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Renaissance man: a present-day man who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field.

I sometime consider myself one. Maybe not in the sense of profound knowledge, but one who does not shy away from a challenge, short of anything requiring a true artist.

Case in point, our dishwasher went kaput this week. The machine is about 15 years old. I installed it when we remodeled our kitchen back then. Nothing catastrophic, but it stopped and had an error code of the "clean" light flashing 7 times. It is a Whirlpool model. The 7 flashes means that the water did not come up to temperature when required. A quick check on Google found a couple of normal failure modes for this error code. 1 was a burned-out heating element, the other was the control board relay. No problem, I've done this type of troubleshooting before, just not on this appliance.

I got my tools ready and started to disassemble the control panel from the door as the videos on YouTube showed. Not the exact model so my door was just slightly different. I removed the 6 screws to drop the control panel down two of the molded plastic bosses were broken away from the panel itself. No problem, I'll take care of them later once I figure out what caused the washer to die. As instructed, I removed one connector from the board and measured the heating element resistance from that connector to the door switch. Uh OH! this tested within "spec" I guess that is not the problem. I guess it is good that I don't have to replace that part.

I went on to inspecting the control board. WTF? The board was snapped into a plastic housing. That plastic housing was then snapped into the front panel. I have no idea why they bothered with the housing at all. The YT videos showed common problems were solder joints around the relays and the pins for the connector. The videos showed evidence of burned boards in that area too. I have seen this type of problem before on other electrical appliances.' relays. Upon inspection, everything on my board looked good and clean. No bad solder joints, no burned traces or PC board fiber. I decided the measure the resistance of the coils on the 3 relays. Nope, they were good too. Hmmmm. Maybe I have a fried computer chip. I wonder what a new control board would cost. For reference I recently bought a new main board for a Roku TV and it was only ~ $10 used on eBay. All the new parts suppliers showed "NLA". eBay boards for my dishwasher were > $200! No way was I going to buy one for a 15-year-old dishwasher hoping it was the problem. Cheap [Fatherless Child] I am.

A bit further investigation was required. In order for this heater to work there is an interlock switch on the door that completes the circuit. I tested the switch by manually activating the switch. Nope. It tested good. Now, there are 2 switches there. One id for this circuit, the other...... well I don't know. Some signal to the control board I assume. Both are activated by some crazy plastic mechanism related to the opening handle/closing latch. Nothing wrong there either.

At this point, I am stymied. I decided to call it a night. The next morning, I took the plastic pieces from the panel screws and, using 2-part "plastic epoxy", and reglued them in their proper location with a little bit of reinforcement glue. A day later, after giving the epoxy plenty of time to cure, I gently re-assembled to panel to the door. When I closed the door, I heard a familiar, strong click. I hadn't heard that in a while. It was the door latch doing it's job. Hmmmm. Could this have been the problem all along? I opened and closed the door several times. Each time there was a definite "click". Time to do a test run. After a little over an hour, the dishwasher completed its cycle. To my surprise, there was no error light flashing. It did its job. I asked my wife to come and listen to the door-close-click. She said it hasn't sounded like that for a while. Could the only problem have been that the 2 bad mounting screws were allowing the door to flex, just enough to prevent the interlock switch from activating. From what I could tell, there is not adjustment in that mechanism.

It may be too soon to call this done. For the meantime I will consider it so. I'll now add the title of dishwasher repairman to my long list of "fields of expertise". That is until next week when it fails again. At least I now know where to look first.

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766

Ours does the same thing once in a while. I just do a reset on the panel. Door has to be open and push 2 buttons back and forth 3 times, all the lights flash a few times and it resets it brain. I can't remember the buttons though, I have that written down inside the cupboard door, but can't read it from Palm Springs

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Perry

'If man built it, man can fix it'
"No one ever told me I couldn't do it."
"If you can't build it safe, don't build it."

Perry's Locost Super Che7enette Build
Perry's TBird Based 5.0L Super 7 L.S.O
Perry's S10 Super 7 The 3rd
Perry's 4th Build The Topolino 500 (Little Mouse) Altered
Perry's 5th Build the Super Slant 6 Super 7
Perry's Final Build the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle

yup, the old "didn't actually change anything but tested all the parts and put them back together properly" trick. Fingers crossed you get at least another 5 years from it! The reset is a good trick, filed that away for later - thanks!

Perry, my reset is done by pressing start-normal-start-normal. All the lights should light up. Then press cancel twice.

I hate the "didn't change anything" too. Been there. Bought the tee shirt. Several times over the years. However, in my case I did change "something". I secured the control/display panel. And when I finished, the "click" was definitely more "clicky". Unlike other dishwashers, the interlock is mounted to the display panel and the panel was not secured completely. I do believe that the interlock was the root cause of my problem.

I have been wrong before and I will be wrong again. It is virtually guaranteed. Whether I am wrong on this or not remains to be seen. I'll hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

_________________
Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766

My whirlpool dishwasher is 27 years old and still going with no problems. Due to anodic minerals in our hard water, the water heater is also 27 years old.

My washer and dryer are also whirlpool and about 50 years old. I've had to change the pump three times; the element and mech timer once. Dark brown with mushroom art.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

i've had the same push broom for 25 years, it's had 4 heads and 7 handles but it's the same broom!

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

I've had the same wife for 35 years. Does that count??? TeeHee

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You meet the nicest people in a Locost Se7en.