Product review (5 stars): This valve fixed the problem
The dishwasher wasn't cleaning the dishes, even after multiple cycles using aggressive wash programs there would be grit and soap covering the dishes. So began the hunt for the problem.

After chasing every possible potential problem on our KitchenAid dishwasher and cleaning every possible orifice and internal part, I traced it to a bad valve. Not a dead valve, mind you. No no. Only a half dead valve.  This meant that, electrically, the coil was still intact but the valve itself only worked intermittently. Having a burned coil is easy - if the leads show open circuit, buy this replacement and your problem will be resolved once you get it installed.  When your valve is, mysteriously, half dead, the coil still shows it's expected resistance but, ironically, becomes resistant to working correctly.

To really sort out whether it's your fill valve is half dead like mine, you need to empty the dishwasher and sit, Zen-like, in front of it while it goes through a cycle. You should hear the hiss of the water filling the bottom of the machine and when the circulation pump kicks on to pump the water it should do so quietly. If you don't hear the hiss at the start of the cycle, you've got a bad valve. If you hear the machine filling but the circulation pump makes noise then you didn't get a whole fill and it's causing the circulation pump to labour harder than it wants to. Both situations are a clear sign the valve is bad.

So you've got fill and your circulation pump is doing OK - you're still not done because - get comfortable - you have to wait for the rinse cycle (or stop the cycle and start a new one over again). The same judgement needs to be made to decide whether the valve is filling the machine for a complete rinse cycle.

If you've made it this far in this review then you're likely not afraid to use a screwdriver. Perhaps, if you suffered through this like me, you'll use it vengefully. In any event, there is no need to consider paying anyone to make the swap. Changing it out was really easy - it removes and installs through the bottom of the dishwasher so there is no need to remove the dishwasher from under the counter. Once the skirt is detached, one screw and one electrical connector is all it takes.

The major upside of all of this is that I learned I can get the kids to hand wash the dishes after dinner, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.