Whirlpool dishwasher stopped

I have a whirlpool quietwash plus, I guess about 10 years old. Model number is blank on tag, just my luck. Has 'soft' push button controls that have a red LED that indicates 'on' for each function, if that helps. Anyhow, suddenly stopped tonight. All buttons work, light up, on/off, just nothing else. No wash or drain. Stopped in the middle of cycle. Ideas?

 

Do you have the user's manual. Often they have at least a rudimentary troubleshooting guide. If so, do what they say. If not, try shutting off breaker to dishwasher, wait about 30 seconds, turn back on, and see if it can start up again.

What kind of water level do you have in there right now?

Have you ever removed the 2 toe-kickplates to look under neath where the motor and pump is, to see if any water puddles or signs of water on these, with rust/streaks? That could signal a failure.

If during the cycle change, a solenoid may have failed down under there, also. Or a pump, or something with the cutter is locked up, or a reversing motor can't reverse, or plain motor failure.

Or a touch pad or control board failure.

But how far and into what cycle was it? And are you sure it occured in the middle of the cycle?, or, rather at a change over, like for it to drain out(they just do not drain out once near the end, you know - they do so several times )? Dishwashers have several fill and drain cycles per their complete run cycle. Sometimes you can read what yours has on their included users guide.

One I recently worked on listed even the water fill times in seconds, for each cycle (they varied). Unfortunately they did not list drain-out times, and that was MY issue (but I fixed it -sump blockage).

Some dishwashers today will stop soon after start up, if the washer water is not hot enough. If that be the case, you first need to run the kitchen sink water on hot first, til hot water comes out, before starting the dishwasher. But I am not sure they had that feature 10 year ago.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did find a wiring diagram and ran the diagnostic tests, all ran fine, as far as lights on the panel anyway. No action otherwise, though. Makes me think the board is good, perhaps motor issue as you say. Initial look in the kickpanel looks ok, I'll look deeper tomorrow evening and see if maybe I can ohm out the motor.
Water level at stoppage was an inch or two, not enough to move the float up at the front right of the washer, if that helps. Below the heat element. My wife said she opened the door to put in another dish while the machine was running (not sure where it was cycle-wise), when she closed the door issue began.

 

An inch of water is not out of the ordinary. We'll have to take this up perhaps tomorrow, as I'm closing things down here now for the night.

 

No prob, 'Preciate the help. I'm comfortable enough in my manhood to wash a few dishes by hand a few days if need be.
The water in the tub was dirty/soapy, so it hadn't finished whatever it was doing.

 

Does your manual say anything about touching a start/cancel button in order to have it reset and maybe start up again?

Right now, it is plain stuck, right?: Lights all on?, water in bottom?,..... and nothing happens right?

And did you turn off the dishwasher circuit breaker, like I mentioned in previous post, and wait a number of seconds and turn it back on, and see what it does then?

Is there any motor hum? I'm guessing not, eh?, as you sound like you have some knowledge. If no hum, at least that would eliminate the motor trying to work and a mechanical linkage being stuck, problem.

If these mentioned things do nothing to help - try to see if you can see a solenoid by the motor/pump and check if you see anything about it that looks like it got overheated. Often if so, some plastic or something will melt.

It is possible there was a motor failure if say the thing failed during the wash, or rinse or drain. But if it happened right AT a transition, it could be the solenoid.

Some schematics list what all the ohms ratings are of the various devices (I just came across one the other day) and some do not. That may help you. Or you could maybe try to hot wire the motor direct to see if that is it.

But at this point, it might be best to access the control board and see if anything looks burned. And that also would give you a chance to see if the motor is connected there also, to where you can either test or get it wired to 120 direct, if need be, without having to pull out the dishwasher. If your dishwasher door is open, to work on the control board, you will have to possibly take measures to engage the interlock door switch, to activate power, and you need to also ensure water does not come flying out, by turning water off under the sink. If during a test you get a response, do not continue to run the unit without the water on.

 

Hi

Just got home and haven't had a chance to look further at the machine. I did access the board the other night, though, to check connectons, see of anything was obvious or burned like you say. I don't have an actal schematic, just the tech sheet I found on the inside of the panel when I took apart the door.
It does seem that no voltage is getting to the motor, or the motor is dead, though, that's where I need to look.
I work on medical equipment, so that's my 'knowledge', fix stuff around the house as I can. First attempt at the dishwasher beast, however, and I appreciate your guidance.
One other thing, as it runs through it's cycles, the water will heat normally. Also, no humming, just dead.

 

Alright, took a look behind the kickpanel, nothing sticks out bad here. No solenoids that I can really see, no water, burned anything. There's a plug with a set of wires going to the motor coming from the board. I assume I should see 120V there during certain cycles? Problem is, not sure what color wire should have what voltage at what time.....
The tech sheet just has the diagnostic test in it. It runs fine, as far as stepping through the display anyhow. Also a basic block diagram, not much help with pinouts, though.