Ask Me Help Desk - Reset works fine, but...

This Kenmore dishwasher, model 1376, works great and very quiet also.

... and then it stopped working. I suspect I might have placed something in there that blocked the spray arms. What worries me is that there wasn't/isn't any blinking light to indicate "fault" has been detected. Hope I didn't burn out the motor.

The two button reset worked great. It went through the reset cycle.

... but the machine does the same thing. Load the water and sit there. I can activate the cancel/drain cycle though.

It's annoying if the dishwasher does not automatically reset itself to begin with. What's more, I don't seem to recall there was any mentioning of the two button reset sequence in the user manual.

Can anyone help?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyan

This Kenmore dishwasher, model 1376, works great and very quiet also.

...and then it stopped working. I suspect I might have placed something in there that blocked the spray arms. What worries me is that there wasn't/isn't any blinking light to indicate "fault" has been detected. Hope I didn't burn out the motor.

The two button reset worked great. It went through the reset cycle.

...but the machine does the same thing. Load the water and sit there. I can activate the cancel/drain cycle though.

It's annoying if the dishwasher does not automatically reset itself to begin with. What's more, I don't seem to recall there was any mentioning of the two button reset sequence in the user manual.

Can anyone help?

Couple of questions, comments... if you don't mind, when you say you can activiate the cancel/drain cycle and that the machine just loads the water and sits there... do you mean you see water standing on the floor/bottom and it does not continue to go through it's cycle ? If so, then maybe you have a stopped up drain ?

This is a good question from Richard as response to my question. Obviously I made an error in describing the symptom but it did prompt me to look into it further and found a new clue. I've seen the description of this problem mentioned somewhere else but I can't recall where it was. It problem applies to (a design fault) applies to some dishwashers including a small number (revisions) of Kenmore models. I have the Kenmore Elite Ultra Wash model 1376.

If I manually select the cancel/drain cycle, or if I activate the reset cycle, water is completely drained from the tub. This does not seem to be a problem. However, if I select any wash cycle, the machine only seems to load the water and stop there. No lights were blinking and the "wash" light remains "on" waiting forever.

What I notice now is that the heating element is active as if the dishwasher is trying to heat up the water, forever (the unit gets quite hot after a while). Even though I have not selected any high heat washing, nor the hot water supply was in question.

…some of the damage has been done. The detergent dispenser did open during one of the attempted reset cycles and I was unaware of it. Soaking in concentrated detergent for a few hours, there are now serious chemical turns on the inside surface of the door and on some of the loaded dishes. Damn…..

From what you describe, my guess of a clogged drain is not correct. I am stumped and cannot advise you. If it's a new unit from a Sears store, then you have at least a one year warranty and Sears will repair and defects or replace the unit. provided it was installed by a Sears authorized contractor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardBondMan

From what you describe, my guess of a clogged drain is not correct. I am stumped and cannot advise you. If it's a new unit from a Sears store, then you have at least a one year warranty and Sears will repair and defects or replace the unit., provided it was installed by a Sears authorized contractor.

Thanks Richard, I do realize the symptom of the problem does suggest that it's liekly to be out of the hand of "end user". I have already contacted Sears for warranty claim. I'm seriously considering a request of replacing the entire unit because the serious chemical burn (detergent) on the inside surface of the door. Out of so many units built and sold by Sears (Whirlpool) I perfactly accept the possibility of a faulty controller etc.

The joke is... this dishwasher is only 3 days new. Also the only (among others) Kenmore/Whirlpool appliances that went down on me (hah hah, so soon?). It is due to this incident, I was trying to learn more able the un-documented reset/diagnostic button sequence etc. Certainly, I did hope that this problem only needed an undocumented "grand reset" and everything will be back to normal. So I cut power for about 15 minutes, but that didn't help. Oh well.

At this point of the development, I still have a non functional dishwasher.

Fortunately the service guy from Sears showed up, after a week.

Unfortunately, I was told the motor is gone. Holy smoke, that's only after two wash as a brand name unit. OK, that happens. But The exchange option is in question, if I don't want just the motor replaced (cause there are other damages).

I think something must have blocked the spray arms that caused the problem, but I'm losing confidence with this particular model.

I would like to thank those who were trying to help me. Special thanks for Richard.