Kenmore dishwasher *clean light* blinking - machine won't run full wash cycle

Dishwasher Repair
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1

Our diswasher clean light is blinking continuously and the machine won’t run a full wash cycle.

This is what we have tried:

  1. Unplugged the machine for over 10 minutes and plugged it back.

  2. Checked to see if any build-up could be blocking the machine… no gunk build-up detected.

  3. Run several diagnostics by pressing the Heated Dry button and alternating with the Normal Wash twice, and then let it do its thing.

  4. Tried to run a normal wash cycle after the diagnostic (did this several times). The dishwasher runs for a while (maybe 20 min or so), then simply stops and starts blinking the clean light again. When I open the dishwasher, there is some hot steam that comes out, so I think the heating element is working fine – the machine is simply not completing the full wash-rinse cycle (don’t know if it ever gets to the DRY cycle or if the dishes simply dry from the heat of the hot water wash… I think it’s the latter)

  5. Replaced the control board inside. No change.

  6. Run another set of diagnostics, this time pressing the Heated Dry - Hi Temp Wash - Heated Dry - Hi Temp Wash and let the machine do its thing. Clean light STOPPED blinking.

  7. Tried running some cycles: Normal Wash and even a Quick Rinse cycles, but they both gave the same result, namely an aborted wash cycle, followed by a blinking clean light signal.

Obviously, it wasn’t the control board (and I think the heating element must work since the machine is hot inside when it stops). I hesitate to just replace the touch pad unnecessarily. Could it be a fuse or sensor? Unfortunately, I have not found the manual on line, either. Any thoughts or assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

2

So, we finally pulled out the ohm-meter (again!) and checked some of the circuits (as outlined on the circuit diagrams, sealed and taped in a plastic envelope on the underside of the machine) and found that the heater element was testing open (infinite or O/L) when it should have registered some resistance. We replaced the heating element, and the dishwasher now works!

Apparently, the heat coming out of the machine (when we were initially troubleshooting the problem) was from the heat of the water from our hot water heater, not the element.
Also, it appears that the heating element normally engages after about 20 minutes, but since it couldn’t (because it was broken), the machine wasn’t able to finish the wash cycle.