KitchenAid Dishwasher: Replace Heating Element

Two safety steps, not one. Kill the breaker, then confirm with the multimeter that no voltage is present at the element terminals before your fingers go near them — this runs on 120V AC and draws real current. Shut the water supply off too, and put towels down, because water drains out of the tub the moment the element seal breaks.

The test that decides everything#

Pull the kick plate — two 1/4-inch hex screws — and find the two heater terminals under the tub, usually on the right, with spade connectors on them. Disconnect both, set the meter to ohms and probe the terminals.

An element that passes both checks while dishes still come out cold and wet points somewhere else entirely — the board is not energising it, or the thermistor is feeding it bad temperature readings.

Removing it#

Take the lower rack and filter assembly out so you can reach the element from inside the tub. From below, loosen the retaining hardware: most KitchenAid models use one centre nut holding a bracket that clamps the assembly, though some clamp the element flanges with a nut at each terminal against rubber gaskets. Loosen but do not fully remove yet, and have the towels in position.

Then work from inside the tub. The element is the dark horseshoe or ring lying in the tub floor near the sump. Lift it up and out, rotating it if its shape needs to clear the sump housing. If mineral scale has cemented it down, rock it gently while lifting — do not force it, because that cracks the gasket seats in the tub floor and turns a part swap into a tub repair.

With it out, clean the holes in the tub floor. Scale, old gasket material and debris all have to go: the new gaskets need clean flat surfaces to seal against.

Fitting the replacement#

Use the new grommets if the part came with them. Set the element into the tub and thread its terminals down through the floor holes, then fit the bracket and nut from below. Tighten firmly and stop there — over-torquing cracks the ceramic insulators and deforms the rubber, which is how the next leak starts.

Reconnect the spade connectors, turn the water back on, and look at the terminal penetrations for seepage before you go any further. A drip now means the nut needs a fraction more or a gasket is sitting off-centre.

Confirming it heats#

Breaker on, filter and lower rack back in, run a Normal cycle with heated dry. Fifteen minutes in, pause it and carefully feel the water in the tub bottom — it should be notably hot, around 130-140F during the main wash. Dishes should come out dry at the end. Then refit the kick plate with its two hex screws.

That temperature gap is the whole reason this part matters. Without a working heater, water stays at whatever the tap delivers, typically 105-120F, and that difference is what dissolves grease and activates detergent.

If it still does not heat#

Check for 120V AC at the element connector during the heat phase — carefully, or with a clamp meter. No voltage means the board relay or the thermistor is the fault, not the element you just fitted. If an F3E1 code survives the swap, the thermistor is a separate part clipped to the sump housing.

Water weeping from the seal area means pulling the element and inspecting the gaskets; pinched, folded or off-centre gaskets leak, and a thin layer of food-grade silicone helps them seat.

Some things stop being DIY: a tub floor cracked around the terminal penetrations, usually from over-tightening in a previous repair, or an element that burned out because a stuck board relay fed it continuously. Book a repair if that is where you are.