Sounds like the problem with your dishwasher is more chemical than mechanical.

Numbers of complains like yours increased dramatically because since July 1, 2010 all dishwashing detergents are now phosphate free to comply with various state regulations. It might be cleaner for Environment but definitely not for dishes.

Phosphates were added to detergents to sequester minerals in water and thus improve wash performance. Detergents without phosphates tend to leave mineral deposits on glassware and other items, leading to poor wash performance.

So far in some detergents like Cascade Complete All in 1 ActionPacs phosphates have been replaced with enzymes. It works pretty good as a power booster, but there is one trick. DO NOT rinse dishes prior to load them into dishwasher. Enzymes would not work without grease!

The use of a rinse agent in your dishwasher may also help to minimize a repeat build up of film.

Also you'll need to use a dishwasher cleaners on regular basis. There are a few of them on the market. I'm using for my dishwasher Dishwasher Magic which works very good.




Gene.

The water distribution system in your dishwasher designed to operate only one spray arm at a time. During the first wash and first and second rinses, only the lower spray arm operates. You can learn more form the file attached to the reply.

It also can be not enough water in the dishwasher due to a clogged screen in the water inlet valve.

- The water inlet valve Part number: AP4321824

to add to the above,
how can i tell if there is the proper amount of water in the diswasher.
i am thinking that perhaps the water is to be the height of the little knob which protrudes upwards on the big flat round screen (part #65). reason being, is that i have no idea what else that knob could be for.

Also, with regards to the water heating. i think this only occurs on my dishwasher when set to pots & pans and think it is a timed thing vs temperature regulated. if i have this setting, what is the temperature that the element will try to heat the water too.
Many dishwashers heat the wash and/or rinse water to a higher temperature, as the cycle calls for it. In these cycles, the dishwasher pauses after it has filled with water, waiting for the water to reach the pre-set temperature. What happens next, depends, as follows:



On some units, the pause is timed and the unit continues after the allotted time.

1 day to go (then sale of the dishwasher i am looking at is over & my wife is done with me).
so yesterday i changed the water inlet valve. do not believe there was any change in how my diswasher worked. ($30 wasted but oh well).
i have the following details and perhaps it will help a bit more.
Not sure how much water is to be coming in but here is what i have figured out.
There are the following cycles of washing and for each cycle, the dishwasher does not fill all the way (to the max) for any of the cycles. i would say only about 50% of the water comes in. is this normal for each of the cycles or should the water fill until the float rises lifting the switch and turning off the water inlet valve. i tried turning the timing dial all the way around so that the dishwasher would continue filling. (basically giving it 2x the amount of time to fill the dishwasher). in this case, the float rose, activating the switch and turning off the water inlet vlave. (for some reason when i did this though some water came out the bottom of the dishwasher where the float rod comes through. So here are the runs and some info.

Pots & pans wash: only bottom arm runs.

Normal wash: only bottom arm runs.

Light wash 1 (there are 4 different times the unit will fill with water): bottom arm runs and then the top arm runs for a bit. This is where it gets odd, as soon as the top arm starts the drain pump cuts in at the same time and so the top arm wash does not occur very long.

Light wash 2: Bottom arm, top1,bot,top2,bot,top3,bot,top4,bot drain.

Light wash 3: Bottom arm, top1,bot,top2,bot,top3,drain.

Light wash 4: Bottom arm, top1,bot,drain

Drying.

So after running the dishwasher, using an all in one puck with the red ball detergent, and the dishwasher was not overly full, and not having the full amount of water in the dishwasher for each cycle, (not sure if this is required for each one or just certain ones), my dishes came our fairly dirty and there was food gunk on the front door as well. (i did not run the dry cycle.
so i ran it a second time with cascade granualar in both the open door and trap door using pots & pans cycle again. Again the dishes came out dirty.

i use finish or jet dry rinse aide.

my only 2 things i could think of were that there is not enough water in the machine for all or certain cycles, now given that i changed the water inlet valve the only things i could think of were either there is a restriction after the water inlet valve preventing water to come in as fast as it should, or the water line to the water inlet valve is restricted somehow and so not enough water is getting in to the dishwasher in the allotted time.
the other thing i thought could be shot is the timer.

also, how can you tell if the impeller is no longer any good, and if an impeller wears out does it reduce the water pressure resulting in dirty water...

thanks.

OK Gene-that info was valuable.
with the dishwasher set to Normal cycle it filled with water for 85 seconds. During this time, only 1.06 US galons of water entered.
i then tested the volume of water that could enter before teh fill turn off switch would activate with the float. in this case, when 2.12 US galons were put in the dishwasher, then the float switch would click, indicating that the water would turn off. when the water is in the dishwasher it is still below the heater.

so based on the above, i am thinking that the water line or valve is not large enough for an adequeate/required amount of water to enter. i will have to replace them. The pressure is around 60 psi. no other water sources were on.

The other thing that confuses me a bit, is that you indicated that i should measure how much water i can put in to the machine and that it should be about 5-6 US galons. Just to clarify, this 5-6 US galons is for the entire cycles and not just the 1 cycle. however, if i have this wrong and it takes 5-6 US galons just for the normal washer, please let me know.

thanks again.