Good afternoon. Looking for some help, obviously. We bought a Whirlpool dishwasher about 4 years ago. From day 1 the dishes never dried worth a damn. We had a repair service come out under warranty and at that time was schooled by the repair guy that newer dishwashers suck at drying dishes. He went ahead and threw himself a bone and replaced the control panel (required another trip). After that it was exactly the same.

The past couple of months it's been really really bad. I could feel a crack on the heating element and went ahead and ordered one. I replaced it and tested both the old and the new to confirm. After that it was exactly the same, soaking wet dishes and it didn't seem to be cleaning well either.

Did some more research and got to the high limit thermostat. Contorted myself and was able to get it out without removing the unit. Bad thing was it seemed to test just fine. Dang. I considered replacing it anyway but at this point I just wanted to toss the entire thing and be done with it. Anyway, I decided to just stick it back in while I continued to shop and figure out what to do.

Well to my surprise the next time we did dishes everything was sparkling clean and dry as can be. WOW. Maybe the high limit thermo just wasn't in well? Either way, the bad news is it melted the bottom of the tub (no holes yet), it also melted some plastic dishes on the bottom rack.

Is there a chance the high limit thermostat is stuck closed therefore never turning off the element? I don't want to burn my house down nor do I want to melt holes in the tub. This thing NEVER dried like this, not from day one. Any advice or help? I tried to search but all I come back with is people with the problem I originally had which is not drying at all. Would really love to get some expert help to know where to go from here.