So your Kenmore dishwasher isn’t cleaning your Dishes properly anymore

Nov. 2008

Our Kenmore Dishwasher which was just over a year old stopped working properly.  Kenmore model: 665.13742K601.

We found the dishes in the top rack where not getting cleaned properly.  It started gradually and eventually got to the point where the dishes were actually dirtier after the wash than before.

To trouble shoot it I stuck a chop stick in the door lock mechanism to make it think the door was closed and ran it with the door ajar.  It turned out the top rack spinner wasn’t getting enough water pressure and wasn’t spinning or spraying the water up to the dishes.

I then turned to the mostly useless manual and found out it was just out of warranty.  Next I called my credit card company and found out that they double the warranty and that they would pay to fix it.

I got a repair man to come out.  He took apart the motor cover (just under the bottom spinner and removed the intake guard below that.  There was a bunch of food (seeds, pits) and other debris (glass chips) that had collected there.  He said it was common that these ones just need to cleaned out.  He then ran it without putting it back to together to make sure the sump motor hadn’t been damaged (it will make nasty sounds when the motor is damaged).  All was ok, so he put it back together and it turns out that was the problem.  The return intake was blocked.  The dishwasher no works fine.

So if you find your dishwasher has low pressure to the top, you probably just need to unscrew the cover under the bottom spinner and then unscrew the intake guard and clean it all out.  Put it back together and see if it worked.

It’s really annoying the manual doesn’t just tell you to clean this part out or that it doesn’t self flush that part.  The repair man said the newer model has been redesigned for this problem.

Sorry, no pictures cause my camera isn’t working right now.

Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for any damage you do trying to fix, inspect, or use your dishwasher (or anything else you do with, for, or about your dishwasher), call a repair man if you need.