I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o

My clean light was blinking on my kenmore I just pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up and the thing just started going through different settings then it all quit so I pushed normal wash and its working now.

Thank-you for your response ZRocket. Unfortunately, this was not the case for us. I do, however, appreciate your help:)

Sometimes if you disconnect the power to the unit for a short period it will rest itself.

Thank-you, Esquire-we have tried this as well. More than likely we have a faulty electrical board.

I just wanted to join this discussion to express that I have similar problems (Flashing green light - no start) with the same model. I called on it and was told it would cost some $170 to have the guy come and take advantage of our recently expired warranty. Any advice would be helpful!

I am so sorry to hear you are dealing with this as well, Paco. :(
We went out & purchased a new dishwasher from a totally different store.
The way Sears handles all this-well, let's just say we are DONE dealing with SEARS. :mad: We didn't want to give them a dime more of our money & we gave our faulty unit to a friend of ours who is going to repair it--somehow, w/o the help of Sears.
BEST WISHES TO YOU!! :)

It worked for me too!

my clean light was blinking on my kenmore i just pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up and the thing just started going through differant settings then it all quit so i pushed normal wash and its working now.

Thank You.. That Worked for me too!!

THE POWER OF THE WeB!!

Hi, Thanks for telling me which buttons to push. I had this problem with my dishwasher about a year ago. I think what happens is I put a large pan in the rack. If the spray is not allowed to turn due to something in the way the dishwasher malfunctions. Otherwise it will burn out the motor or something. Anyway I called sears and I had a nice guy who told me how to reset it by pushing the buttons. Heated wash/heated dry a few times. All the lights will light up and the dishwasher will continue its cycle before it malfunctioned. He said let the cycle complete and then it will be ready to go. I just had this happen again and could not remember the two button to push. I tried to call and the lady told me it would be $65.00 for a tech to come out an look at it. I tried to tell her I knew what the problem was and just wanted to talk to a tech. She would not listen so I said forget it. I decided to look up the problem on the internet. I am so glad I found this site. Anyway, I will be writing down the button in my user manual. Thanks and I hope this helps people in the future. :p :p :p

Thank you for the fix. My my clean light was also blinking on my kenmore ultra wash and I pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up for me too and the dishwasher started up again.

You saved my Thanksgiving.

Wow! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKY YOU!! (and the wife absolutely loves you all and offers a place at our thanksgiving table if you can find out where we live... and also says "I love this internet thingy!"). You've saved our turkey day as well! The pushing of the heated wash and heated dry buttons one after the other in rapid succession worked like a charm! May you all have a wonderful thanksgiving... and a working dishwasher to clean up after!

Thank you for the fix. My my clean light was also blinking on my kenmore ultra wash and I pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up for me too and the dishwasher started up again.

You saved my Thanksgiving.

I too have a Kenmore Ultra Wash dishwasher. I've had it for 15-months now and found mine in the same condition as described... clean light blinking... dishwasher not functioning.
I cycled between the two buttons and wahlah... it came back to life. All lights luminated, it went through some cycles and finished with a quick rinse. It was good to go just moments later. Thanks for this tip

I had this identical problem on my 2 yr. old Kenmore elite 665.17052400 a clean light that flashed repeatedly 7 times then off. I reset as above with the heated wash and heated dry buttons, however I then noticed a reduced flow from the pump so I dissasembled the lower arm and water inlet assy. To find it mostly plugged with foregin matter and some broken glass chunks. Upon removal of that stuff and reassembly my Kenmore now works as new! Thanks for the heads up on the reset procedure.
Yob~

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o
I think if you push the heated wash and heated dry buttom several times until all the buttoms light up this will fix your problem

Thanks for your response, geeper. We have since given the appliance to a friend & she had it repaired. All the best to you!

I've newly registered on this site and I hope it is OK if I piggy-back my question in this thread.

I've just had installed a Kenmore Elite Ultra Wash Dishwasher and cannot for the life of me figure out how to run a rinse cycle. The manual, on multiple occasions, notes that a rinse cycle should be run -- it just never says how to do it. There is no button exclusive for "Quick Rinse"

Hope someone can help, Thanks

I paid $95 from F & F Appliance Doctors in San Diego to come out and reset the clean light. Stupid me didn't check the message boards first! (or at least look at the technical data under the machine! Which also describes the reset procedure)

Anyway, my idiot light was complaining about the heater circuit when I looked up the code. I have a Kenmore Elite Stainless model. The manual does not describe the reset procedure - you have to take off the two screws to get to the front panel and inside there is a guide that gives more technical data.

So the appliance tech looks at the manual, resets it, collects his $95 and on his way. At first I thought this was the heater element going bad based on the clean light description failure in the manual and was calling around to someone local to see if they would sell it as I wanted it back online ASAP. Nobody had the element in stock so figured I would try to call repair places and see if someone had it. The tech convinced me over the phone that the heater element was not the problem and unfortunately I believed him.

So the point of all this... rambling... is that the flashing clean light is telling you that something went wrong. And of course it just came back on a day later after F & F left. So don't just reset it - it is not a fluke computer glitch... something was actually wrong!!

Thanks to Yob's tip about the dissasembly of the lower arm... however... on my model it is quite painful to do this. There were 4 holes used by the dishwasher to push debris into the chopper blade and they were clogged up with seeds and what looks to be picked garlic stems. So here is how to get at that clogged output drain... this was not the problem with the blinking light BTW but it will help with efficiency and the extension of motor life and chopper blade which I understand is difficult to replace also.

Instructions:
1) Remove both racks... top rack is painful - you will have to take the rear clips out... they don't come out that easy... press the tab under the clip to get it out
2) unscrew wash arm by turning clockwise (not the normal way)
3) take out this blue power wash doohickey
4) take out this grey u-shaped arm that runs from top to bottom in the unit. There are steel clips on top and in back... unclip and turn the whole assembly clockwise... now you can get it out
5) unscrew the 4 torx type screws to get out the plastic grate

Now you can see the gunk stopping up the chopper. Clean it out and put everything back.

Make sure in the future you are extra careful not to put any crap that might block this up again as it is a royal pain to get out the debris.

I paid $1000 or so for this dishwasher so not torqued enough to just replace it and I don't know if any other brands are better. This kenmore is really just a whirlpool.

OK... so I did all that and the clean light is still blinking!! ARRRGH

I decided to call up Sears service as I just noticed there was stuff covered under the two year warranty and didn't really want to call back F & F Appliance as they didn't really fix it the first time. In their defense the green clean light did go solid before they left indicating things were OK. I still think $95 was too high for this repair and they gave me that number w/o having an estimate in advance so I could have contested but didn't as they did do something... whatever... live and learn. So Sears came out and charged me $55 to tell me the heater element was indeed bad. The way to tell if the heater is bad is to run it through the diagnosis cycle and then feel the element itself to see if it is hot. Taking out the unit to ohm it out is painful and only a secondary thing to try. If it doesn't heat up it is bad.

Of course Sears does not have the element in stock and I have to wait a week for them to install.

Just ordered another element on partselect.com 2-3 day shipping. Plan to cancel the follow up appt from Sears and return the element they ordered for me (which is taking a week to ship). You can also get this element on eBay for $28 with shipping so I will keep one of these on hand for the future (kind of like a spare light bulb).

According to the tech the old heater elements from dishwashers past were very durable. But thanks to Energy Star compliance the heater element is now less durable and will fail about every year or so with normal usage. Wonderful.

I also found this whirlpool video on another site that talks about the clean light blinking issue... just Google for it.

Note also that the dishes will be unsanitary at the end of a cycle where the heater is bad so be sure to wash those manually rather than putting them away like me.

Hope all this rambling helps someone. What a f&*(king pain.

I had the same experience! Thanks for breaking the code!

Sears totally rots! What a scam, they will only tell you how to fix the dishwasher panel, if you are under a service contract! I think we should start a grass roots campaign to expose them!

I think any reputable appliance repair shop, Sears or otherwise should just tell you the reset sequence and inform you that if it keeps happening you really have a problem and need someone on site to diagnose if you can't yourself. It did come on for a reason - not just a fluke in all cases. But in my "about to fully fail" heater element it was on it's way out so got ripped for $95 and then another $55 for a re-diagnose. IE: the first time a reset gave the solid clean, the second time the reset just resulted in another blinking clean after the element fully gave out. The problem changed over the course of a few days. I suspect my issue might be pretty common.

My advise would be to just call up Sears first rather than a third party.

Wahoo!! You guys are great. This worked for us too!.

my clean light was blinking on my kenmore i just pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up and the thing just started going through differant settings then it all quit so i pushed normal wash and its working now.

zrocket, you "rock". We had this same problem about a year ago and luckily our repair call was still covered under warranty. The Sears repairman came out, pushed the buttons in sequence, then left. In our case, he said the water entering the dishwasher from our hot-water tank was too hot. I lowered the temp on our hot water and the problem didn't occur again... until last night (hopefully the hot water thing will help someone else out there scratching their heads about the green light blinking again and again). My wife couldn't remember the sequence of pushing buttons, so I was all set to call "repair" this morning and eat $100. This site and all your responses saved me time, money, aggravation, and, most importantly the dish pan hands of having to manually wash an entire load-then some ;-). Thanks!

Here is an update:

1) first trip by f&f - just reset the clean light and left. Dishwasher worked temporarity - said heater element was fine
2) light blinking 1-2 days later
3) cleaned out chopper - filled with seeds and pickled garlic stems... good to know how to clean that but a major pain - should be easier
4) LIGHT STILL BLINKING - finally called sears repair to diagnose. Said bad heater element as he ran the diag cycle, reached into the unit and touched the heater element which felt cold. Had to order new heater element to fix which took 10 days
5) didn't want to wait that long so ordered one at partselect 2-3 day - made it in two
6) had to pull out the unit to get at heater element. Finally found the true story:

Heater element had crack in fitting where it went through bottom of unit. Crack let water seep through and corroded electrical connection. Looks like I had a small fire under there!! That is why things were intermittent - the element was hooked up by a small thread of wire until that finally caved. I soldered on a new connector as the wire was fried - hooked everything back up and it's working great!! Hope this helps someone.

My feeling though on this dishwasher is that it is still a problem design:

1) too hard to access or see anything underneath to diagnose - if I could have seen that electrical fire I would have known the real problem - check your unit's back heater element fitting real close for a crack - this will cause the intermittent nature of the clean light failure
2) too hard to clean the chopper - should just be a door to access

But everyone likes that full door, no access appearance so I guess this is driven by the marketplace - but does have a cost. I should not have had to remove the unit to make this repair. Disconnecting the electrical and water was a real pain!

Hope this helps someone

I have the same machine but I don't think its working correctly, HOw many minutes does it usually take for your machine to go through a normal wash cycle? My lights never go past the second on sensoring.. I have let it go for 2 hours and it never shuts off.

Did this problem originally start with a blinking "green" clean light? If so, did pushing heated wash-heated dry buttons work? If neither of these scenarios fit your situation, then the only advice I can offer is our machine seems to take forever to finish a cycle too; but it does finish. If yours never finishes a cycle and the green light is not blinking, I don't know where you go from here. Sorry.

Tg

My dishwasher wasn't working tonight either, same problem as everyone else flashing green light stuck, and I couldn't reset it. I called Kenmore repair and they wanted $198.00for a one year extended warranty, I told them someone helped me at Sears repair before and I knew it was only a matter of pushing a button or two and they said they couldn't help me unless I paid and if they did they would be fired... (total rip off). Anyway I told them forget it, Googled my question and found this wonderful site!! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP I PUSHED THE MORMAL WASH AND HEATED DRY AND IT WORKED!! Thanks again for this useful/helpful site :-)

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o
Thank you so much for the fix! Just installed my Elite model 665.13793K602. Ran it through one cycle OK, but then got the green blinking light. I alternated pushing the Normal Wash and Heated Dry buttons until all the lights came on steady. It seems to have reset, all lights are out, and I am running it through a normal cycle. I'm looking forward to cancelling the Sears service call (BTW - a two week wait for service!). Thanks again for the info!

I am currently tickled pink that I could find an answer to the green blinking light question. It worked for me and now I'll inspect the entire unit to discover if there are any other underlying problems that might need attention.
Thank you everyone!! ;)

my clean light was blinking on my kenmore i just pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up and the thing just started going through differant settings then it all quit so i pushed normal wash and its working now.

WOW thanks that worked perfactly! Thank you! :eek:

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o
If it is the clean light blinking call call the mfr there is a heater recall kit for that dishwasher

I followed this and it worked perfectly - this is a great site for troubleshooting - saved another $65.00 service call!

:)
Thank You.. That Worked for me too!!!

THE POWER OF THE WeB!!!

Thank you... it worked for me too... you guys are great!

Hey Folks; Had the same problem with my Kenmore elite d/w.( CLEAN light blinks 7 times. ) After reading your posts I pushed the norm wash and heated dry buttons 3 times each and it worked. WAY TO GO TEAM I also found the serviceman's schematic taped to top of D/W. It says the unit failed to detect a heat increase in the dry or heat circuit so threw this trouble code.Has lots of diagnostic tips in it . If you're stuck, I suggest check it out. Here's HOPIN' IT'S FIXED!! Dozer Hey Thanks AMTV SERV ADV I will check that out ASAP. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

YEEHAAW!

Thanks for the tip, it worked great! I don't want to pay Sears any more money. I had a dishwasher for 12 years, no problems, then it died, and we got this one. First the thing wouldn't work without a really loud buzzing noise, found out it was the relay on the soap dispenser. A new dispenser, that didn't fix it, then a new control board for 260.00 and now I am almost into this thing for as much as a new one. Thanks again for the fix

The press 'normal wash' followed by 'heated dry' cycle five times, wait for all lights to go on and then go out worked like a charm for our dishwasher! It was inop for over 3 weeks! I finally took some time to work on it, thinking I'd need to reset a fuse or replace the heating element. Research online showed this trick, which worked like a champ! Saved me time and money! Thanks everyone!

Thanks so much for the reset code it worked like a charm JR

The RESET sequence also fixed the touchpad problem on our Kenmore Model 665 "Limited Edition". In our case, the touchpad would only run "Quick Rinse" and "Time Saver" cycles -- no response to the "Normal Wash" button. Sears Repair gave me a choice: $75 for a service visit (plus any charges to repair) or $198 for a 1-year warranty. I googled, found the reset sequence just in time, and cancelled the appointment!

The exact words on the touchpad vary for different models in the 665 series. In our case, the sequence is:

"Hi Temp Scrub - Air Dry - Hi Temp Scrub - Air Dry"

After you do that, the lights all flash on. A partial cycle may run at that point (let it). Good to go!

Work like a charm! Thanks for the info.

It is unethical for Kenmore or Sears not to answer questions over the phone regarding simple reset issues.

It turns out the dishwasher is not broken and this blog was the only way we got the reset information we needed.

Some lawyer needs to file a class action against Kenmore for the hundreds or thousands of people ripped off for a service call and probably sold un-needed parts for this reset issue.

As I type, the dishwasher is working and this is what we did:

Press High Temp and heated dry one after the other, about 5 times in succession. Then we hit the Start/Resume button and the cycle continued.

This verges on fraud, if not theft from customers and has diminished the good will that we had for Sears and Kenmore.

Tried to run our newly installed (yesterday) kenmore elite #13423 this evening. Green clean light flashing, would not fill, tried several remedies provided here to no avail. Called customer service and Hadji told me he had no appliance experience( at least he was being honest) I would need to call back on Monday! Got frustrated, I started MASHING buttons, and there it was, that glorious flashing test mode... I took a deep breath and started a cycle, IT WORKED!
I will be calling sears on Monday to have them uninstall and refund!

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher model 665. It is the kind with Ultra Wash, Sensor ATC and QuietDry listed on the front. No numbers, only touch pads. Estimated purchase around 2001.

I thought the touch pad had gone bad and was going to pursue a repair call from Sears. However, the codes shared on this board reset my machine.

"High Temp Scrub" followed by "Air Dry" followed by "High Temp Scrub" Again and then "Air Dry" again.

All of the lights lit up and then the machine ran a partial wash.

It's a shame that Sears/Kenmore don't publish these reset codes in the manual. I guess they want more service calls : (

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!
I followed the advice to press heated wash/ hi temp dry back and forth 5 times and by dishwasher started back up! I love the internet.

Right on the money

I can't tell you how pleased I am that this worked. I, like many of you, am unhappy with Sears over this problem. I am only marginally handy around the house, but at least I can try with proper instruction. Imagine my surprise when I looked under troubleshooting in the manual and it gave me common sense information such as turn on the water and check the circuit breaker. I contacted Sears, and they wanted me to purchase a 12 month service contract for $200, half the price of a new dishwasher. Who knows what the technician would have said the problem is, or how much that would have cost me without the warranty. Again, thank you for saving me an incredible amount of time and money.

This solution worked for me today on a Sears Model 665.1603*. The book tells you to call for service on the heater element - shame on you Sears!

I just fixed my 655.16042400 unit. Several days ago this dishwasher failed. We had the dreaded blinking clean light. As a Master Maintenance High Voltage Team Leader in a Steel Mill I'm not afraid of anything. My job is to repair stuff, and right now! This piece of junk annoyed me. Our green clean light went on right away. That tells me that the circuit board sends a small current through the heater to test it. So I shorted the heater to reset the system. No luck. In steel mill vernacular ? So I tested every component of the system. No luck. I do not allow anyone in our house to fix anything, if I cannot fix it it goes to the dump. As this dishwasher is only 4 years old I decided to drink beer and surf the net. I found this wonderful site and the reset instructions.
After reset I found our problem; the main pump is jammed. Because of that the heating coil overheats and shuts down. When that happens we get the green flashing Clean light. If your heater circuit is in good shape, then your problem might be your pump.
I think Sears needs a punch in the nose for subjecting it's customers to this rigmarole.
Best of luck;
Stammon farms

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o
Help! Hasn't worked for me, sorry to say. The lights just keep blinking and blinking and blinking. Any other ideas? If this is an electrical problem, I still have time on my warranty, otherwise, I'm stuck!

Help! Hasn't worked for me, sorry to say. The lights just keep blinking and blinking and blinking. Any other ideas? If this is an electrical problem, I still have time on my warranty, otherwise, I'm stuck!
I have fixed our washer. The pump bearing had locked up so the heater had over heated without cooling water sprayed over it. To reset our computer I pressed the "high temp wash" and "heated dry' buttons over and over. There are web sites that talk about this.
Try that, alternating between the two. You still have a problem that need fixing.

Thank you thank you thank you!
I had the same problem - "clean" light stuck "on" - a couple of years ago, and the repairman had told me which two buttons to push...
Now, two years later, I could not for the life of me remember which two to push. Thank you for the fix, it worked.

The RESET sequence also fixed the touchpad problem on our Kenmore Model 665 "Limited Edition". In our case, the touchpad would only run "Quick Rinse" and "Time Saver" cycles -- no response to the "Normal Wash" button. Sears Repair gave me a choice: $75 for a service visit (plus any charges to repair) or $198 for a 1-year warranty. I googled, found the reset sequence just in time, and cancelled the appointment!

The exact words on the touchpad vary for different models in the 665 series. In our case, the sequence is:

"Hi Temp Scrub - Air Dry - Hi Temp Scrub - Air Dry"

After you do that, the lights all flash on. A partial cycle may run at that point (let it). Good to go!


Our dishwasher (model 665) works great when it works. But last time it had to be reset I had to wait 3 weeks before sears could send a service guy (we have warranty protection). Two weeks after the flashing green was "fixed" it did it again. One never realizes how much time and hassle a working dishwasher saves until it goes south... I was aggravated at prospect of having no dishwasher for another two weeks...

Then I found this web link and this post in particular.. the simple reset instructions got the machine unstuck from its clean flash mode. It is running as we speak! What a joy! Thanks a ton guys ! The web is awesome...

While I am at it, might as well ask what dishwasher listmembers are considering when it comes time to "reset" from Kenmore!

Thanks !

my clean light was blinking on my kenmore i just pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up and the thing just started going through differant settings then it all quit so i pushed normal wash and its working now.

Thank you, thank you!! I had given up and I had just sent my husband out to buy a new dishwasher when I ran into your site. I had tried the "code" already but it didn't work for me. Then I read somewhere that they pressed the buttons "fast". I went back and did that, nothing, but then I pushed the "start" button and it started washing. Fantastic!

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o

I have the same problem

My kenmore dishwasher has a blinking light and you seem to have had the answer for some one else so can you help me out of the dog house as well

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o

I have the same problem

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o

I have the same problem

It's all been said on how valuable this is. Thanks you.

BTW - My sequence was Water Heat / No Heat Dry / What Heat / No Heat Dry.

I have a Kenmore Elite Ultra Quiet Guard... blahblahwhatever. Model 665

Thank You.. That Worked for me too!!!

THE POWER OF THE WeB!!!

Thanks to an answer on this site, I pushed heated dry, normal wash, heated dry, normal wash and it went through some kind of process with all lights lit, etc. When it finished that process and was quiet, we found it worked. Hooray! This was after spending a half hour trying to understand "help" from first a woman and then a man with heavy accents who were unable to help. That is, for $204 we could fix the problem and have a year's warranty or spend $65 for a diagnostic visit plus cost of parts, etc. Earliest available appointment was two weeks down the road. A local repair company would come out for $85 plus parts. I preferred this solution.

After reading this answer and trying everything I could think of I pushed the normal wash and the heated dry at the same time and held them for a few seconds. All lights lite up and it ran through a short cycle. After that it functioned normally again!

Thank you so much for the help and saving me a service call!

Thank you... it's the holidays... problem over... we had a broken element, a repair person fixed that but did not know how to reset the panel... yippee!!

We tried all the suggested reset options with no success.

We bit the bullet and called the Sears repair service and the repairman.

The repairman was good and very frank about the problem. Apparently, this model Kenmore Elite dishwasher (665.16053401) has exhibited this problem often -- the motor seal fails... water gets into the bearings and rusts... the motor seizes or fails.

Apparently, in our neighborhood of SW Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) this problem is more accute since the gas drilling companies are dumping millions of gallons of drilling wastewater with high quantities of dissolved and undisolved solids into the Monongahela river -- the source of our drinking water. These solids build up in dishwashers and exacerbate this failure.

The fix is to replace the main motor/pump/grinder unit (a $375 repair). Watching the repairman fix our dishwasher it's apparently a relatively easy part to replace. Take off a few clamps on the bottom of the unit and remove all the easy-to-remove trays and distribution lines within the cleaning chamber. The large circular part comes right out; disconnect the electrical lines; drop in the new part; hook up the lines and go.

Sorry for the bad news.

I have a Quiet Guard deluxe with a blinking "normal wash" light. So far, none of the codes work I agree with the earlier judge post, ironic how this seems to happen right after the warranty goes off.

I have a Kenmore Dishwasher and My warranty is up the Clean Light is flashing and it will not start? What can I do Please help It is 2 years old and I cannot afford another one anytime soon?

Hey Kenmore and Whirlpool owners... there was a recall a few years ago... check your model numbers.
Whirlpool and Kenmore Dishwashers (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2005/whirlpool.html)
Also recall line is 1-800-659-7026 for Kenmore

Thank You for this post and all the answers. I pressed the heated dry and normal wash buttons alternatively a few times and then all the lights came on steady. I waited a minute and pressed the cancel button, then pressed the buttons for a regular wash and it worked GREAT!

This worked great for us,started on the left hand function and then heated dry and by the time we got all the way to the right the panel reset and is working fine. Thank you very much.

This is a DIY website.

You have to check it out.

Very Cheap and there great!

Link Click Here (http://www.squidoo.com/dyiappliancerepair)

None of the above is working for me. What next? At this time I have no lights-nothing working. THanks

I had the same problem and, after long investigation, I found that one pin of the connector of the keypad of the console was misconducting. I simply put nickel conductive paint to re-establish contact and it was it.

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Dishwasher. It will not start. The light above normal wash is flashing continuously. Any advice will be helpful.
Our warranty ran out 9 days ago:rolleyes:
Thank-you in advance:o

Wow, My Kenmore Elite Ultra Wash Dishwasher was not working last night and I almost gave up to call Sears Service this morning. But every one on this board said it works with the reset so I kept trying and trying and IT WORKED!

So What happened? I pushed Start button and just did not work. I turned off switch board. I open the bottom of the dish washer to see if anything was written there. Sure enough, there were an empty plastic envelop attached to it, but nothing was in there to show me the reset Procedure. I came to this forum and found this place.

So this is what I did:

Push SANI RINSE button then Push AIR DRY button sequence about 3 times. Then All the lights lit up. The display showed d1, 11, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and stopped there where Quick Rinse light on and did this cycle. But this did not fixed it. I pushed Cancel button then open the door same problem. But I just kept doing until finally the display showed d1, 11, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And when I saw this I was so sure this time it was going to work for me. And Sure enough it did. Thank you so much for the information of the reset code.

I even went to check the control panel parts at Sears Parts Center but it said discontinue so I was so sure I would need to get a new dishwasher. It's a great community here to help me solve my dishwasher problem.

THANK YOU!

my clean light was blinking on my kenmore i just pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights lit up and the thing just started going through differant settings then it all quit so i pushed normal wash and its working now.

This worked for us as well... interesting...

It is unethical for Kenmore or Sears not to answer questions over the phone regarding simple reset issues.

It turns out the dishwasher is not broken and this blog was the only way we got the reset information we needed.

Some lawyer needs to file a class action against Kenmore for the hundreds or thousands of people ripped off for a service call and probably sold un-needed parts for this reset issue.

As I type, the dishwasher is working and this is what we did:

Press High Temp and heated dry one after the other, about 5 times in succession. Then we hit the Start/Resume button and the cycle continued.

This verges on fraud, if not theft from customers and has diminished the good will that we had for Sears and Kenmore.

Thanks for the for reset information! I was ready to buy a new dishwasher again! This happened to us about 2 years ago with a Kenmore I bought from Sears about 7 years ago, I called the Sears repairperson, he came and told me I would need a new control panel and it cost around $1,000 so I just said forget it and bought a new one from Sears. It might have just needed to be reset like this one!! Thank you for saving me a ton of money!

PLEASE people.. post your exact make and model. Not every sequence of buttons works on every model. I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash Model 665.1374 or 665.1384 (the last 4 digits refer to the color so I don't think they matter). Based on a rave review from "Consumer Reports" I purchased it on March 30, 2009 for $791.30. It is now July 1, 2010... 3 months past it's warranty. I personally think these computer panels are programmed to freak out in order to generate fees for tech support, extended warrantys or service calls. Whoever decided it was smart to put a computer control panel in such proximity to something that emits heated steam is an IDIOT. Regardless, SEARS should post these codes in their manuals and online instead of ripping people off like this!! I say call "60 Minutes" and report them. Anyway, my problem started with a couple of flashing green lights. I have pushed various buttons invarious sequences and gotten various results... including the "all lights on" for a moment followed by some sort of 'running through the cycles' thingy. Problem is it ends about 3-4 minutes later and nothing is even wet inside. Also at times there's a faint green glow coming from the lights on the 4 buttons to the right of the 'Smart Wash' button. If anyone has any solution for this specific model please email me [email protected]. PS: Always try to buy appliances with simple, replacable controls like dials etc. PSS: Invest in a really good surge protector and have it installed at the same time. Better yet, get a 'whole house' protector-- pricey but good insurance. PSSS: Sears SUX

OH yeah! Thanks! Worked for us, too!! You saved us $$$$

I LOVE YOU!! :-)
I have a Kenmore Elite UltraWash 665.1315 I purchased in Oct. '07. I've never had problems other than the one-way valve in the drain tube failed. I bought the part from a local parts store (a plastic hose for $39..! ) & a friend installed it for free.
THEN, last night my son opened the dishwasher after it had started to add "a few things" (more like 10 things) and it was like the programming freaked out & froze up: the infamous, aforementioned "blinking lights". Nothing would respond. We even disconnected the fuse for a minute. (yes, we still have fuses - we live in an old Victorian!) Nothing. Of course, I could barely sleep mulling over the miserable fact that I have NO money to fix ANY thing right now, let alone a Sears product! So after a restless 3 hours of sleep I Googled my problem & this was the first result. I AM SOOOOO THANKFUL!
On my model I hit "Hi Temp" and the "Heated Dry" buttons (under the "Options" buttons) simultaneously and Voilà! All the lights went on & it did a little flashing here & there, I heard the drain running & then it stopped like it does when the cycle is complete. I very cautiously started a normal wash cycle and everything started running as normal.
Did I say I LOVE YOU GUYS?? Oh, what a relief! Thank you God and thank you all for saving my sanity! :-)

I just wanted to join this discussion to express that I have similar problems (Flashing green light - no start) with the exact same model. I called on it and was told it would cost some $170 to have the guy come and take advantage of our recently expired warantee. Any advice would be helpful!

=

I'll replace the boards for you at your cost for the part and fifty bucks plus 2.50 cents a mile for travel. Now if you can beat that price your really busy.

THANK ALL OF YOU - SO, SO MUCH FOR THE INFO PROVIDED!! We tried a couple of the above suggestions and I'm not exactly sure which worked, but thought someone else might find our experience useful. Our model is either 665.1627 or 665.1727 (hidden controls on top of door); the problem was that our cancel, start and reset buttons were all flashing and this prevented us from being able to set a mode or start the machine. To solve:
We tried pressing 'normal wash' followed by 'heated dry' three to four times until all of the lights went out. Then we pressed start and nothing happened. We then waited five minutes - still none of the buttons worked. We then shut off our circuit breaker (for just a second) - and that did the trick! I hope this helps!

Green light was flashing on our Kenmore Ultra Wash Quiet Guard 4 (can't find model #). Have had this issue fixed 3-4 times. The last time the tech replaced the motherboard. What an idiot I was for not looking this up online. This time, I decided to see if any one else was having the same issue and came across this site.

Pushed the heated dry and hi-temp alternately and seemed to do the trick. Haven't run the dishwasher yet but blinking light went off and looked light the board rebooted (numerous flashing lights, etc.)

Anyway, thanks for the tips!

I have model # 665.17012402, the clean button was blinking continuously and a cycle wouldn't start. I used zrocket's tip above and it worked, much to my relief! My dishwasher is now running! :)

Thanks for the fix! Same problem on a seldom used 4 year old machine and Sears basically told me to get lost when I asked them about it. Last appliance I buy from them.

It seems like the fix for the "green clean" light is the alternating heat/dry buttons, but what about when you push start and the normal wash "red" light flashes and then you push the smart wash and that red light flashes? Hitting cancel only stops the flashing, but it still doesn't work. There doesn't seem to be fix for that problem.

(Kenmore Elite - Ultra Quite HE) - Well, after reading and re-reading so many of the "answers" - I pushed the normal wash / heated dry buttons and I did get the green light to stop flashing - and for all the lights to light up - BUT my machine still would not work! - Finally, while all the lights were still lit on the dishwasher - I went to turn off / and then back on the circuit breaker. And then (with a prayer) I pushed the start button - and it's running!! :-)

Kenmore Elite®/MD Tall Tub Built-in Dishwasher – White
Model 76962

Problem Statement: KEYPAD button lights flashing and dishwasher unit is not functional.

Symptoms observed:
The lights that continuously flash are:
SMART WASH
NORMAL WASH
CANCEL DRAIN
The unit is not functional with these lights flashing.

Actions taken:
Powering off the unit via main breaker for 30 seconds, resets the KEYPAD, however after a few minutes the SMART WASH light starts to flash.
If you hit CANCEL DRAIN, than the NORMAL WASH and the CANCEL DRAIN lights begin to flash along with the SMART WASH light.

I don't know what to do. Please help. Thanks.

Thanks for the advice the heated wash and heated dry buttons worked for me too!

You need a new electronic pad thing. (the part where you push the buttons) Google parts for this dishwasher. Don't call Sears... they will charge you an arm & a leg to install it. I'm a female with NO appliance knowledge and it took me about 5 minutes to install it. This is the ONLY thing that will fix it.

Try this fix. I have a Kenmore 665 (15769000). My problem was the "Washing" light would blink 1 per second. It would not drain and I could not cancel. I ended up taking off the inner panel of the door (where you add detergent) trying to get at the chip so I could get the part number thinking it would have to be replaced. I pulled off the wires from the chip and plugged them back in just in case it was a bad connection then put the panel back on, closed the door, pressed cancel and heard the sweet sound of draining. I'm not sure if it was a bad connection or if this is a way of resetting.

Hope this works for whoever reads this, Good luck.

Someone please help, my dishwasher keeps blinking this one red light on top of "lock on" please help

Thank you so much for posting this and for saving our family close to a $200 service call from Sears! Again Thank You!!

Everyone says push the "heat dry" button. I have kenmore elite model 665.1746. There is no heat dry button to push. Can someone tell me what order of buttons to push to reset my model.

Thank you for this great suggestion. We have a two week old Kenmore, which has been fine, and just had ten people over for dinner and a flashing light. After trying this, it works! Thanks!

Thank you for the tip!! You totally saved us a service call.

The pushing the Heated Dry and High Temp buttons reset the unit and it is now working.

Thank you for sharing this tip!

I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash dishwasher and the lock light is blinking. I did exactly what the little cheat sheet stated on the top inside of the door. That did not work so unplugged for 30 minutes. I thought maybe it would reset but it didn't. I can not get any other lights to come on but the cancel light if I press with the lockout button, they will blink together until I open and close the door then just lockout light... any suggestions?

The suggesstion about pushing the heated dry button and wash button worked for me too. I did not have a heated wash button so I went back and forth between pushing the heated dry and normal wash buttons. All the lights lit up and then I just hit cancel and normal wash. So far it is working. Thank you for the advice. Sears does not trouble-shoot over the phone (which is annoying.) They were going to have to send a technician to my house. I called and everything. Thank goodness I did some online looking. This absolutely saved me money!! Thank you SO MUCH!!

Hallelujah, love this tip! Worked for us today, saved a lot of grief and handwashing for our six-person household. THANK YOU!!

Kenmore Ultra Wash model 665.1371-1381

Clean light constantly flashing, pressed heated dry/high temp multiple times and all the lights flashed and started to work. A couple weeks later the green clean light started again, I tried the same sequence of heated dry/high temp and it didn't work this time. Any thoughts? Thanks in Advance.

I have the Kenmore Ultrawash Quietguard 4 (2006). For the past few months I'd been having the same issue as many folks where the Clean light wouldn't go off. This would happen at the 20 minute mark pretty consistently. I took out the wash arm, screen etc (easy) and cleaned out the chopper and even used my wet dry vac to suck out any junk down the opening where the water drains. The code (heated dry/normal wash/heated dry/normal wash) worked for a while but over time I eventually couldn't get through a cycle so I had to bite the bullet and call a local repairman. I was told that the heating element and circuit board for my particular model are sold separately (whereas in most models it's sold together). He replaced the heating element first ($200) but the clean light came on again after 20 minutes. He came back to replace the circuit board ($125) and that did the trick. He said that usually when the heathing element goes, it just goes completely so in hindsight, I probably should have tried the circuit board first. Hope this helps.

Thank you everyone for this! After handwashing for 2 months since mine broke, I finally had enough and did a search... bringing me here and you guys have saved my dishwasher! I thought it was doomed, but it is up and running and my hands are so thankful! :)
Thanks everyone

Thank you so much it worked for me right away you saved me a service call!

zrocket,
Clean light was blinking; user guide stated " malfunction, call for service repair"; called service repairman, at least a week; did internet search; found same question on ASK ME and your response on repeated pushing of heat wash/dry buttons... washer was working within minutes.
Thanks so much for your problem response... I owe you a beer.

zrocket,
Your posting resolved my problem Was able to cancel service tech and save the cost of visit. Now I owe you a beer!
Thanks for your posting.

Thanks you ZRocket! I'm in the middle of making and frosting 150 cupcakes for a friend's wedding and you just saved the day!

This solution worked for me as well. Pushed the normal wash button, then the heated dry button several times until all lights came on. Then hit cancel and all lights went out. Then used the dishwasher as normal and it worked just fine. Called sears as well and they would not offer any information as they only wanted to schedule service. Since this appears to be quite a common problem, they should be offering troubleshooting advice.

October 1, 2011. Kenmore Ultrawash Dishwasher #665.16032.401 You saved me frustration, money and my Saturday! My washer had the green blinking light. Alternately pressed the Hi-Temp Wash and Heated Dry buttons as described above until all lights lit up. Now running. I didn't even have to hunt down the right size star screwdriver. Thank you VERY much.

I have a Kenmore 665.17779990, I've done it all... still have the Lock On red light blinking. I thought the microcomputer board was bad and almost ordered it $117 plus shipping. I took the kick panel(s) off and found the technicans note sheet and followed all the press pad options at least 10 times. Still no luck. I even removed the control front panel thinking it was a "stuck" key pad. Sears cost for the panel... $148 plus shipping. Error message in tech's sheet... " If the control detects that a key is stuck in the depressed position, the dishwasher operation will be suspended and the control will flash the light for that key until the condion is corrected. If the key without a light is stuck or multiple keys are stuck, the control will flash the Lock-Out light. AND that's where I'm at now...I've tried all the "lock on" suggestions and it still flashes... I think my wife and I are ready to go shopping!

Amazing! It worked! Isn't it wonderful how internet fourms like this can be so helpful resolving problems for the average DIY'er who's willing to search for an answer and fix it him/herself.

I had a same problem that clean lite blinks... push 1st high temp buttom and heated dry buttom I just repeated 2nd times... IT WORKS!! Thank you very much!

Toggling back and forth between the hi-temp wash and heated-dry buttons worked for me too. Thank you so much

I have the Model 665-1703 so one of the buttons had a slightly different name to it. These steps worked for me:

Alternate pressing the "Hi Temp Wash" and "Heated Dry" buttons until all the lights go on. The unit will then cycle through an internal diagnostic cycle. If the unit is functioning properly, all the lights will go off in about 5 minutes when the test is complete. You should then be able to select your cycle and options and press the start button.

If the unit does not pass the diagnostic test, you may need to follow some of the other unit cleaning suggestions listed above.

Thank you for the fix. It worked!! My husband had tried fixing it to no avail so we were going to call for service. I looked it up and pressed the buttons as instructed and it worked! I've been dancing around the house telling everyone how I fixed the dishwasher that my husband couldn't fix! You just saved us a lot of money and I can finally get rid of the pile of dishes that have been stacking up for the last 2 days.

Thanks it worked for me too!

I recently started having this exact problem and there is no help in the Users Guide at all. I have tried Powering Down with no luck. Any help would be appreciated. Again, it's the Normal Wash light.

Thanks

My kenmore ultra 665.13443k901 will not start... the heated dry, quick rinse and heave wash will light up, but it won't start
Please help!!

I tried all the combinations of buttons to try to reset the system. It do not work. I finally decided to remove the old control board from the inside of the front door and replaced it with a new one I ordered directly from Sears Parts. I replaced the control (not really too hard to do), and the light still blinked for a few hours. I opened the door, pressed the Heated Dry button once, closed the door, and the machine has been working since.

Replacing the board only required a screwdriver.

I hope this helps someone.

Hi all
Just a note of caution but the control panel in question on this unit exists on many others manufactured by Whirlpool and it has an inherent design flaw that can lead to an overheating event and possible fire. Visit http://www.kitchenaidfire.com for more vital information on this.

We had also experienced a recent heating element failure as indicated by the flashing clean light, but had been also noticing the smell of burning plastic sometimes prior when the unit ran. After replacing the heating element with a new one we had a catastrophic failure of the main control board (about 10 washes later)

We were very lucky when ours failed that we were awake and in sight of the unit and killed the circuit breaker to stop the melt down from continuing. I hate to think what might have been if we were in bed or away from the house.

Our kitchen filled with white, acrid smoke as the control module power connections melted down and nearly burned through the outer casing of the face plate.

We have since discovered that this is a widespread problem and a known issue with the manufacture (since 2008). There is no recall yet and not even any public notices apart from a few isolated news reports.

Just do some searching on the internet and it won't take long to find examples and other horror stories.

We are waiting to find out if there is anything we can expect from the manufacturer in this case. (7 year old machine). There is also a class action law suit currently underway in the States... apparently this affects up to 24 million machines... small wonder Whirlpool would rather not admit this is a problem warranting a recall...

Good luck everyone.

What a great web site. Pushed the buttons and problem solved. Thanks so much. Thought I was in for a headache and a big repair bill.

Hello

We have the same problem with our Kenmore dishwasher and I did all the above (pushing wash/heat dry few times). It went through a cycle and then the light started blinking again. I did it a couple of times and I still have the same problem.

Anyone has a solution to this problem?
Thanks

I just tried this, and it worked. Thanks.

We pushed the heated wash,and the heated dry buttons one after the other for about 5 times and all the lights came on. Then pressed start and it changed from clean cycle to wash and seems to be working. Thanks would never have guessed trying that.

So, I did the reset sequence, Heated water, heated dry over and over. All the lights lit and it is now in a wash cycle but nothing is happening. Does this mean my control board is bad?