Dishwasher Drain hose

[popbigguy]

My dishwasher rubber dain hose, I think is leaking. I'm thinking about replacing it with automotive heater hose. I'm thinking it might be more durable. Auto hose can take the heat, and the pressure. Any reason I shouldn't try this??

 

[The Cobbler]

it used to be common to use heater hose for Dish washer drainage

 

[LOW1]

As long as you don’t need a special end fitting it should work.

 

[75gmck25]

Dishwasher drain hoses usually only come in one pre-made length, with the right smooth rubber fittings on each end. However, the hose is also made of convoluted tubing (or whatever it's called) so that you can snake it around a few corners and the hose does not collapse when bent. The challenge I've found with using other hoses is that many have a thicker wall (larger total diameter), and are made of smooth rubber that tends to kink or close up if the bends are fairly tight.

Bottom Line - Automotive hose is durable enough, but it might be harder to route it to the sink drain and keep it from kinking.

 

[N_Jay]

How long did the original one last?
What caused the hole?

 

[Steve W.]

Installed properly, there should be virtually NO pressure in the drain hose.

.

 

[rlitman]

As long as you don’t need a special end fitting it should work.

You do. The dishwasher end of the hose contains a check valve. You'll lose that if you use an automotive hose.

 

[popbigguy]

How long did the original one last?
What caused the hole?

Dishwasher has been in since we built the house, 14 years. Not so much as a big leak, but, water is soaking thru the hose, and the hose is brittle and hard.

 

[wssix99]

I would double check and make sure its the hose. Dishwashers of this vintage also have pumps that sit in the bottom of the tub and when their $1.15 seals go bad, they leak all over the hoses and wires.

 

[Skooterj]

At my last house, my dishwasher was around the corner from my since, so I had to run the hose behind a corner lazy susan cabinet. The attached hose was too short, so I got a coupler and a piece of rubber hose to extend it. It worked fine.

 

[75gmck25]

We needed a longer dishwasher hose for my son's house because the dishwasher was a little too far away to reach the sink. That was the point I found that dishwasher hoses are only sold in pre-made six foot lengths (IIRC), so the 18" of additional hose we needed meant we would have to extend the hose by six feet. We finally extended it with some hose the installers left when they abandoned the job (too hard to make it drain right), but it's just smooth, thin-wall black hose. It works because it's at the end of the run and we routed it carefully, but it would have kinked if we had to go around any corners.

 

[johninct]

Mine is a long car heater hose. Because my drain connection is in the basement, per the instructions, I had to have the hose wrap around the dishwasher from the bottom over the top of the dishwasher, go down through the floor and connect to the basement drain.

 

[wolfhawk73]

I would either check online for a direct replacement or take the hose to your local hardware store to see if they have an aftermarket replacement. Some of the fitting sizes are pretty standard.

IEReplacementparts.com has been my go-to for a few years.

What brand?

 

[popbigguy]

Finished this up today. Heater hose seems to be working fine. Like said in another post here, there is a check valve, but it's in the hose that you connect the drain hose to, so no problem there. Those 6 ft plastic hoses that they say are replacement hoses, would of never made it to my drain. By the time you loop around the bottom of the dishwasher and put a loop up to the top of the counter top (like it's recomended), I used up 10 ft of hose. That's still shorter than the one that was in there that I replaced. I rerouted the line. I learned one thing!! You put in short 1/2 copper tube pieces in the drain hose (5/8 ID) so that the clamps have something to bite down againist (DUH).