The few times I have washed the bottles in the dishwasher they come out looking like they have residue inside of them, so I end up hand washing them again. It would save me so much time if I could just run them through with our regular dishes. what am I doing wrong? I use gel packs for detergent. My glasses and the rest of the dishes always come out spotless. I run it on the regular cycle and do not use the drying cycle. Any suggestions?
I never handwashed, I always used the dishwasher. After my baby finished each bottle, I would put a drop of dish washing liquid inside, fill it with hot water, put the top back on, shake it up and just leave it. Whenever I started the dishwasher later that day, I rinsed out the soap and put the bottles inside. They were spotless each time.
If you have an extra rinse on your dishwasher, use that. I think the gel packs have too much detergent in them honestly. Try switching to a powder, use a high temp (keep the bottles and bottle accessories on the top rack only), and only use a smidge of detergent.
I have an old dishwasher and we just hand wash all the bottles. I rinse the bottles after use and leave them in a dishpan in the sink then at the end of the day they all get washed together. It's a slight pain but it works.
Did you rinse the bottles first? using vinegar should help. Every few weeks I run some bleach in the dishwasher.
I always wonder about dishwashers and small openings on bottles and glasses. If you put the item in the top rack, try turning the spray arm under it to see where the holes are that let water out. Do they ever spray up into the bottle? Or do they all miss the opening a little? You may not be getting much water up into the baby bottles and they arent getting clean at all. I would just continue to wash by hand, with a bottle brush and then maybe let them run thru a cycle to sanitize in hot water. It might be well worth the couple minutes it takes to clean them better.
Do you rinse them before loading them and do you put them in the top rack upside down so that the water is forced up into them?
If they're free of residue when you put them in they should be free of residue when they come out.
Keep in mind that even if they have residue they have been sterilized. This includes the residue. It's sterile. Often a bottle gets turned over with the pressure of the water and its left with cloudy looking water in it. Just dump the water out and rinse it. It's sterile.
Do you use jetdry? That should help. The gel isn't enough.
We were told by our "appliance guy" that powder or powder packets should always be used in the dishwasher. That liquids and gels cause a build up. I was getting some of that & since I switched to the powder packets--much better. But you other dishes are OK?
Have you run an empty cycle with a cup of vinegar to clean the dishwasher?
(BTW, just the opposite philosophy for top loading washers--always use liquid, never powder!)
All good suggestions.. also make sure that the strainer at the bottom of your dishwasher is clean. You would be amazed the gunk that can get stuck down there.
Pull out the bottom rack and then unscrew the spinner (there is a screwed on cap on it) take it out and you should be able to pop out the strainer and clean it off..
i never and will never put my baby bottles in the dishwasher for that reason. i always hand wash them every night.
The same thing was happening to us. I have noticed that it is so much worse when we use the generic brand instead of Enfamil. I also think it had something to do with our dishwasher. We live on a military post and every single unit has the same type of appliances, and since that is a ton of dishwashers, I am assuming they are cheap. We hand wash the bottles and put all of the bottle parts in the dishwasher.
When my kids are concerned, I "stay on top of it". Bottles are never to be washed mechanically in my house - no matter how tired I am, it has to be hand washed by me using a liquid gel with anti bac. And then sterilized after. What kind of bottles are you using? My baby loves those anti-colic bottles i purchased from coolpacifiers. (they are in the top 10 most recommended baby stuff online and offline - i read in ivillage) you can even have it customized and the name never comes off. anyway... hand wash. worth it.
