Noticed some damage to my Whirlpool Gold Silent Partner III dishwasher
this morning. Some of the white has chipped off the heating element.
There was a spoon sitting beside it on the bottom of the washer that
apparently fell out of the silverware basket sometime during/after the
last wash. Two questions:

1. Which is more likely to have damaged the heating element, the
spoon or the cup of vinegar I dump into the recessed well at the
beginning of each load (that does such a fabulous job preventing
'lime' buildup throughout the machine and keeping my glasses spotless
despite my beloved hard water)? I've never noticed heating element
damage before and I've been using the vinegar for at least a year now.

2. How much time do I have to fix the heating element? Is there a
setting I can use that takes it offline (so to speak), giving me
longer to fix it? I need a plumbing house call for work on the
furnace exhaust and intake pipes and it would be nice to combine the
visits, but the pipe work requires temperatures warm enough to dry
exterior caulk and we're going through a cold windy/rainy/snowy patch
in Minnesota right now.

Thanks! RW