Warranty claim?

Otherwise I think you need to remove the handle. Likely fastened from inside the door, under whatever plastic liner is there.

It looks like the handle is gathering moisture from your dishwasher vents. If the vents are on top, it will hit the bottom of the countertop and then run down the front of the dishwasher. I doubt, the rust is removable.

Thanks for everyone's help. I really appreciate it.

I was able to finally peel off some of the plastic wrap around the door handle. Just as I thought, after I peel off some of the plastic wrap, I was able to remove the surface rust (that was trapped between the protective plastic film and stainless steel surface) easily (yay!).

However, the problem is that I was only able to remove some of the plastic wrap around the door handle. The rest of the protective plastic film (baked on or aged, worsened by heat and moisture exposure over time) was very difficult to remove.

Any good ideas or strategies to remove the rest of the plastic wrap, so that I can remove the rust around the edges of that plastic door handle? Also, I'm assuming that I'm removing "protective plastic film" and not the "actual" stainless steel "surface". Thoughts? Thanks again!

I'd definitely call the manufacturer and send pics.

OK I called Costco (we purchased it from Costco.com). Since it is still under Costco's 2-year warranty (amazing), so they will send someone to get the rust repaired. I will report back the repair result. Thanks again everyone!

@W C I am so glad you can get this fixed properly! Nice work.

I'm curious though. So typically warranty would cover surface rust? It looks like Costco (or Whirlpool) outsourced the "repair" work to a company called "Electric Appliance Express" (at least here in SF Bay Area). How would they "repair such surface rust then? Do you think they would just replace the front stainless panel? Thoughts? Does anyone has any experience claiming their stainless steel appliance warranty due to surface rust, and how did that warranty get resolved??

Thanks!

Is the plastic film for purpose of making the door fingerprint-resistant? Or, is it for shipping/handling protection ... in which case it should have been removed at installation of the machine? Perhaps check if the installation instructions have a reference to removing it. Shipping protective film that isn't removed promptly becomes more difficult to remove as time passes.

Rust and other cosmetic issues are not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. You will end up paying for the service call and the solution.

I read your window post earlier. I would be looking for the cause of all the moisture in your kitchen. A rusty dishwasher would not be something that happens often. Also the window you posted looks really bad. It shouldnt be. The fact that it is also in your kitchen, makes me think, there is something going on in your kitchen area, that is creating a whole lot of moisture.

This is very odd. FWIW, We had a Bosch DW for 12 years that never had the plastic film removed; the film was blue and I liked it, so it stayed. Controls and handle all on the front. We never had rust anywhere on it.

Could someone be cleaning the front with some sort of cleaner that got trapped between the edges of the film and the door, and is eating the metal? (Often well-meaning cleaning teams can inadvertently create problems like this.)