Everything seems to be going well - when all of a sudden, it seems that your dishwasher is taking forever to wash the disshes. If your dishwasher's cycle times are too long - there are three things to look at:

Water pre-heating
Your dishwasher may be the type of dishwasher that pre-heats the water. If so, and if the water entering the dishwasher is cool or icy-cold, the heater may take up to half an hour to heat the water.

To avoid the wait time on these types of dishwashers, increase the incoming water temperature before turning on the dishwasher. Do that by running the kitchen sink faucet until the water runs hot. Or increase the temperature of the hot water at the hot water heater. (this will increase the temperature throughout the house)

Warning! To lessen the risk of scalding, don't set the hot water heater temperature higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Check the Dishwasher Timer
Dishwasher timers don't often fail. But if every other part of the dishwasher seems to be working properly and the timer knob seems to be stuck in one place--doing one function continuously--the dishwasher timer may be at fault. Dishwasher timers can't be repaired. If yours is defective, replace it.

Water-heating cycle
Many dishwashers heat the wash and/or rinse water to a higher temperature, as the cycle calls for it. In these cycles, the dishwasher pauses after it has filled with water, waiting for the water to reach the pre-set temperature. What happens next, depends, as follows:

On some units, the pause is timed and the unit continues after the allotted time.

On others, the cycle can't continue until the water reaches the higher temperature.

If you have this type of dishwasher and the water isn't being heated (say, because of a problem with the heating element or thermostat), after the unit stops at the heating cycle, it never
continues. When you repair the heating-system problem, the "cycle problem" is fixed too.

Labels: Dishwasher Parts, kenmore dishwasher parts