Nothing chaps my hide like when I discover I’ve dropped hundreds of dollars on something that I could have NOT dropped hundreds of dollars on.  For example: I just installed a new dishwasher at my house in the last couple weeks.  Roughly $409.00 worth of dishwasher.  It is a dishwasher that I might not have needed had the previous dishwasher been installed correctly and had the previous owner, who installed the other dishwasher, not been a cheapskate instead of a frugal appliance installer.  You see most dishwashers could use a handy contraption called an Air Gap [picture of one at Amazon.com].  The air gap prevents backflow, which prevents funky dishes, possibly jamming up your drainage line and a bunch of other things.

My old dishwasher probably could have used this and when the dishwasher repairman came out BEFORE the problems got bad and suggested things he didn’t mention this as a good idea.  So if you have a dishwasher and its not cleaning your dishes as well as it should, you might confirm that this contraption exists (or doesn’t exist) on your line, and if it doesn’t, get one!  It cost me less than $20.00 to get the air gap preventer, 72″ of rubber tubing and a few clamps to make sure that my dishwasher drains appropriately.  I could have saved $389.00.  Lesson learned!