We have all been there… you are out of a certain dish then realize they are all in the dishwasher. You reach in there expecting them to be clean and what do you find? Soup still around the rim of the bowl, or baked on cereal crumbs, maybe some ketchup still on the plate. How did that happen? You have a high-quality appliance and you are using those expensive pods that tell you that you don’t need to prewash, yet here we are.
Regardless of the detergent you are using the price tag on that dishwasher, this will happen from time to time if you are not doing any preventive maintenance on the dishwasher. I remember moving into a new “luxury†apartment once and opening up the dishwasher thinking I was going to vomit with the smell that came out of it.
You have to maintain this equipment if the gunk starts to build up, then you get a moldy, musky smell, then your dishes seem to come out just as dirty as they were when you put them in there.
So, today, we are going to help you troubleshoot a dishwasher for cleaning problems.
Dirty Interior
I know what you are thinking… how can a dishwasher be dirty inside? Very easily. If you are cleaning greasy plates, leaving food on the plates, cheap detergent, and hard water all take a toll on a dishwasher. It is never a bad idea to remove the cages and stick your head in there once a month and give it a good scrubbing. You can also make a habit of running a vinegar cycle from time to time to get rid of the grime and dirt in there. To run a vinegar cycle, add three cups of white vinegar to the bottom of the dishwasher, then run a full cycle.
Dirty Filter
This is often the root of all evil for a machine that is not cleaning properly. Some people take that promise not to have to prewash the plates a bit too seriously to the point that they wash nothing off them. All that food starts to build up in the filter at the center of the dishwasher where the sprayer arm is. Grab your owner’s manual for directions on how to remove it and give it a good cleaning. Fair warning, you will not be happy with what you see, which should inspire you to clean it more often.
To continue to part 2, click here.
