get down in there!
New Hobart Owner...
You did not mention if you have a tall tub Kenmore or the Ultrawash Standard tub.
If you have a tall tub, then the poor results you are getting may be caused by a lack of water getting into the tub to begin with caused by a clogged filter screen in the fill valve especially since youa re on a well system. Without a sediment filter between the pump and the house system, you can accumulate enough "stuff" in that valve to stop the flow of water quite a bit. Let the machine fill completely and see where the water level ends up. It should cover the whole bottom of the tub to at least the bottom of the float cup. If it doesn't then clean the filter and go from there. That would apply to either style unit you may have.
If it is the tall tub design, most cleaning failures short of poor detergent and lack of water are caused by the pump intake getting clogged with debris. You would be surprised at what you will possibly find if you take the wash arm off and then remove the wash tube leading up to the top arm and then remove the filter assembly. The soft food disposer in there is not made to handle anything more than soft food so the pump openings are pretty restrictive by design. You need to get down in there and clean it out and then reassemble it to see if that makes a difference. I am sure that if you have enough water in it, it will wash like a brand new machine.
I sold a neighbor a standard tub UltraWash Dishwasher because he said that Sears wanted 500 bucks to fix the pump on his tall tub which was not cleaning the dishes.
When last I checked, he was still using the standard tub and loving it.
However, I took his old machine and filled it with water and turned it on and it really did not pump a bit of water but the pump sounded fine and did not leak.
I took it apart and found out why it didn't wash anything.
The pump inlet openings were clogged up completely with cellophane, 3 sheet metal screws that were there for who knows how long as they were all rusted, 20 grapefruit pits, 4 pieces of broken glass, 6 toothpicks and even a some old bones.
A quick cleanup of the pump and to this day, it cleans like there is no tomorrow, rivalling my new Kitchenaid. It just doesnt dry as well!
As far as the KDS56 goes, If you can get used to thew loading necessities, it can be easily built into your cabinet by simply removing the top, the casters and the water and drain lines and you will be able to slide it right in. You can leave the sides on if you like, though I would personally remove them, wrap the machine in fiberglass or other sound deadening matrerial and then replace the sides and back to make it quieter.
One other thing, the Ultrawash standard tubs have a much better pump system than the tall tubs but you may want to open that up too and see what if inside of that one too. Over the years, all kinds of stuff cna find its way in there and neevr work its way out.
If you want to get an exploded diagram of your machine for guidance, you can go to
www.sears.com/parts and put the model number in and it will give you a breakdown of it so you can see how it comes apart.
Hope this helps
Steve