I didn't come to participate, only to upvote to help and leave this comment.
I can feel the pain of dishwasher breaking down. I hate washing dishes by hand. We had our dishwasher for a few years when it broke down, but luckily it was still during the guarantee time - but the repairman wasn't very fast.
I let the dishes pile up, hoping the dishwasher will soon be ready. In the end, it took almost 3 weeks for him to fix it and I had to wash plenty of dishes during that time.
Good luck and hope you'll get a good dishwasher soon.
Thanks for the support @apsu! The dishes seem to pile up just as quickly as they're cleaned... a never-ending struggle!!