Troubleshooting dishwasher - no water

[k-man]

Hi:

My dishwasher problem is probably more of a generic one. But, for reference, I have a Kenmore Ultra Wash III Dishwasher Model Number:

665.1684993. Ok, here's the problem... When I turn on the dishwasher, no water comes in. The water supply line from the house is good and open. When I check the electrical leads going from the dishwasher to the dishwasher's water inlet valve solenoid, when I turn on the dishwasher, the leads have power. Yet no water is coming in. Initially thinking I had a bad solenoid, I replaced it with a new one am I'm having the same problem. It is possible that I was sent a defective water inlet valve. But what else could be going on? Also...

To me, with a water inlet valve, it uses a solenoid and so it seems to me that if I touch the two solenoid contacts with a continuity meter that I should detect continuity. I didn't with the first valve and that let me in part to believe that I needed to buy a replacement. But I can't get continuity with this new one and I can't get continuity with a known good one installed at a dishwasher at another house. So I guess my understanding regarding solenoids and continuity are weak. I digress. What else can I do to see why the dishwasher isn't getting any water?

Thanks. Kevin

[Bill]

The solenoid is just a valve. Only it operates electrically.

Check to be sure you are getting water to the valve. Turn off water, disconnect water supply from solenoid valve, place line in bucket, turn on water slowly.

Does water come out?

If yes, then reconnect water and check other side of valve. Disconnect connection on other side of solenoid valve. Does water come out when you cycle dishwasher?

Could be a problem with plugged water tubes. All sorts of junk comes out of water lines.

Also if you have a manual valve on the wall for line going to dishwasher, the line could be plugged at this valve. Turning it off/on several times or backflushing might clear the plug.

[Speedy Jim]

Did you replace the "solenoid" or the entire valve assy?

Your continuity meter may not be sensitive enough to read the (relatively) high resistance of the coil.

Jim

[RickH]

Look for a cherry pit or other some such object clogging, same thing happened to my Kenmore and that was the problem.

[mm]

One scale of most meters is high enough that it will even read less than infinity when you hold one test lead in one hand and the other in the other. Are you just using a continuity tester? or a real VOM, VTVM, FETVOM, or Digital VOM? You should buy a real mulitmeter of some sort.

A continuity tester that beeps when there is continuity is nice so that you don't have to look at the meter, but if the resistance is over 200 ohms or something, it won't beep and you have to look at the meter to see the value, or you have to use a higher resistance scale and look at the meter while testing.

You can even buy an auto-ranging meter, but they probably have the same rules about when they beep. But I'm assuming you won't have an auto-ranging meter, since they are at least 40 dollars.

Test the old solenoid out of the washer, and the new one in the washer.

I can certainly understand that, but learn to follow the advice of Pat Voss and test more thoroughly before buying parts, unless they're real cheap and eassy to put in.

Good for you for going to the ohter house. Then it's definitely your meter. It's possible the meter broke also if you are not relying on a "continuity" setting.

Take a lamp cord and solder 1 inch rubber covered alligator clips (sold at radio shack) on both wires, at the end away from the plug. There are many many uses for such a thing.

Connect the clips to the two connectors on your old solenoid and plug the thing in. If it's good, you should hear a click from the solenoid.

If you're not sure or if you don't hear a click, try blowing through the tube, when the cord is not plugged in and again when it is plugged in. Make sure you don't stick your nose or lips into either of the electrical connectors. I doubt this will be hard, but if it looks dangerous, get some rubber or vinyl tubing and put it over one end or the other of the valve. Blowing should be easy when the cord is plugged in, and close to impossible when it's not.

Others have covered how to test the water parts.

[Rudy]

In addition to the solenoid, there is sometimes a "float" inside the unit ( round plastic hub shaped gizmo) that rises up and cuts off the water. On occasion, they "hang up" in the "up" position stopping the water. If yours has one, give it a "tap" and see if it drops down.

[k-man]

Mine has a float but it was OK.

Thanks. Kevin

[k-man]

On Sep 26, 8:37 am, k-man wrote:

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions. All the info was very helpful. I went back to the dishwasher last night and decided to, once and for all, git er dun. I confirmed that the tube leading from the inlet valve to the dishwasher was clear. I confirmed that the proper voltage was getting to the valve's solenoid's connectors. Instead of checking for continuity, I used my auto- ranging digital multimeter to check resistance and I found the solenoid's electromagnetic mechanism was OK. I also could clearly hear a click coming from the inlet valve when I powered the dishwasher on. Alas, shame on me for working backwards. Only one thing left to check. Indeed, there was no water coming from the house supply line to the inlet valve! I guess, technically, you can say that the line was clogged. But the clog was simply the supply line's gate valve being CLOSED. Sounds like an obvious thing to check FIRST, as some of you suggested. But, I didn't remember closing it. It's corroded and actually I remember not wanting to close it for fear of it leaking through the stem and for thinking that it didn't work anyway. When I changed out the inlet valve, I simply shut down the house well pump and opened some faucets to let the pressure die down. And, after reconnecting the inlet valve and turning the well pump back on, I remember that I had to tighten the inlet valve connection because of a leak between the supply line and the inlet valve assembly (which suggested water was coming to the valve). So, I've been trying to debug this thing with the supply line connected, thinking, assuming, that water itself was not the problem. But it was and because of the leak it still doesn't make sense to me when the valve got closed. I thought I had checked the dishwasher, while the leak was going on, just to see whether it worked -- and it did not. But I might have shut the valve off subconsciously before doing that test. Maybe I should stop doing housework after midnight. :)

Thanks again. Kevin