Troubleshoot Kenmore

Dishwasher Repair
1

I installed this unit in October of 2006 and it has been working flawlessly till last week or so. Yesterday morning I notice a faint burnt smell that occured when the dishwasher was running.

This morning I flipped the breaker; took off the kick panel and electrical cover and found a burnt wire at the connection point and a burned up wirenut.

So after reading a bunch here I had some questions.

  1. Should I call sears or whirlpool to see if it is subject to the recall?
  2. Is it possible that the wirenuts could have come loose and just need to be re-installed and the issue will go away?
  3. Since the white wire is the one that was burned is there a polarity problem? How can I troubleshoot that? The washer was working normally for two years so I wonder if this could be it, although we did have some electical work done in the kitchen and at our panel last fall.
  4. If none of the above are the root cause how much time and effort should go into this before I just replace it with another brand?

thanks for any advice that can be given.
regards
Brentley

2

Brentley,

The burned wires in your dishwasher most likely is result of improper installation (poor connection) and possible reversed polarity.

In order to check the polarity and reconnect the power cord in the correct way you need a voltmeter. The white wire in the dishwasher has to be connected to the neutral line and the black wire has to be connected to the hot line. The power cord must have the three prong plug with the ground wire which must be connected to the dishwasher body at the junction box.

Hopefully the electronic control board in the dishwasher is not damaged.

Gene.

3

So I pulled out the plug and tested the polarity and it turns out that the original install had reversed polarity. I corrected the issue and the dishwasher runs again with no smell.

Thanks for the help.

4

You are welcome. We are glad you were able to fix it.

Gene.