All these tall tub models are experiencing a high rate of this type of failure. If you can find a new valve for $25 let me know where, they are usually $60-70. It also looks like you my have a dip-tube failing in your water heater, that may be what all that white stuff is in the screen. Sorry about your floor damage, but this is why I would never put a wood floor in a kitchen, I see this type of damage several times pre week at my customers homes. I am surprised that insurance companies don't refuse to pay for floor damage to wood floors in kitchens and bathrooms. A wood floor should never be installed in a built up fashion in front of refrigerators [ even if they don't have ice-makers, they still can and do leak ] DWs and even sink cabinets.

How awful, I've seen this same trouble before with the WP d/w's and have heard of several LG's & others that drip water from the circulation pump seal that makes a slow-death for wood floors.  

Looks like a water softener would be a good investment once this trouble is over!  Recent water quality report in our MUD bill listed hardness at an average of 9-13 grains through the 2010 year.  The time of  year and where your water comes from (either the Missouri river, Platte River, wells, etc.) can make these numbers worse.  Sarpy County seems to have worse trouble with water as most of theirs is drawn from the Platte R. or wells, my parents in Gretna had theirs tested when they moved and it came out at 17 grains.  I had a Culligan water softener for a while that recharged whether it needed it or not and that pitiful thing used 3 bags of salt a month.  Now I have a GE softener I bought at Sam's with demand-recharge and low water & salt cycling so we only use 1/2 to 1 bag each month.  With all the vintage machines as a priority plus all the other benefits, it was a money saving investment in the long run.  I think it was around $350 or so, plus install but it looks like you're handy enough to get that done :-)

Mark you may have some thing floating around in the grinder area like the small plastic button or foot from a chopping board that came off in the DW. It probably won't hurt anything but if you are really curious you can open it up and check. Just don't take the whole DW apart LOl.

I would keep an eye on how well that works as it looks like it may allow the detergent to wash out too soon. I would wait for the lid to open and see if your detergent is still there. KA tried this nonsense to improve rinsing on the later KD24 machines where they removed the det disp gasket from the lid of the DD at the factory. At first we thought they had just been left off, but then they told us that it had been done on purpose to solve other washability problems they were having. Then when the inside of the DWs starting developing a white film and the dishes had the same film on them they started selling us the gaskets that they removed and suggesting that they be installed.

But in any case I would keep a good eye on the DWs performance, however now that you have soft water it will probably be much better than the last one. I hate to sound like old timer but having had a TT KA DW and a TT WPDW and a TT GE DW installed in my kitchen I will never have one again. They just don't do the job that the standard machine does. Yesterday I installed two the the standard KM ultra DWs, we buy about a dozen per month and I guess when WP stops making them I will stop selling DWs and let it be someone else's headache

The frist one we installed replaced a 12 year old hi end black MT that leaked so long after the botched attempt at the RA dispenser recall that the motor was finally ruined. Good thing the customers kitchen was on a concert slab or the floor would have been destroyed. The 2nd KM UW DW we installed replaced a 1976 KDS-18 its a little tired and will get parted out and scraped, it does have nice brushed chrome panels on it if anyone wants to go SS with thier KD 18-23 DW let me know.