Heating Element

First start with an empty dishwasher and remove the bottom rack, shut off the water. Turn off the power. Disconnect the drain, power and water supply to the dishwasher. Remove the stabilizing screws from the front top of the unit. Slide the unit out. Turn on its side. From underneath disconnect the 2 leads to the heater. Remove the nuts from the bottom of the heater element. Be careful, they are very thin. Pull the element up and out from the inside. Place the new element in and put the nut back on enough to compress and seal the washers on the inside. Re attach the element leads and re install the way you took out. Search YouTube for videos. That's what I did.

Removed the bottom front cover. removed the screws holding the water valve and moved it out of the way. Located the thermostat and connections for heating element. Loosen the thermostat retainer with short Phillips screwdriver. Remove thermostat. One connection was burnt, cut to good wire, crimped on new connector. installed new thermostat reverse of removal. Removed wire connectors for heating element, loosened brass nuts with short 13mmbox wrench(1/2" will fit). not much room for big tools. Removed element from inside washer. Installed new element reverse of removal. Washer works like new.

This could have been a relatively easy repair as the instruction video was very clear. When I pulled out the washer to access the electrical connectors and remove the nuts on the underside of the element, I found that they were covered in white sealant of some sort. Had to use a knife to cut away the sealant. The further I got into the repair, the more I realized that something was really wrong. I finally got the heater out, but the two holes where the element had been we're still filled with hardened sealant and parts of the edges of the holes had been chipped away so that replacing it would never seal properly. It was at that virtual second that the new element arrived by Fedex. I didn't even bother opening the box. Needless to say, I was not AT ALL happy that we had purchased this "new" dishwasher fifteen years earlier from a reliable local appliance repair guy who we normally think does great work. He must have known about this problem and had jerry rigged it that way, but never told us about it. As such, my wife and I had a date that night to go buy a brand new GE dishwasher from Lowes. I spent about four hours installing the new one and it works fine now. This site did a fine job of shipping me the new part and will issue a refund for the unopened/unused part. Their instruction video was right on the mark. The only problem we had is that we had a faulty dishwasher that couldn't be repaired. Considering that it was fifteen years old, we got some good life out of it.