First, check the usual suspects: Make sure the circuit breaker isn’t tripped and that the wires at dishwasher’s power junction box aren’t burnt.

If all that checks out, then go right to the control panel area.

Asko dishwashers have had problems with the wiring in the control panel area burning or melting– very messy. While your problem may not be as dramatic as that, the problem may still be visible.

For example, you may find burnt or discolored wire terminals…

or the spades on the start button switch may be burnt– anything burnt or discolored has to be replaced…

You can buy any replacement parts you need right here.

To learn more about your dishwasher, or to order parts, click here.

I have actually been on a service call where the customer had hired another servicer to repair this problem. The other servicer, obviously merely a parts-changing monkey and not a real technician, simply slapped in a new heating element, didn’t bother to check his work, collected his money, and left. I asked the customer why she didn’t call him back to repair the problem for which she had hired him in the first place. She said he was too hard to reach, has left several messages with no return call, and she’s rightfully concluded that he is simply an incompetent cockroach and she wanted to try someone else.

Now, in the Bosch dishwasher, one indication that there’s a problem with the water heating circuit is if the dishwasher takes forever to complete a cycle. Note that “problem with the water heating circuit” does not equal “bad heating element.” While it’s true that the heating element is part of the water heating circuit, it is only one of several parts which can fail and kill power to the heating element. “How can we tell this?” you ask, incredulously. Well, Slick, a real technician uses a multimeter to make some simple electrical measurements so that he can determine, with absolute certainty, which part is bad. No guess work involved here. No replacing a part and hope you get lucky. Real technicians do something called “troubleshooting” in order to prove which part is defective.

So I pulled the wiring diagram for the dishwasher and measured the continuity of the heater and the heater’s thermal cutout fuse– both were good. Therefore, I knew that the problem had to be in the control board. So I opened the control panel, pulled the control board out and, walla!, found a burnt solder joint at the heater relay. How ’bout them apples?

So I got my solder gun from the van, soldered the connection, popped the board back in and ran the dishwasher. Within minutes, that heating element was drawing 11 amps, right on the design specification for that unit. Another successful Samurai repair.

If your control board is beyond repair or failed in another manner, you can buy a replacement control board here.

You know the story: you load up your Maytag dishwasher, start the cycle and it fills ok, but it just doesn’t sound like it’s doing any serious dishwashing. In fact, when you open the door at the end of the cycle, all your dishes still have chunks of spam and bits of spinach stuck all over ’em.

So, being a DIY kinda grasshopper, you verify that the motor runs. Now what’s a grasshopper to do?

Look very closely at the wash motor shaft extension on your dishwasher. You’ll need to disassemble from the spray arm downward to get to it. Click the parts diagram shown here for a larger, annotated view of the guts. A plastic shaft extension was installed from the factory. If something too hard got caught in the cutter that mounts onto this extension, that plastic shaft extension strips out. When you remove the shaft extension from the motor shaft you will likely see stripped out threads from the extension left on the motor shaft. Replace the shaft extension, seal kit, and cutter with the new improved parts kit. Then you should hear that old familiar sound of your dishes being blasted clean.

To learn more about your dishwasher, or to order parts, click here.

If you’re preparing for a repair on this dishwasher or doing some troubleshooting on one, this illustrated, annotated photo of the underside will help get you familiar with the terrain.

Part link: New motor-pump assembly.

To learn more about your dishwasher, or to order parts, click here.