RV Dishwasher Install

RV Dishwasher Install

Brandy asked one night if installing a dishwasher was possible. Our 2011 Keystone Alpine was not originally offered with a dishwasher option. So, I got to looking at our kitchen to see if it were easily possible, and it was. There is a double door cabinet under the kitchen island that isn’t fully used because of where Keystone ran the kitchen gray tank drain and vent. I looked in the cabinet, and the three things required for a dishwasher were all literally right there: A water source, a drain, and 110v electricity.

RV Dishwasher Location

The only real obstacle was relocating the kitchen’s gray tank vent pipe.  There was no room to reroute it above, behind, or in front of the dishwasher, so the only option was under it. Rather than the current 45 degree stock routing, I simply would do two 90 degree connections. The only challenging part was cutting the pipe right at the tank. I had to leave enough for my new piping to glue to, but space was very limited. I took a jigsaw and cut a circle around the vent pipe and cleaned out the styrofoam insulation. This allowed me to fit my Dremel saw with a cutoff blade to make the cut. I was hardly left with any pipe for my elbow connection, but it was enough. Then I drew ou where I would run the pipe, then used a jigsaw to cut the thin plywood flooring and styrofoam. My jigsaw cuts all the way through those two, but it does not cut too deep to where it also cuts the bottom plywood that makes up the flooring ‘sandwich’. After clean up, I ran the pipes and glued the connections.

As for the electrical, it was very simple. There was a stock 110v plug in the cabinet just above where the dishwasher would go, and the wiring for it ran over the dishwasher. I simply spliced into that wire, and ran a four foot wire from the splice to the bottom of the dishwasher.  I did test the wiring for correct polarity just in case, and it was correct.  So basically, its white to white, black to black, and copper to copper, that’s it.

The next thing I needed to do was connect the dishwasher’s drain hose to our gray tank.  The sink drain runs to the gray tank, which for us were both located right next to the dishwasher.  A dishwasher has a clothes washing machine style drain hose, meaning it just gets put in a down tube located about two feet above the floor.  Our sink’s drain has a vent in it, so I just cut that pipe and put a 45 degree pipe inbetween.  I then put a cap on the 45 degree, and drilled a 1″ hole in the cap that the hose would fit into.


The only thing left was to actually put the dishwasher in place.  I had to cut the existing cabinet area a little bit, and then just slide it in.  The only thing that secures the dishwasher, besides its own weight, are two screws that connect the top front of the dishwasher to the upper cabinet.  This is mainly to keep it in place when you are opening the dishwasher door, as that’s mainly where all the force is applied.  That’s it! Not pictured are the framing pieces, it now looks like the RV came from the factory with a dishwasher installed.  Hope this write up helps some people.  I you have any questions or comments, just post them below and I will respond.


10 thoughts on “RV Dishwasher Install

    1. It has been awesome. It works better than some others I’ve had in a house. We like it so much, I also bought it for our condo in Park City. For <$400, it's a no brainers if you're contemplating it, in our opinion. Brandy and Greg.

      1. Good to know. Thank you for your prompt response. We have a, new to us, 2017 GD Solitude 360RL. It is one of the few GD’s that weren’t already dishwasher prepped but we confirmed with the dealer that the spot on our island would work.

        1. Great. All you need is the space (width, height and depth), water and power nearby to splice off of, and a drain pipe that’s accessible.

  1. Great! I am wondering how to install the dishwasher in RV. It was fortunate to read your post. Hope it will be ok. Thank you!

  2. Definitely, a dishwasher, which I think is really necessary for a motorhome. Equipped with a small but efficient camper kitchen for washing and drying cutlery and pots. Help us save a lot of water and free time.

    1. Thank you for the article, it brought a lot of useful information to me. I think I may now have enough knowledge and understanding to buy the best RV dishwasher for me.
      Hope you will post more useful articles like this in the future.

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