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??
Clear the control by running Diagnostics as described in the Tech sheet.
Here are the breakdown diagrams and Replacement parts for WHIRLPOOL GU2400XTPT3 | AppliancePartsPros.com
Gene.
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.
Just wanted to say thank you for sharing your diagnosis and repair with us.
Gene.
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
New to this site. Just want to say thank you. I did what you said and it worked perfect. Saved me alot of money. Thanks again.
[quote=Gene;107810]Clear the control by running Diagnostics as described in the Tech sheet.
Here are the breakdown diagrams and Replacement parts for WHIRLPOOL GU2400XTPT3 | AppliancePartsPros.com
Gene.[/quote]
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.
7 blinks on clean light means you have a water heating fault. Doesn’t mean you have a bad heater. You said you left the water off. If you ran a load with no water in dishwasher, there is no water in unit to heat (and dishes come out dirty), therefore the thermistor does not sense a rise in temp and thinks there is a problem with the heater and shuts down and will not continue unless you run a diagnostic cycle to clear the fault. Clear the fault and turn on water and you should be good.
i tried it and mine works again too, thanks so much. Mine is a kitchenaid superba. thanks a ton 
[quote=Gene;107810]Clear the control by running Diagnostics as described in the Tech sheet.
Here are the breakdown diagrams and Replacement parts for WHIRLPOOL GU2400XTPT3 | AppliancePartsPros.com
Gene.[/quote]
What should I replace if i have done the reset thing by pressing the normal/heated dry buttons in order?
The complete model number of your dishwasher might help others to help you.
Gene.
I have a whirlpool quiet partner iii anf model num is GU2500XTPS3. I was going to install a new heating element yesterday, but after reading this post i started to take mine apart and learned that hot water valve was barely turned on. So i cleared the blinks and turned up the hot water valve and it worked fine. Im going to try it again just to make sure before i return the heating element.
Very often this error code does not mean that anything in the dishwasher is broken. It can be caused by insufficient incoming water temperature or just not enough water like in your case.
Gene.
Timeless advice! Our Kitchenaid dishwasher from 2007 threw this clean light blinking 7 times last night. I tried unplugging it and letting it sit, another reset procedure that didn’t work, then boom, this did it. Normal - Heat Dry repeat 4 times. All lights will come on hit Start, close the door and voila it’s washing. Thank you!!