dishwasher question
 

We have a Kenmore dishwasher that is aprox. 7-8 years old. It works fine except recently a problem has popped up and that is the soap dispensor door sometimes won't open? The door is a hinged on one end with a simple latch that snaps shut after you fill with detergent. I have no idea what " triggers " it to open but something is not right. Anyone else have this problem? I would say if we run it 5 days straight at least once or twice the door won't open. Any ideas on a fix?

It's obviously mechanical and can be triggered mechnically or electronically.

Does it have a rotary dial on the front that indicates which part of the cycle it's currently in?

If so you can manually rotate it and see where in the cycle the door opens and go from there.

Agreed it's mechanical and there are no dials. The diswasher is electronic controls and the soap door is either open or closed. The soap door latch is a spring loaded latch that I guess is pushed open by water spray / pressure? When I work the latch by hand it easily moves back and forth with no obvious restrictions. The door is spring loaded and easily flips open when I manually work it. Very strange.

Calcium deposit on the hinge of the soap dish door or latch. If you can remove the door you can clean it by soaking it in CLR.

go to applianceguru.com and do a search. For $5 you can join and ask questions. He/They hit my dishwasher problem on the head, it wouldn't drain and there was a worn out one way valve behind the drain screen in back.

I concur doctor. I would try that first.