My 100th dishwasher door latch replacement, and I finally stopped guessing
Hit a small milestone this week: my 100th dishwasher door latch swap since I started keeping a log back in January. Sounds silly to count something so simple, but latch jobs used to eat 45 minutes of my day because I kept guessing which shims to grab. Now I walk in with two sizes and a cordless driver, and most of these are done in 12 minutes flat. The thing that changed it was a note I scribbled after job 60: on Whirlpool-built units from the mid 2010s, the striker plate almost always needs a 1/16 shim or the door sags again in a month. I keep a little notebook in the van with part numbers, shim sizes, and how long each job took. Does anyone else track repeat repairs like this, or am I the only one with a latch notebook?
Whirlpool didn't build those mid 2010s units, they came off the Kenmore and Maytag lines that share the same latch design, so your shim note probably covers more brands than you think. That striker plate sag is usually the hinge wearing out first, and the shim just hides it until the door drops again. Still, logging the times and parts is smart, more guys should do it.