We bought our Kenmore Ultra dishwasher model 665.17519201 in January of 2004. Was a lemon from the getgo. It never cleaned and the cycle took 3-4 hours. Called Sears and tech came out and replaced timer in May of that year. Still long cycles, did not clean. Would call and they would ask us if we tried "jetdry". Give me a break!! Finally after warranty was over I gave one last effort to get some relief from Sears. Was given to the special case "lemon" department. They sent a tech who checked machine and discovered everything not working - replaced motor/pump, disposal, heater, arm-spray. OK, so no wonder it wasn't cleaning! They took care of the cost - thank God. Ever since then, our cycles are now more normal 45 minutes or so. But still, dishwasher does not clean. I've resorted to rinsing dishes in warm sudsy water before loading. I always use jetdry. And still we have a dried on film and food specks on dishes, especially noticeable on clear glasses. Sickening!! And this is a much better result than when we don't wash first. I'm ready to just get rid of it and get a new one but in reading reviews of even top-rated machines, it seems like its just a hit or miss depending on the actual machine. I will defnately stay away from this one though.

After constant problems and poor cleaning the motor blew after 1 1/2 years of service. It costs $520 to replace the motor and the unit only cost $700. I will never buy Sears Kenmore again...

After reading various glowing reviews, I bought this dishwasher to replace my old Maytag. It leaves any kind of crusted food stuck to dishes, and it DOES NOT DRY on the "heated dry" setting. And yes, I load it correctly and use the manufacturer-suggested detergent and rinse aid. Called Sears, and their repair guy's advice was to run gallons of water down the sink drain first to heat up the water--so much for "water saving!"-- then to use two dishwasher tabs instead of one (putting one in the silverware basket). Did that, still doesn't clean/dry the dishes. They claim the dishwasher is operating correctly even though it wasn't cleaning or drying the dishes. They suggested upgrading to a more expensive washer with a stainless tub and a pre-heat cycle. Total waste of money.

Dishwasher (Ultra Wash III) was included in the purchase of our home in 1996. Had one small problem a couple of years ago which my husband easily fixed. A bit noisier than anticipated. Delay/Water Heating light sometimes stays on. Cleans dishes very well/no rinsing required.

We bought our Kenmore Ultra Wash Elite, model 655.16572 five years ago. This was a lemon from day one. The control board burned out twice in the first six months; the element burned out in nine months. Fortunately this was covered under warranty. We paid $642 at the time. Noisy! It was unbelievably noisy and we had to turn up the TV to drown out the noise. The silverware basket bottom became fragile and broke out after about two years and I had to string it back together with copper wire. The built in food chopper-upper disintegrated at two years. There is only two of us and we do not abuse the machine. Two months ago it started to sound like the motor was full of marbles. The cycle times are unbelievably long, sometimes up to two hours. Now finally this weekend, it began to belch thick black smoke out of the front vents, I mean a lot of black smoke. When I opened the washer to stop it the motor did not stop and sprayed soapy water all over the kitchen, and me. I had to rush to the house panel circuit breaker to shut it down.

We got the ultra last summer; What we liked: great interior layout, can fill that thing with all shaped bowls; cleans amazingly (when it works). What we hated: build construction is dreadful. In one year we went through 2 machines. The first leaked and had the soap tray break off (the cover is very fragile). The Second had its panel go on the fritz twice, and sears is tough to work with. Had to finally threaten to bring in the AG before they finally let us replace it with a Bosch.

Kenmore Ultra Wash Diswasher. It did a total motor failure after 2 years. Kenmore and Sears said too bad as it only comes with a one year warranty.  I will not buy another Kenmore if that is all the warranty they provide nor can I recommend anyone else to buy one.

Poor quality of manufacturing, "cheap" mechanical design. After purchase, system was serviced 4 times in three months, before it finally was returned to the store.

I just bought a Kenmore Elite Ultra Wash/HE filtration dishwasher, model # 14323 used it twice so far.
PROS: Don't have to rinse dishes, just load and go.
            Cleans really dirty, caked pots wonderfully, because of the TurboZone feature
            Supposedly energy efficient (who really knows, right?)
            Dries dishes great as long as you wait till cycle ends completely
            Rack feels nice and sturdy, can unsnap utensil racks easily off and on to create                   more space. Rack also adjusts up and down easily.


CONS: You have to use a Rinse Aid to get completely spotless dishes, to me it beats
             the whole purpose to "saving".
             Very LOUD for a $900 dishwasher, noise is comparable to our old $200                             Frigidaire.
              

I bought a kenmore Elite about 3 years ago...spent the extra money for the turbo zone wash and stainless steel interior. Biggest mistake I ever made. I have to rinse all dishes throughly before loading the dishwasher, then there is still a residue of soap on the glasses. I am constantly pulling glasses out to be washed by hand - Even if you load them back in the dishwasher - they still don't come out clean. The wash cycles take forever- and it is not quiet.

I don't know if it's the fact that it is an Energy Star appliance or a piece of cr*p. This machine doesn't clean dishes, and wastes energy because you have to wash dishes before you wash dishes, or run them through three times. If you block the soap dish, which is incredibly easy to do, it doesn't alarm, it just goes through the cycle with the closed soap dish, and you wasted a whole cycle for dirty dishes. You have to use the pot cleaner setting, only premium soaps have a chance of working, and if you don't stack it just right, it doesn't work.

Kenmore 16372 died after less than 3 years. Motor got loud about a month before, then died. (All it would do is hum, no spray). Repairman gave the final verdict. Also wasn't that happy with the performance. Would leave a white deposit on bottoms of glasses and also coffee filter basket.

Six years was all ours lasted...going with a Kenmore Elite this time. I hope for better luck.

Motor completely dead after just 2 years! Family of 2 out of town a lot. This was a big lemon for us.

my ultra 3 is a peice of garbage. doesn't clean worth a frigin flip.

I've had mine since Nov 2000,and it still works like a charm.(A bit noisy,but nothing I can't deal with) thanx David.

We have our Kenmore Ultra Wash III for 9 years and have never had a moment of trouble. It cleans extremely well.