This scares the hell out of me as I have a Kenmore elite dishwasher and I have had to have the motor and pump replaced 2 times they have rebulit the dishwasher 2 times under service contract and now I am having issues with getting the buttons to function (push them and they wont come on). Thank you  Malcolm for posting this. I am going to get Sears out quick to fix this but that does not seem to help. I think that I am going to register my dishwasher on that site because on of the repairs was because of a burnt wire that my contractor found when he pulled the dishwasher out to remodel the kitchen.

We have seen many of these boards that shorted and burned, I feel that it is a board overheating and burning. I have seen no evidence of water causing the problem as this part [ as you would expect ]is very well protected from water leaks from the machine or spilled water from the counter top above.

Unfortunately major appliances have been having minor shorts and electrical fires since electricity came into homes 100 years ago. The problem today is that too much plastic is used around the electrical parts and when things go wrong it can result in a BIG problem and can more easily cause a house fire. Properly protecting the electrical parts of appliances would go a long way to minimizing any danger when things go wrong. I have never liked plastic control panels on appliances, A high school friend had their house burned down by an early 1960s Westinghouse TL portable DW when water got on some electrical parts and the plastic control panel went up in a blaze and set the kitchen and house on fire.

This is another big reason why I don't want a DW, washer, dryer etc that runs for three hours at a time, I also don't want one that is so quiet that you are unaware that it is even on. Major appliances do pose some danger of fire, flooding, explosion, injury and death from electrocution.

I purchased my Whirlpool Gold dishwasher from Sears in 2007.  Knock on wood, no problem so far.  The saleslady did talk me into purchasing a 3 year warranty and stated the circuit board "may go out - you know these electronic things."  I though nothing about that at the time as I have always been pleased with Whirlpool quality.  I'll keep an eye on it now.   

This was one of the worst articles that I have seen in a long time in CRs. It was poorly written and researched and not proof read. I wish they would spend 7 pages of space to talk about actual appliances tests. I sat here and read this whole article and found it about useless. They even quoted the woman who had a  [ condenser ]  catch fire on her WP refrigerator, condensers are nothing but steel tubing, they cannot catch fire let alone burn. I thought that this was not up CRs standards, as they didn't suggest any real solutions. One of the most dangerous home appliances in the home today are these STUPID over the range microwave ovens. All one has to do is leave a gas or electric element on high without a pan on it or have what you are cooking catch fire and you are almost guaranteed a fire or at the very least a lot of property damage. I have for over 20 years consoled customers not to install these DANGEROUS MWs over a heat source, yet CRs continues to test and recommend this appliance.

Congratulations on your new DW, I love the idea of the built-in water softener, I wish more DWs would offer this option.

I do find the smaller interior size on the three European style DWs that I have had to be a big drawback, any DW I have I always wish it were a little bigger as a try to pack more into it. I also never want another DW with a filter as I an far too spoiled with the older WP Power-Clean machines I have. When I load I do not even scrape off the dishes, I just turn them side ways and if it falls into the disposer great, other wise it goes into the DW.

In the last two days I sold four new DWs [ all WP ] and  three of the ones being replaced are Bosch machines all under 10 years of age. KitchenAid is not the only company having trouble with DWs [ Bosch is also in the middle of a recall for DW fires ]. If any one wants any used Bosch DWs or parts of contact me, I also saw a three year old really nice looking Miele all SS DW on the junk pile yesterday that I can get cheap if someone wants it.