I was away for a few months and had turned off the water supply to my dishwasher. When I returned, I forgot to turn the water back on and turned on my dishwasher. I left the room and when I went to empty the dishes, found dirty dishes, and the 'clean' light blinking 7 times, it pauses and then blinks 7 times again. It will not run. I called Whirlpool and they told me it was the heating element. I ordered it, replaced it, and the light is still blinking and the dishwasher still won't start. Any ideas??

The problem you describe sounds exactly how mine did....started washing, later saw the clean light blinking and opened the door only to find the load full of the dirty dishes....Have you seen the procedure in the following two paragraphs recommended by a Senior AAP for resetting a Whirlpool? (I found these instructions for another Whirlpool Model-on this forum. This procedure worked like a top for my Quiet Partner II that had had a 7-blinking light pattern, and nothing else, for the last several months, since I found it as I described in the first sentence....found THIS, JUST TONIGHT, tried it and at last mine is running again! Just had to share it!!!! I had been told I would probably need a new control panel, I should get a service warranty, same guy suggested I go on the internet because he knew and had used a reset procedure and couldn't recollect the exact sequence, etc. Praise the Lord, it worked, and saved me bucks I don't have!!!): --exact quote--

Try pressing normal wash -heat dry-normal wash-heatdry- normal wash-heat dry- norma wash - heat dry. all the lights should come on. then after a little bit. keep pressing start till disher washer gets back to normal shut down.

what happen your water was to cold going into the disherwasher one time taking to long to warm up. the dishwaher went into a fault mode. the light blinks 7 times because there was a fault with your heater circuit. this should take care of it.

I REALLY appreciate the opportunity to learn (and saved me a bunch of money and headache) from this forum. In fact, my dishwasher did the same trick today and went to the blinking clean.....NOW THOUGH, I knew what to do and it is back on track. Think maybe during these COLD days I should not try to use the sani-rinse cycle as this problem seems to be connected with the heating.... I want to thank again those folk who are responsible for providing the opportunity to ask for advice and those who share.:o

Had a 7 blink cycle on our Whirlpoor DW, main board was replaced under warranty less than 3 months ago so I didn't suspect that, came here and with your reference to the tech sheet was able to clear the blinking light and everything looks back to normal. My wife had noticed the installer of the board doing a similar sequence on the panel when he came to first diagnose the panel failure and asked him what the sequence was and he said "trade secret". Thanks for the info, I would have probably replaced the unit rather than have it repaired by an outside source since it's got some broken parts inside but you saved me a headache and some cash that at this time really needs to stay where it is.

First timer here and very happy with the site. Keep it up and thanks again for your time and interest in serving this community. Happy Easter to all.

i tried it and mine works again too, thanks so much. Mine is a kitchenaid superba. thanks a ton :) :) :)