So my heating element is wasted and i'm going to have to replace that. Any advice on that front?

But, while i'm going through the hassle of taking this thing out and replacing the element I figure there is probably some other cleaning/replacement of things that I could do as well.

I figure i'll try to take apart the impeller housing and at least look at that and make sure its in working order. Do you think it's likely this will need to be replaced? Or regardless is it a cheap part and I should just replace it regardless?

The dishwasher seems to work "ok" right now. Washing is inconsistent; sometimes things wind up spotless and sometimes not so spotless. Looks like the upper rack doesn't clean as well as it should.

I've never done anything to this unit since purchasing other than occationally cleaning the gasket around the door, which is filthy by the way.

Ok so my repair has been completed. Wasn't that bad of a job after all. Took me about 2.5 hours to get everything done. I gotta tell you I suspect the main culprit of all my issues is FILTH! OMFG!!! the guts of my diswasher were friggin disgusting. I took out the racks then the spray arms and proceeded to scrub them all down in the sink and clean them. The wheel at the very top of the dishwasher which spins and sprays water from the very top was clearly clogged with gunk and worthless, I got that cleaned out and rotating again. The bottom of the dishwasher had all kinds of caked on goup soup and slime down there. So glad I had a shop vac to clean that crap out.

Even found some chicken bones down there. Not surprising really. Mold of who knows what origin.

Changing the heating element was quite simple just to wires to unplug and 2 plastic nuts. Not difficult at all. The chopper was a little more difficult to get too but not terribly. It wasn't really in that bad of shape at all but, since I had the part I just replaced it anyways.

So my suggestion to other people would be if your dishwasher isn't cleaning the first thing you should do is just get in there and clean the thing. I'm certain it wont hurt things and tearing appart the guts of a dishwasher is actually quite simple. It's only about 8 screws or so.