I was shocked today when I smelled smoke from an electrical fire. Followed the smell into my kitchen to see my 4 yr old Kenmore smoking and arcing blue light flashes. I ran down to the electrical panel to shut off the dishwasher breaker. We proceeded to dismantle the door to find the circuit board cooked. Lots of melted wires and black soot. I am so glad we were home! How often have you gone to bed or went out for a few hours and left the dishwasher on?
I have my wife and 2 young boys to worry about. Thank God we were not in bed. That would have been much more traumatizing for the kids.

I was very surprised to learn about this known problem on the internet. There are many known cases of Whirlpool (branded Kenmore) dishwashers catching on fire. This is crazy. I read about families who have died due to these fires. What can I do here? Should I go back to Sears and voice my concerns? I paid $700 4 years ago for a higher quality dishwasher stainless lined, that I had hoped would last longer than 4 years. I feel something needs to be done to help others, as peoples lives could be at risk.

If you own a Kenmore do not leave it on and go to bed or leave your home while it is running. Better yet, remove it get a different dishwasher. Do some research and read the history. I am not sure I want this replaced with another Kenmore or Whirlpool model.

I went to Sears last Nov and complained to the store manager. They were all hush hush about it, said it was terrible and that they were going to fix it for me. They sent over a technician who took photos and removed all the burnt parts. They came back in Dec to put it back together however were missing some pieces. Today it's Feb 1st and they have yet to come back and finish reassembly. We have been without a dishwasher now for 3 months. Despite repeated calles to Sears, we still don't know when it will be working again. I regret not buying a new one back in Nov. Sears service is terrible.

Just had a Whirlpool affiliated technician come over (this Kenmore is really just a Whirlpool with the Sears brand name). The service call was $118, non-refundable. Our dishwasher originally cost us $1,048.10, including all taxes, and delivery. I know, that's expensive, but we thought we were getting the best, something that would last for a while, maybe ca. 10 years. We bought this on 9/11/04, it lasted four years, four months. Little did we know...

The technician's tally for replacing the parts comes out to ca. $400. After calling Sears, they said that they could either offer Service Parts up to $100 OR Service labor up to $150, One or the other, but not both. Obviously, this is not cost efficient.

I am attaching a picture of the burned out inside of the electronics panel on the front door of the dishwasher. Notice the charred insides.

What have we learned from this?

1. As the technician recommended, ALWAYS purchase the largest warranty, and then when it's about to expire, purchase an extension. Once your warranty expires, you have absolutely no recourse whatsoever, even if your place burns down.

2. Sears service is abysmal.

3. Whirlpool products are cheaply-made, and according to the Whirlpool affiliated technician, they are getting worse. (She admitted that she's so dismayed by the quality of modern dishwashers that she doesn't even own one, she washes by hand.)

4. It's a crapshoot purchasing what you think will be a top-of-the-line, excellent appliance. As they say, they just don't make them like they used to.

Finally, if there are others out there who purchased the same dishwasher and had the same problem, PLEASE post here. If enough people have this problem, there will inevitable be a recall of this batch of serial numbers in this model.

Our Kenmore model 665-17462300 caught fire last week. Flames were shooting from the control panel. This is the third control panel they've installed in this appliance in the past nine months but the first to cause a fire. We have an extended warranty so it's only costing us major inconvenience. This model is not on the recall list and neither Sears nor Whirpool seemed too concerned. I did report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Sears is replacing the control panel but we won't be comfortable letting the dishwasher run unattended.

Kenmore 665.16939 SN: FM1209048

Door caught fire. Six inch flames would have caused a house if I hadn't been present. This is not listed, but it should be. If they offered to repair I would not accept it.