What exactly is blinking? Do you have the instruction book that came with it? They tell you how to interpret the various alerts. If not, google the exact make and model and you should be able to access the instructions online. Check that the inlet and outlet aren’t blocked. Clean the filters. Check the softener and rinse aid if yours has them. Check the arms are turning freely. Check the holes in the arms are clear. Give up and phone the engineer.

The quick rinse light is blinking. According to what I read online, I could have caused the problem by changing my mind and pressing smart wash. But the rinse had plenty of time to start before that, and it didn't.

I must have the owner's manual, and I even know of a couple of likely places to find it. Thanks!

Many of my older appliances would blink when there has been an interruption in the power Perhaps there is a problem with the electrical connections to or within your DW.

You mentioned cold - any chance that the water supply line is frozen? Although I don't see how that would cause the blinking.

A repairman is less expensive than a new one, perhaps - is the machine otherwise in very good condition? No rusting racks, for example. If you are lucky (as I was) you will get a repair person who will advise you whether the machine is worth repairing.

A phone call or email to the manufacturer's consumer help line might be productive too. Sometimes machines that old have fallen off their radar, but you might get lucky

I'm thinking it's possible the water line is frozen, which is why I'm hoping things will improve when the weather warms. But I'm not counting on it, as we've had worse weather than this and the line never froze before.

I did a major remodel in 2002, and all my kitchen appliances--and my oil burner--are 18 years old. The oil burner guy has been telling me for a few years now that the burner has outlived its lifespan. I haven't been too concerned because for many of those years I heated mostly with wood, putting less of a burden on it. But this year he informed me that the two massive oil tanks in my basement are rusting and in danger of failing. So I'm planning to replace the oil burner with a propane furnace this summer.

I'll see if the dishwasher owner's manual offers any clues, and I'll see if anything changes with the weather. After that, I'll think about whether or not to call a repairman. They charge about $100 just to show up.

Thanks for the help!

f
it's over eight years old, consider getting a new one. More recently
built appliances such as dishwashers typically have a lifespan of only
six to 10 years, so your appliance may be reaching the end of its
lifespan

Yours is 18 yrs old so doesn't even fit in that category. Mine is even older and a real treasure. Would be very nice if you could find the manual. What brand is it?

Isn’t it fun to own a house? Something always needs repair/ replacing. My kitchen appliances are the same age as yours and I am holding my breath that they don’t pick a really inconvenient time to die, not there is ever a good time. Maybe you can find the owners manual online. i hope it’s nothing big.

18 years of service from an electromechanical device like a dishwasher is nothing to sneeze at. But its end of life can't be too far away. The benefits you'll find when the time comes to get a new machine is that it will be quieter and use less water and less energy to do a better job.

It's a Sears Kenmore Elite. I don't know if they were made by Whirlpool back then. I was just thinking . . . when the lifespan of a dishwasher is estimated, they probably assume they're run at least once a day. But I've lived alone for all of those 18 years, using the dishwasher every other day on average. That should count for something!

Good idea to find the manual online. I should have thought of that; I've done it often enough with electronics. I've also sold vintage owner's manuals on eBay, but not for products I still own.

You may have a button that is stuck. Check your console panel. If you can not jiggle it free, it is probably a failure of the console panel itself. You may have to consider whether or not it is worth the cost of the repair on an 18 year old dishwasher or better to just replace it.

Have you tried a reset using the buttons on the keypad?

Sorry to hear of your dilemma. 18 years is a good long run! Not to say this is the end of the line for your dishwasher, but if the expected lifespan is 6-10 years, and you turn it on on average every other day, you got 9 years of 'normal' use out of it, which is at the far end of expected use. Just to cheer you up! You got a good one there and hopefully it's an easy fix. But if not, you did get your money's worth from how appliances are made in modern times. For note, my fav dishwasher was the 1976 GE bottom of the line dishwasher that came with this house when we bought it in 1995/96. It didn't work but I spent $60 on a simple repair and that beauty worked perfectly until late 2004! Likely would still be working well if the steel door hadn't rusted a hole through the front. So, "nine" years is good by today's standards.

Alisande, I found this:

I located the service sheet. Here are problem and causes:
problem:won't run and led above key(s) is blinking. Ie quick rinse key
Cause: stuck key or shorted circuit in keypad. Check: check keypad
Cause: shorted circuits or connections on the the control that reads the keys. Check: Check control

After repeatedly removing power for 5 or more minutes the blinking light stopped. Was able to completely do a normal wash. Was able to do another normal wash again last

I've only bought a handful of houses over the years but for whatever reason, it seems each time the existing dishwasher has been an antique and/or just crippled and needing replacement. So that's usually the first thing we replace when we move in. Going back to our first house in the 1970s that had some kind of vertical tub (almost like a top loading old washing machine) that rolled out from its mounting and that you had to remove the top rack and reach down all the way to load the bottom.

I've never bought a new machine that wasn't better than what it replaced. Even if with a 10 year life, if you divide the total cost by the number of years of service, they're not an expensive item to own and replace when the time comes.

Before I gave up on it, I’d try to find instructions on how to do a reset and try that. I’d also try what cilantro found as a possible fix.

I had a similar problem with my last one and it was because, according to the repairman, the door was not shut securely. I ended up shutting the door then using my hip against it. That allowed me to hit the cancel button to stop the blinking light. I soon replaced it.

Do keep in mind it's time to replace. M Kitchen Aid was about 19 years old when it started smoking. I had to call the fire department as the house was filling with smoke, and they figured it out as I could not tell where the smoke was coming from. We should have replaced it before it got so bad.

Socks, don't blame yourself . . . my KitchenAid dishwasher was a lot younger than 19 (maybe 7 to 7 years old) when flames shot out of it. Fortunately, we were in the house, within sight of the dishwasher, at the time. On another occasion we had a fire in the clothes dryer. I never, ever leave the house or go to sleep with an appliance running.

Cilantro, I appreciate you finding this:

After repeatedly removing power for 5 or more minutes the blinking light stopped.

I'll give it a try tomorrow. When I was trying the circuit breakers last night I got tired of going up and down the basement stairs so I tripped two at once--and now of course I don't know which one was the right one. Tomorrow it'll be easier.

But I wonder what the person means by "repeatedly" removing the power for 5 or more minutes. It sounds like s/he cut the power for 5 minutes several times. I hope that won't be necessary.

Maifleur, I did something similar with the door last night, but nothing changed.

Thanks, all! I'll report back tomorrow.

You can find all manuals online just look up the manufacturer and model number.

Mine has done that. I had to hit clear /drain and that reset it.

It sounds like s/he cut the power for 5 minutes several times. I hope that won't be necessary.

That's the way I took it too. Several rounds of off & on at 5 minute intervals. (My breaker box is in the basement, too. Is your DW hardwired or can you unplug it & save some steps?)

Why would someone say that appliances last only 8 to 10 years; If that old, its best to get a new one? That may be logical depending on . . . . If the repair bill would be 1/3 or more of the cost of a new one, its best to apply the money toward a new one even though the machine may not be worn out. Sometimes, it a minor control part that quit. Another strong possibility is the unavailability of repair parts. Sadly, we are living in a throw-away society. sixty years ago, major appliances had frames and finishes that would last 20 to 50 years. It was intended to be able to replace parts that wore out and to use the machine more than 20 years. In our society today, repair parts for older appliances are non-existent in many cases. I ran into this when buying a used boat with an older outboard motor. It needed new seals on the lower end, but there were none on dealer's shelves. I could have ordered a part through a dealership and then waited until the factory made the piece, The wait time was unknown. It was estimated from 3 weeks to 4 months, and the cost was exorbitant.

Why did this happen? In my state, there is a law that says a firm selling products in this state must make repair parts available for 7 years after the product was made. After that, its up to the manufacturer if it wants to continue with replacement parts. My outboard motor was 15 years old and the motor had good power and ran well. It merely needed a grease seal on the prop shaft and a new shaft. The old shaft was pitted. None were in stock and that is partly due to our tax laws and partly economics. There is money tied up in inventory siting on the shelf. The longer a part sits there, the higher the markup has to be to pay for 'rent' on the money sitting there. The other cost is inventory tax. The cities in my state impose a tax on a merchant's inventory; The inventory data is usually May 30. (That why we see so many camera and lens sales in May. Merchants are reducing their inventory and making way for new models.)

After an item is over 7 years old, a manufacturer may continue to make parts for popular items, but it does not do this on a continuous basis if quantity is low. He makes a batch and then it may be several months before another batch is made.

Getting parts is usually the problem. And a repair service isn't going to try to chase down obsolete parts. If it isn't in their parts 'book', AFATC, it doesn't exist. Time=Money.

This is where it can really pay off to be DIY. Given it is a Kenmore/ likely rebadged Whirlpool, there were probably millions of that machine manufactured or similar machines w/ interchangeable parts. The DIY is willing to invest a bit of time chasing down parts--eBay can be an excellent source. And, Amazon, too, sometimes. New 'old stock', salvaged parts, etc. And there are places where you can send a control board for repair--sometimes cost effective, depending on the cost of appliance replacement.

Several years ago, our furnace quit. Service guy told us that 'his book' said the part (control board IIRC) was NLA, obsolete. DH went into a panic & started calling Heating & Air companies for quotes on a new furnace.

I headed off to eBay and found several of the needed part for sale there. New, old stock. Ordered one & we completed the repair ourselves. Knock on wood, furnace is still working. I have had to do one other repair on the furnace since--was able to diagnose w/ the aid of the WWW--and find the part. On eBay, again.

Our 2001 house has two furnaces. Last week the west one started 'whining' well into a 3-day extra-cold spell. When the present foot of snow was predicted, we called our furnace maintenance company. We, too, ran into the 'scarce parts' scenario. A motor was found, though, and for under $400 all in we're back in business -- on *that* furnace. When will the other shoe drop?

(I first thought the repair guy said the fix would cost four THOUSAND dollars and was ready to get estimates on new furnaces!)

My Fisher/Paykel stacked dishdrawers are six years old. I replace the first set (new 2001) when the 'soft parts', the hoses and gaskets, failed. Now this set's interior gaskets are already very worn. I've already switched the moveable-for-cleaning assemblies from the barely-used lower drawer to the daily-use upper drawer. Maybe I could find just the assemblies online, but I still wouldn't know about the hoses, etc.

I love the drawers, although seldom use the bottom one. Perfect for just us. Alisande, power to my dishwasher is controlled by a switch on the kitchen wall -- I suppose you could have that under the sink when you get a new unit.

Ours is only 7 YO and runs fine. The problem we have is racks that are rusting. Pieces are falling off and it leaves rust marks on the dishes. If we could find replacement racks we might do that. That should cost about half of a new one. When we got this one, we looked for SS racks but couldn't find one with that. Our last one also had a rust problem, but had it for 10 years before it got so bad. Must be our hard water, even though we have a water softner.

Can 'too soft' water cause trouble?

Well, I didn't do a thing for my dishwasher today. It turned out to be a busy day getting ready for the 18"+ of snow we're expecting between now and Tuesday afternoon. I picked up a grocery order at 10 a.m., then stopped at a big gas station to fill up my car and also put air in one of my tires as the Low Tire Pressure light had come on. I drove around that big gas station three big times, looking for an air compressor, but my search was futile. Fortunately, thanks to my son I'm equipped with a portable air compressor. No fun using it with temps in the mid-teens, but better than not using it.

Got home and went to back into my carport, but couldn't see my previous tracks, which were white-on-white in the backup camera, and managed to get my Subaru stuck in the snow and ice for the first time ever. I tried unsuccessfully to move it using cardboard for traction, and then tried broken tree branches on the cardboard. That enabled me to reverse out of the bad spot, but then I got stuck again. My son eventually came over and took care of it. I wish I knew how he did it, but he doesn't like to have observers when he's saving the universe. :-)

Then he and I went out and filled up the gas cans, as it's clear he'll make several passes with the snow blower over the next couple of days. I'm still warming back up.

Cilantro, the dishwasher is hard wired. And see my pre-eBay story about the outboard motor part, below. Chisue, I hadn't thought of having a switch installed for a new one. That would be very handy, especially if one started smoking.

Jemdandy, the same thing happened to us with an outboard motor. We had a big Evinrude on a boat we used for waterskiing, and it quit one July 4 night while we were watching fireworks out on the lake. My DH figured out what the problem was, and the part he needed to fix it, but the part was nowhere to be found. (This was in 1974.)

Caflowerluver, that's a shame about your racks (so to speak lol) The inside of my elderly dishwasher looks great--stainless steel tub and pristine racks. However, yours works and mine does not. :-)

For rusted dishwasher rack tines, you have two choices I know of - buy a new rack or try a product called Rerack that puts a vinyl-like coating on the tine. If you try the Rerack, make sure you clean off the rust spots first with sandpaper or emory cloth.

Whether or not hardwired, you do have a switch - the breaker switch on the electrical panel. It's important to be sure the breakers are properly notated. If your panel isn't well labeled, you can find out which one the dishwasher is connected to by trial and error - put it on enough so that a light shows, and then flip the breakers one at a time until the light goes off.

Yes, the circuit breaker panel and I are old friends--although "friends" doesn't quite describe it. I have two panels (one was added to accommodate a generator), neither well marked. This is partly my own fault, as each time I figured out what a breaker actually connected to I should have written it down and created a chart. But I didn't, and locating the correct breaker can be a real challenge

The worst was in December, when my son planned to replace two electrical outlets in different rooms upstairs. I needed to figure out how to cut the power to each, and this necessitated going down to the basement, flipping a likely (haha) breaker, coming back to the first floor, then going upstairs to see if one of the lamps I'd plugged in had turned off. I don't know how many trips I made, but it was a lot. The basement stairs are hard on my knees, and I really felt it the next day.

Anyway, after dealing with the distraction of 26" of snow this week I cut the power to the dishwasher for 10 minutes, which did no good whatsoever. More snow is expected tomorrow, and then a blast of arctic cold that will give us sub-zero wind chills during the day. At this point I'm inclined to take the Scarlett O'Hara approach with the dishwasher and think about it some other time.

Thanks for your advice and patience, everyone.

Ah - the Scarlett O'Hara approach! One of my favorite devices, especially at 2 in the morning when I'm laying in bed wondering if the 26 inches of snow that fell on our PA place will freeze into solid ice and cave in the roof or rip the deck away from the house before the landscapers can arrive with their equipment. We finally heard this afternoon that they had a double crew shoveling the snow off the roof and deck.

How are you handling this mess? I hope someone cleared your driveway in case you need to get out for some reason although I'm sure you're staying inside and working on some project. Stay safe and warm.

Maire

Glad to hear someone in PA is on the case for you, Maire. Snow is pretty, but it makes everything hard. (It also makes the skiing members of my family very happy.)

My son rose to the occasion as usual with the snow blower. It's always a big job, with his driveway and paths to the outbuildings, and my driveway and paths to the garage and road, but especially with this much snow to get through. Then Thursday night I had to ask him to fire up the snow blower again because I realized the heating oil I ordered could never be delivered without another path being created.

I went out yesterday to pick up a grocery order, including bird seed.

Because my son worked at home for the past two weeks I'm able to hang out with the boys this weekend. We're making the most of it.

I thought I'd add a little update. At some point a related issue surfaced--puddles of water mysteriously appeared on the kitchen floor. I was relieved at first to realize they weren't coming from the ceiling, but then the dishwater became a suspect. There was no water in it, but I eventually realized water was seeping out from the bottom edge of the narrow cabinet between the dishwasher and the sink. More trial-and-error attempts to stop the leak, and then success when I removed everything from under the sink and found a third valve I hadn't known about. Turning it off stopped the leak.

The appliance repair people I've used before said it would be poor economy to fix an 18-year-old dishwasher, so a new dishwasher is in my future. But I don't know which model I'm getting because my daughter is giving it to me for my birthday!

Good job Nancy Drew!

I hope you love your dishwasher. Ours is 3 years old and i wasn't sure if I would like the 3rd rack. I thought it was one where you had to carefully lay each piece of silverware in between the prongs .Turns out it has a silverware basket and the top rack is perfect for small pates and shallow bowls. And it is so quiet I have to check the light on the floor to see if it's running.

Thanks, Maire! I have no clue what I'll be getting, but yours sounds like a lovely addition to your kitchen!

Next time you need to check which breaker switch controls outlet(s) three floors up, Alisande, ask a friend (or their visiting kid) with a loud voice to ride herd on them and report as you flip each switch, maybe from the hall where they can view when the lamp goes out.

Let your brain do the walking/figure a way to avoid the drudgery, including complaining knees.

That's asking a friend possessing a loud voice, rather than you using a loud voice to ask the favour of your friend/kid.

How about sticking labels by each switch, or making a diagram on a card made from such as a dismantled cookie box and filed with household notes, or hung in a plastic bag on the breaker box (or both).

Maybe a generous spirited friend could help by identifying distant outlets while making that list.

We get milk in heavy bags, three per gallon, and they're great for such a project.

ole joyful

The loud friend or family member is a great idea, and one I've used in the past. But it's one of the thousand things complicated by the pandemic. You're right, though--I need to do something constructive about labeling the breakers!

Maybe a contractor with a long extension cord (or 2 ... 3) who's not as busy as usual now, would lend them to you for a week or so, you could change the plug from outlet to outlet in the normal course of daily actiivities and have the light by you at the panel so you could check each in turn, avoiding special trips.

When I was security guard at a trucking company's repair shop in the country near here, with 6 bays, often a trouble cord with light in a screened guard at the end would get run over, they'd throw it into the garbage, and I took several home, some of which I was able to make serviceable again including light, some only to connect a cord, and some I couldn't fix without buying a new end portion.

If you lived close enough, I could lend you a few. I'm addicted to our national radio and use a couple of them to haul the radio to the garden ... but being 90+, who knows how much longer I may be able to garden?

When, no longer able to drive, I move to a small place in the city, there won't be room for this house and half of a barn full of stuff. Even less if to a retirement or nursing home.

ole joyful

I don't think it's a good idea to run a dishwasher from an extension cord. Doing so could cause a fire, in the worst case, especially with an old house.

Dishwashers draw a lot of amps at particular moments because they have electric resistance heaters to heat water. Most extension cords are of insufficient wire gauge to carry such a load. Additionally, a long cord as suggested would have to be of even larger gauge.

I think they're typically put on their own fixed circuits because of the load and the risk of overloading a circuit if something else uses it. I suspect the person making the recommendation doesn't have an understanding of what he recommended.

The dishwasher is hard-wired. It's also not working, and I'm not planning to get it fixed. By the way, Home Depot told me they no longer install dishwashers because hard-wiring is no longer permitted for them, and therefore the installers must add an electrical box under the sink, which they (the installers) understandably objected to doing. If this is true, I wonder if it's because dishwashers can go on fire, and a plug would enable the owner to disconnect it readily.

I would never use an extension cord on a major appliance, or even a minor one, other than a vacuum cleaner. I have an extension cord the correct gauge for the vacuum.

Home Depot's installation services (which are outsourced to a contractor in my area all the same) are mostly Plug and Play. I bought a run of the mill dishwasher for my second home a bit over a year ago and the delivery team said they couldn't install it because the dishwasher space isn't right next to the sink. In a not that small U shaped kitchen, the dishwasher hole is located on one of two of the two parallel side counters, as close as it could be to the sink as it could be but under a different counter adjacent to the sink. In response to my saying "you need to take it back for a return, you can't install a dishwasher there at all?, he said "yes but only Brand C or Brand D, not the Brand A you bought.

I bought a brand D from Loew's and had it installed by a plumber, who said "it's no big deal, any brand could have been put here". They do vanilla as they define vanilla to be.

I'll bet boxed socket connection you mention alisande instead of hard wired is for safety reasons and also ease of installing a new one. That would also mean new dishwashers would ship with cords with a plug on the end of it rather than just a plain wire end.

Unless the one that your daughter is gifting you with is a portable one you will have to have the plug in installed. While the electrician is doing that if you have a garbage disposal you might as well have a plug installed for it.

The new dishwasher will be a built-in. But no garbage disposal. I got rid of it when we put in the "new" kitchen--18 years ago. :-)

Oh, maybe I misread it? I looked again and maybe so but I don't understand what it has to do with a non-functioning dishwasher that alisande doesn't know which circuit it goes to. Thanks

The plug of the cord goes into a wall plug in the dining room, family room, bedroom a, then b, etc. upstairs, with notations of the plug on the west wall of bedroom a, adding on the south end of that wall if there is more than one outlet on that wall. etc.

If things are plugged in, if there are two plugs at that location leave the device plugged in if you so choose, as it'll just stop when the power gets cut off but if there's only one plug at that location, you'll have to pull the plug of the device, whether dishwasher, freezer, floor lamp, tv or whatever, so you can plug the cord in.

The light at the other end of the cord is within sight of the main box with all of the switches, so you can turn them (not yet labelled ones) off one by one till one turns the light off. One more switch to label. But don't write too large, for often one switch serves several plugs/lights.

Where there are devices not plugged in, e.g. ceiling lights, pumps, furnaces, etc., the cord, no matter how long, can't help - sorry, you'll have to count on a friend with a loud voice to help (or do the walking yourself).

Over 40 years ago when a major ice storm caused a widespread power outage for several days and I hauled a borrowed generator to that area to help save food in freezers, many wanted me to hook up the furnace as well but most have an unbreakable line from the service box and I was afraid to even attempt it, for fear, should the master switch get turned on, we might feed power out into the local line that the repair people believed to be dead.

I think that it would be well to have a furnace connected by a plugged connection, maybe one with push and twist capability, to help in such a circumstance.

When the hired man left Dad's large farm in World War II to go into the army, Dad and this preteen/teen son and a couple of younger sons had a lot more work than they'd planned on for several years. Dad used to say that if you can let your brain help your hands and feet get the job done properly and more easily, more work gets done in that precious time, it makes you feel good and often is a bit more fun.

Hope you're having a happy spring, folks. Signed up tonight for my first jab in about ten days.

ole joyfuelled