Whirlpool/Kenmore Frankenstein Machine

First hi to all my friends out there. I’ve been MIA for a while now. Life has been busy with the kids and we have our third on the way in June and it’s kept me away. So here’s my dilemma, I picked up several Whirlpool Power-clean/Kenmore Ultra Wash machines over the past couple years. I love the intense washing action they provide and they don’t take half the day to run a load of dishes. They are also in great supply and easy to work on. I had one black Kenmore Ultra wash machine that was beaten to death on the inside, was definitely in a home with hard water and I knew it didn’t work and the sump/pump area had been torn apart by the previous owner. I also have a few white Whirlpool machines. My dilemma is the wife wanted a black one, so last week I removed the door with the electrical panel off the black unit and swapped it on the white Whirlpool machine. I also kept the inner panel from the Whirlpool machine because we prefer the silverware baskets in the door. Everything looks great and I’m confident I installed everything correctly as it’s pretty basic reconnecting some wires underneath the unit after swapping the door. I installed the unit today and it immediately started a normal wash cycle by itself and would not respond to letting me cancel the wash. The wash ran perfectly fine and ended as normal but now I still can’t get the buttons on the panel to work. I’m not sure why it started by itself in the first place. Is there a way to manually reset the panel? I may just have a bad panel but I thought I’d check here before going crazy disassembling everything.
Thanks,
Shannon

Photos... < > Photo 1 of 2 View Full Size


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Post# 1173224 2/26/2023 at 20:12 (432 days old) by HobartHero (New York)
Checkrate/Likes 1 First hi to all my friends out there. I’ve been MIA for a while now. Life has been busy with the kids and we have our third on the way in June and it’s kept me away. So here’s my dilemma, I picked up several Whirlpool Power-clean/Kenmore Ultra Wash machines over the past couple years. I love the intense washing action they provide and they don’t take half the day to run a load of dishes. They are also in great supply and easy to work on. I had one black Kenmore Ultra wash machine that was beaten to death on the inside, was definitely in a home with hard water and I knew it didn’t work and the sump/pump area had been torn apart by the previous owner. I also have a few white Whirlpool machines. My dilemma is the wife wanted a black one, so last week I removed the door with the electrical panel off the black unit and swapped it on the white Whirlpool machine. I also kept the inner panel from the Whirlpool machine because we prefer the silverware baskets in the door. Everything looks great and I’m confident I installed everything correctly as it’s pretty basic reconnecting some wires underneath the unit after swapping the door. I installed the unit today and it immediately started a normal wash cycle by itself and would not respond to letting me cancel the wash. The wash ran perfectly fine and ended as normal but now I still can’t get the buttons on the panel to work. I’m not sure why it started by itself in the first place. Is there a way to manually reset the panel? I may just have a bad panel but I thought I’d check here before going crazy disassembling everything. Thanks, Shannon Photos... < > Photo 1 of 2 View Full Size

Post# 1173272 , Reply# 1 2/27/2023 at 06:10 (432 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)
Checkrate/Likes *Great dishwasher* Hi Shannon, Unfortunately, you probably have a bad control panel, these are not repairable. Maybe you can do a highbred and have a white panel or a black fronted machine, or search online for one. They’re a little bit expensive if you can find a new one. You can try heating up the face of the panel with a hairdryer a little bit sometimes that’ll make them work. You can also try cleaning the ribbon where it plugs into the board. Other than these panels these were pretty bulletproof machines. John