TIFU by leaving the bottom dishwasher arm off and running the dishwasher.

Today I took apart my dishwasher to give it a good deep clean, this includes removing the bottom washing arm so I could access the filter and give it thorough scrub. Ran the dishwasher and 40 minutes later my wife walked into the kitchen and yells, “Something’s on fire!”

I ran over, opened the dishwasher and saw billows of smoke come out. I thought maybe a plastic lid came loose and came into contact with the heating element (it’s happened before), but turns out I didn’t reassemble the bottom arm and affix it to the washer. It was left lying on the heating element and just melted through.

The disgusting burned plastic smoke filled the house. All the fire alarms went off. We have those fancy hard wired ones that also announce “smoke and carbon monoxide detected, evacuate the building.” My kids are in the living room crying. I’m frantically running around the house trying to open all the windows and doors and stop the alarms from firing.

Finally asses the damage and the arm is almost burned all the way through. The plates and dishes have the smell adhered to them, and they haven’t actually cleaned because the sprayer head was not attached. So now they are all with the food cooked on from the heat along with the burning smell.

I looked up the cost of replacing the arm, and it’s $150, plus the parts won’t be shipped until Monday. So overall not the greatest start to the holiday. Could have been worse though. The plastic could have caught on fire and spread, which would have really messed up everything.

Now I’m off to scrub all the dishes and the insides of the dishwasher.

TL;DR: I left the washing arm for the dishwasher loose on top of the heating element and almost set the house on fire.