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Help! My LG Dishwasher LDF6920ST Door is Broken!

I’m beginning to think my LG LDF6920ST dishwasher is a lemon.  After I fixed the leak in my other post, the door started falling down without any resistance.  Obviously something else is broken!  But it’s my only dishwasher and the prospect of buying a new appliance just doesn’t get me very excited.  And besides, when it works it does a pretty good job.

This time, I figured I’d just call a service technician since I just didn’t want to fool with it and I had a lot of other things that were stressing me out.  It was a good thing it happened on a weekend, because after the initial frustration and annoyance and my declaring to everyone in the family that I was sure I couldn’t fix it this time, my curiosity started getting the better of me.  I’m sure there’s some kind of hinge or something…

For me, the initial shock of something large and expensive not working gets me all frustrated.  I guess it somehow triggers my fight or flight reflex and when it comes to repairs, my first response is flight (along with, “I wonder how much this is gonna cost me?!”), but once the adrenaline works its way out of my system, then the fight starts working on me… c’mon, how hard can it be?

The good news is this is another really easy repair.  The hardest part of the whole process is unscrewing your dishwasher from the cabinet, and in my case it wasn’t even screwed in.  Oh yea, and also going on line and ordering the part.  As if that’s hard.

The LG LDF6920ST door uses a spring connected to a thin rope to provide resistance to the door.  In my case the string broke – on both sides of the door – and with no resistance, the door just flops open.  And this is a heavy door!

The repair is easy.  Once you un-mount the dishwasher from the cabinet, you slide it out about 8 inches or so to do the repair.  In addition to showing you some pictures, I have some tips on the repair.

Un-Mounting

Your dishwasher, if it’s screwed into the cabinet, it’s either screwed to the countertop through 2 metal brackets or through the sides of the dishwasher into the cabinet.  If it’s a countertop mount, you’ll need to sit on the floor so you can look at the underside of the cabinet and unscrew the mounting screws.

If it’s side mounted, you’ll need a thin flathead screwdriver to pry the plastic covers off from the inside sides of the dishwasher tub (there’s one on each side) and then use a Phillips head screwdriver to remove the screws.

Pulling the Dishwasher Out

Once you’ve unmounted the dishwasher, you’ll need to slide it out from the cabinet.  Do this slowly using the door at first to gently pull it forward.  If you seem to have excessive resistance, make sure the mounting brackets aren’t catching on anything.  You also may run into some trouble if the “legs” of the dishwasher are catching on any flooring material.  To check that, unscrew the splash panel from the bottom of the dishwasher – that’s the piece of metal that is at the bottom, right by the floor.  This will reveal the legs, which are plastic and can be screwed to raise or lower then front of the dishwasher.

Once you have the dishwasher pulled out from the cabinet, look on the sides.  You will likely see the broken rope and you may see the spring as well, however mine had fallen down in between the dishwasher and the sides of the cabinet (here’s a helpful little tool
for getting your spring out if you can’t grab it).

Broken Tension Cable. You can also see the spring that fell down on the left side of the picture (a bit out of focus).
Broken Tension Cable. You can also see the spring that fell down on the left side of the picture (a bit out of focus).

Use the replacement dishwasher hinge spring and hinge cable tension cord (you can also get these parts from Sears PartsDirect) to replace your broken ones.  Keep in mind that if only one of them broke, the other one is probably not far behind, so you might as well replace them both, especially since the parts are so cheap.  The tension cord attaches to the hinge at the bottom of the door and then connects to the bottom of the spring.

Attach the new tension cable while the door is in the down position.
Attach the new tension cable while the door is in the down position.

Don’t try to take the broken tension cord off when the door is in the closed position.  It jams against a screw and is too hard to force off.  Just open the door and make it easy on yourself.

Don't try and take the tension cord off (or put it on) when the door is closed.
Don’t try and take the tension cord off (or put it on) when the door is closed.

The top of the spring then hooks on the little lip attached to the side of the dishwasher about 2/3 up the side.  Closing the door when you’re replacing the springs and tension cord with make the repair a lot easier otherwise it’ll be you vs. the spring to see who’s stronger.

Tension cable with door closed.
Tension cable with door closed.
Wrap the tension cable around the white guide.
Wrap the tension cable around the white guide.
Attach the spring to the lip on the side of the tub.
Attach the spring to the lip on the side of the tub.
Fully installed tension cable and spring.
Fully installed tension cable and spring.

That’s pretty much it.  Then carefully slide the dishwasher back into the cabinet and re-mount it to the cabinet with the screws and you’re done.  This should be a 20-30 minute repair (and that includes putting your screwdrivers away when you’re done!).

27 replies on “Help! My LG Dishwasher LDF6920ST Door is Broken!”

Dear Ed, Thank you so much for your instructions I replaced the broken cord. So happy it was easy and didn’t have to pay for service person. You are a life-saver.

Hi George, sorry you’re having trouble. This model doesn’t really have a actual mechanical latch, but seals against a metal bracket. It’s possible the piece got damaged when you unmounted the unit from the cabinet or it’s also possible that the door frame may have bent. Here’s a link to several parts diagrams that you may want to look at and see if they help. https://www.partselect.com/Models/LDF6920ST/MFGModelNumber/D1608TB/#Sections

Hi George, sorry you’re having trouble. This model doesn’t really have a actual mechanical latch, but seals against a metal bracket. It’s possible the piece got damaged when you unmounted the unit from the cabinet or it’s also possible that the door frame may have bent. Here’s a link to several parts diagrams that you may want to look at and see if they help. https://www.partselect.com/Models/LDF6920ST/MFGModelNumber/D1608TB/#Sections

Well, the prudent answer is to disconnect the electrical power any time you work on an appliance. Disclaimer aside, yes, I was able to fix my door without actually disconnecting anything although I did beaker off (and always recommend that!). I already knew that I had plenty of wiggle room to pull the dishwasher out without putting any strain on the water supply, drain hose & electric cables due to some other work I’ve done on it.

FANASTIC! LG wanted $125 just to walk in my front door! I used the links provided to purchase the parts. Thanks for that. I ordered the springs but didn’t need them. I’ll be sending those back. The whole process took less than 15 minutes ( the dishwasher was on screwed into the counter ) The close ups and tips about when to have the door open and closed were very helpful. Thank you for saving me so much money. Less than $10 to replace both strings. I’m a happy girl!

I just repaired my LG and your directions are spot on. I am even going to return the springs, as they look brand new. The only parts I needed were the rope/plastic assemblies. Excellent directions. They gave me the confidence to tackle this myself. Entire project was completed in under a 30 minutes.

Mine is a model #LDS5811BB. When the door “rope” broke after 7 years, I figured I should have a pro do the repair.I watched him, and it was an easy fix. But, a couple of days later the new rope broke as well. The repair guy showed me that the rope came out of it’s plastic base. A few days later, the next new one broke as well. We made sure that we had the assembly on the weakest mount setting to avoid too much tension. Got any ideas as I go to the phone to call the repairman again?

Sounds to me like you might have something else going on that’s causing the ropes to catch. Make sure the channel is clear and there’s not something interfering with or rubbing against the rope. Also, inspect it to see if there’s any evidence of some other abrasion. It’s possible that you just got some bad stock of replacements, but since it happened twice, that makes me think that there’s something else going on with either the cables or the spring system.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post these thorough repair directions. Last weekend I was overwhelmed. My dishwasher started leaking and one side of the door appeared broken. I found these instructions and ordered the parts. I did both repairs in less than 45 minutes and saved a whole lot of money. Brilliant!!

Hi Ed, I have lg model numberLDF8812ST I noticed you have a stainless steel model also my question is can you see broken rope upon pulling dishwasher out of cabinets or are there more parts to remove? It appears it’s immediately noticeable. Also my dishwasher leaked out of left side bottom panel as you described in your previous post, although my father-in-law was kind enough to take care of that project (turns out LG siliconed my broken vent assembly before final assembly was done) your post proved invaluable in diagnosing and repair. Sounds like we share similar issues so please keep your posts coming. Thank You!!!!!

Thanks very much for the tips! I ordered the parts to do the repairs – the door opens with no resistance. I was hoping to find some tips and encouragement to tackle this small project. Like you, I sometimes and put-off from doing the repair myself. Sometimes a small repair becomes a larger headache. This looks very manageable.
Thank you for posting!

Glad you found it helpful! Check out the post comments as there’s some good advice in there as well. Let me know how it goes.
Ed

My LG has is the type with no buttons on the front so they put the squirrel cage fan inside the door (before the condensation tube was added). G-r-r-r! I hate being the guinea pig for poor engineering.

Ordered the new “assembly” and was just getting ready to put it back in when I noticed the door feels like there’s very little resistance. G-r-r-r! This model has side panels as well.

Bought a lot of LG products but that trend is over. TVs, monitors, frig. . . we have them all. Won’t do that again.

Ed,
Both your solutions worked great for my LDF6920ST Dishwasher. Thank you!!! But now the dishwasher is leaking from underneath (bottom middle). Have you experienced this problem? Any idea on how to fix? I am hoping to avoid calling a service man.

I haven’t run into the problem with the water leaking from the bottom middle. I’d try a Google search on it to see if you see similar complaints. Also, the dishwasher diagrams at SearsPartsDirect are really helpful. Between the diagrams and the parts list, you might be able to diagnose the problem. It may be as simple as a gasket that needs to be replaced or a hose that isn’t attached well. You can possibly pull the dishwasher out somewhat from the counter and unscrew the splash plate at the bottom and run it to see if you can see where it’s coming from.

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