, and a wrench, all you need to do is some basic dismantling and height adjustment before testing it all out!