touch-sensitive start button won't come on on my dishwasher

11 years ago

We've had our panel-ready Kitchenaid dishwasher for approximately 5 years. Eight months ago the motor went bad, and was replaced. Now the touch-sensitive"start" button won't work, and as a result the dishwasher won't turn on. The touch-sensitive buttons are along a row at the top of the door, and the other buttons appear to respond when I press them. I'm considering buying a new dishwasher, but have a wood panel on the current dishwasher that matches my cabinets so replacing would be involve some installation headaches.

I suspect (hope?) that some setting is simply out of whack since the other buttons on the same panel work, and wondered if anyone has any ideas about what to do before calling in a repairman or replacing the dishwasher.

Comments (3)

yebo
11 years ago
On my FP dishdrawer, a similar thing happened. The repairman srayed windex or some such on it, wiped, let it dry, and it worked again. That will be ... dollars - but working DW, priceless
Let us know if this fix helps you or not!
dadoes
11 years ago
This may not be a true touch-sensitive (capacitive) panel but rather a soft-touch button panel. Not unusual that these panels fail or have buttons that get stuck.

Find the model number from the tag on your machine, look it up at SearsPartsDirect.com, PartsTap.com, RepairClinic,com, AppliancePartsPros.com, or other online sources to check cost of the part. Some are reasonable, some are more expensive depending on the design ... only way to know is research your specific model. Most are easy for a DIYer to change. A friend did this repair on his mother's KitchenAid unit couple years ago (I helped him find the part). I did two for another friend within the last year, one at his home and the other at one of his rental properties.
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phish_gw
Original Author
11 years ago
Dadoes, I'm pretty sure I used the wrong terminology. It's not "touch sensitive" but just a flattish panel.