Whirlpool DW shutting down - wash motor or capacitor?

Dishwasher Repair
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1

Hi all,

I’ve been lurking on these forums trying to sort out a problem with our dishwasher. A few months ago, it started stopping mid-cycle, normally after it filled. Simply starting it again worked and it happened so infrequently we didn’t bother doing anything further.

When I say shut off - it’s like the unit completely loses power - all lights shut off and I hear the various relays click. I can immediately select a cycle and start the unit again.

Well, it’s gotten worse, and in the past two weeks, it’s taking 3-5 restarts before it will run a cycle. IE, I’ll start a load, it will get done filling, then shut off. We start it again, and it gets to the same point, and then shuts off. If I persist, eventually, about half the time, it will run through a cycle. But twice now I’ve been unable to get it to run.

I’ve gone through diagnostic mode several times, and it’s been "shutting down" when the wash motor energizes for the first time, very consistently the past several attempts. So, this morning I pulled everything apart and tested both the capacitor and wash motor. The wash motor seemed to check out in terms of what the electrical schematic indicated was acceptable (I was pulling about 6.5 ohm across two of the terminals), and the capacitor was reading 2 micro-farads when it should be reading 23.5.

So, am I right to try replacing the capacitor first, or should I just bite the bullet and replace the motor and/or capacitor both?

Sorry if this seems like an obvious question - but I figured those of you who dealt with these things more might have had similar experiences to share.

Thanks!

Wes

3

Well, looks like it’s probably the motor. After putting everything back in and running through a diagnostic cycle, I’m not getting the shutdown that was occurring…instead, the pump doesn’t even try to start. The unit just sits.

I found a local depot that has a motor w/capacitor in stock - I’ll probably just go buy that and if that doesn’t work, I’m buying a new dishwasher.

4

Hey there,

My dishwasher is doing the same unusual things. Did changing the motor w/ capacitor solve this problem for you?

5

Hey genemedicd,

As it turns out the motor was fine. Ended up being the control panel. I was able to figure it out after tracing the power to the motor from the K1 relay. Pretty sure the relay was bad. Figures that it’s a 2 dollar par.

In any case if you find out that you need a motor I have a spare now!

6

So after you changed the relay it was all good? Or did you have to change the control panel? Thank you!

7

Is the relay on the control panel?

8

I had to replace the entire control board. Thankfully I found a decent price for one on ********.

If I had the proper tools I probably could have replaced just the relay…but if anything else would have been wrong then I’d be back to square one.

Good luck!