My Sears Kenmore Dishwasher

[Bamby]

My Sears Kenmore Dishwasher has developed issues, mainly it refuses to run well maybe I should say run as designed. It's kicking on and off and short cycling in it's attempt to function.

I removed and gutted the inside all the way down to the grinding mechanism and removed all the accumulated debris that was hidden down in there and attempted to run it again, without any success.

Next up was to open up the dishwasher door to expose the brains of the unit itself. When I had the main control board exposed to view even though the dishwasher itself was "cold" I could feel or detect heat from the component so I'm feeling it's probably failed.

So off to googleland to source a replacement control board for replacing it and actually sourced another concern "FIRE". It seems that there is a pretty good history of these boards "failing" and starting "fires". [FONT=arial,helvetica]

Problem:

KitchenAid, Sears Kenmore, Whirlpool dishwasher fires (all manufactured by Whirlpool).

Product design/defect causes predictable opportunity for control circuit board failure leading to fire.

Please note: because we have reports of repaired dishwashers catching fire a 2nd time (and more), we do not recommend replacement of the control board as a safe solution.


Source of Above


Now after reviewing the information in the article above I'm wondering about fixing the thing. It would be far cheaper to fix rather than replace and would any replacement actually be any better or safer, heck they still may be utilizing the same board for all I know, but I do know if I do fix it I'll never again start the thing and head off to work or whatever and leave it unattended while it's running.

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[Doc]

Since it was hot even when off, it does not sound as if it has to be running for the fire to start. I wonder if Sears would give you a credit towards a new dishwasher since this is a known issue with a no fix recommendation? Sure would be worth checking on.

I would not want to keep a unit like that in my house.

 

[pixie]

What model # do you have ?

Those at the link all seem to start with either "665" or "KUD"

My model # starts 660 and is 10 years old.

 

[Bamby]

Doc Since it was hot even when off, it does not sound as if it has to be running for the fire to start. I wonder if Sears would give you a credit towards a new dishwasher since this is a known issue with a no fix recommendation? Sure would be worth checking on.


I would not want to keep a unit like that in my house.

We're basically in agreement on the "really don't want it in the house" ourselves, but them again who's to say a new one would really be any safer. It seems home appliances have gone the same way as lawn equipment, it all comes off the same assembly line and they just throw different labels at it.

A person a Sears said home appliances are built by design to fail in about five years and ours is probably closer to ten than five so it's outlived it designated lifespan already, so I didn't pursue or push the issue why bother .

pixie What model # do you have ?


Those at the link all seem to start with either "665" or "KUD"

My model # starts 660 and is 10 years old.

pixie we have exactly the model in question Mod 665.16482300 which is the model that's noted for "fires". I didn't bother to note exactly how many are listed for burning up in the link but they went on and on and who knows how many potential hundreds of others also burned and were simply tossed and replaced.

If it were a mom and pop manufacture that had such a potentially dangerous design flaw or failure, big brother would step in real quick and without hesitation demand either a fix or a recall, but I fear Whirlpool is another designated "too big to fail" business that can create and sell firetraps at will.