--- title: "Dishwasher will not start" description: "Kenmore dishwasher will not start — two very different situations look identical from the kitchen: a machine with no power, and a machine that has power and…" url: "https://kenmoremiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-will-not-start/" date_modified: "2026-09-01" Appliance type: "Dishwashers" --- # Kenmore dishwasher will not start ### Check the two settings before anything else Control lock, and delay start. Both make a dishwasher completely unresponsive in a way that reads as broken, both are switched on by accident while wiping a panel, and both clear in seconds. Frigidaire even puts a number in the display for the delay, which is easy to read as a code and is not one. ### What it usually means, by the company that built it Kenmore manufactures nothing, so the same behavior points at different things depending on who made the appliance. The three digits before the period on the rating plate are what tells them apart. - **665 Whirlpool** — A flashing control light means the panel is locked. A flashing clean light means the machine is trying to report a code — count the pattern. - **587 Frigidaire** — CL means the door is open, LOC means the controls are locked, and a number in the display is a delay-start setting in hours rather than a code. - **630 Bosch** — Panel locks and delay starts behave the same way here — a setting rather than a defect. ### A five-dollar part that stops the whole appliance Every dishwasher refuses to run rather than risk washing with the door open, so the switch that confirms the door is closed has veto power over the entire machine. It fails far more often than the control board does and it costs a fraction as much. Testing it takes minutes and it is the measurement that separates a small repair from a large quote. ### Why we ask about the kitchen Was anything worked on recently, was the disposer replaced, did the breaker trip in a storm. On a machine that will not start, the cause is outside the appliance often enough to be worth asking about first. The control lock is on Hold the lock button for a few seconds. Free, and a genuine answer. A delay start is set The machine is waiting on purpose. The number in the display is hours. The door is not latching The commonest real cause. The machine will not run until it can confirm the door is shut. No power arriving A tripped breaker, or the switch under the sink that a lot of kitchens have and nobody remembers. The control or the touch panel Last, because a stuck key or a swollen membrane looks like a dead board and is a different part. Does the panel light up at all Lights and no response is a lock, a delay or a latch. No lights at all is power. Press start and listen at the door A latch that clicks and a machine that then stops is a switch, not a latch. Is there a switch under the sink Many kitchens have one and it gets knocked. Note any flashing light and its pattern On a machine with no display, that is the whole message. The buttons work, or they do not, and nothing happens What it usually means The door latch fails more often than the board Control lock and delay start account for a real share Two settings, both free to rule out Check the two settings before anything else Control lock, and delay start. Both make a dishwasher completely unresponsive in a way that reads as broken, both are switched on by accident while wiping a panel, and both clear in seconds. Frigidaire even puts a number in the display for the delay, which is easy to read as a code and is not one. What it usually means, by the company that built it Kenmore manufactures nothing, so the same behavior points at different things depending on who made the appliance. The three digits before the period on the rating plate are what tells them apart. 665 Whirlpool — A flashing control light means the panel is locked. A flashing clean light means the machine is trying to report a code — count the pattern. 587 Frigidaire — CL means the door is open, LOC means the controls are locked, and a number in the display is a delay-start setting in hours rather than a code. 630 Bosch — Panel locks and delay starts behave the same way here — a setting rather than a defect. A five-dollar part that stops the whole appliance Every dishwasher refuses to run rather than risk washing with the door open, so the switch that confirms the door is closed has veto power over the entire machine. It fails far more often than the control board does and it costs a fraction as much. Testing it takes minutes and it is the measurement that separates a small repair from a large quote. Why we ask about the kitchen Was anything worked on recently, was the disposer replaced, did the breaker trip in a storm. On a machine that will not start, the cause is outside the appliance often enough to be worth asking about first. ### The lights come on but pressing start does nothing. Control lock first, then delay start, then the door latch. In that order they cost nothing, nothing, and very little. ### It hums and then stops. That is not a start problem — the machine is starting and stopping, which points at the door switch or at water not arriving. --- **[Read full article: Dishwasher will not start](https://kenmoremiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-will-not-start/)**