Hi All. I've got an ISE brand dishwasher, model CLSUP-2, this is the same as one of the Kitchenaid models. It's about 17 years old and works fine until today. It got stuck in the wash cycle and the soap dispenser did not open. When it finally went all the way through the entire sequence (it's supposed to have wash, wash, rinse cycles in the "quick" mode), the timer was advancing but it never got out of the wash cycle, and the water was still in the bottom. I then pushed the "cancel" button and it drained.
I removed the control panel cover and ran it through a complete cycle again. I observed that the timer was advancing, but it still got stuck in the first wash cycle. (I didn't add soap and I didn't test the soap dispenser this time) Again I had to "cancel" to get it to drain. The drain pump obviously works, so I thought maybe it wasn't getting info about the water level. I checked the continuity on the water level microswitch, it's fine. That's all the diagnostics I did. (The water level switch I tested was the only level switch I could find, it's at the left/front of the machine, and I think it's the "full" indicator as it sits on the floor several inches above the drain. Is there another level switch somewhere else?)
I'm thinking maybe it's a bad contact indisde the timer, or perhaps some other sensor somewhere has gotten stuck or is malfunctioning.
Any ideas on where to look, what to check, and how? I've got diagnostic tools like DVM's, etc, and I know how to use them. I'm not afraid of elctricity. :-)
thanks