Hi all, I'm new here, having trouble with my dishwasher, hope I am in the right place... The dishwasher is a Whirlpool, model WDF730PAYB6, about 1.5 years old, used daily. It suddenly stopped draining today. The symptoms are that water left is left in the bottom of the dishwasher after a cycle. When I press "cancel" to drain the dishwasher manually, it doesn't drain either. When it's trying to drain, the pump sounds like it's turning on, but it gives a quiet humming sound instead of the typical louder humming sound accompanied by moving water sounds. It doesn't sound like it normally does.
Here's what I've done to trouble shoot the problem:
1. Removed the drain hose at the connection to the garbage disposal to check the drainage flow rate. It's draining, but it's very slow, just a trickle. No obvious blockages at this connection.
2. Cleaned the dishwasher filters and removed all the water from the dishwasher basin and sump (using a cup and towels). The drain hole that goes from the sump to the drain pump is clear, no obvious blockages here either.
3. Removed the drain hose at the connection to the drain pump. No blockages there either.
4. Removed the drain pump and tested for continuity with a multimeter. It seems okay. The impeller is also giving some mechanical resistance when I spin it, it doesn't seem stripped, but then again I don't know how it's supposed to feel when you spin it.
5. The check valve is built into the elbow of the drain pipe right where it connects to the drain pump. Since I can't disassemble it to clean it, I stuck my finger in to feel for blockages. It feels alright, I didn't feel any bits of food or anything else that could be blocking it.
6. I ran the diagnostic mode. The only error code in memory was 6-6, which is inlet water temperature below 84 degrees. Not sure why that's there, maybe there was cold water one day after a shower. However, during the diagnostic mode run, the dishwasher started to give off a burning smell from its vent. I pressed "cancel" and looked inside. It appears that the calcium deposit buildup on the heating element turned brownish, so maybe it was giving off a burning smell? I'm ignorant on this topic, but here's a picture of what it looked like inside after this happened (yes, I need a water softener, that's next on my list):
https://dl.dropboxus...WDF730PAYB6.JPG I don't know what to do next. The drain pipes are the clear, corrugated type, and I can see that there are some grease deposits inside at various places, but not enough to cause a blockage. Any suggestions on how to trouble shoot this problem?
