Dishwasher Problem

I bet you have a jet or two clogged with hard water deposits and/or other crud.

I talked to a dishwasher specialist and he recommends regular Electrasol (now Finish, I guess) powder, not gel, liquid, tablets, or pouches. He says it works better and is better for your dishwasher.

He also told me how to clean my dishwasher so it would work better. And it's amazing the difference it made! It's really simple, too.

With your dishwasher empty, fill a glass with white vinegar and put it right side up on the bottom rack. Run the dishwasher as normal. We do this every time we notice the performance is slipping. When we were having enough problems that we had to call the specialist guy, it took about 4 times before it was really clean.

We also ran the vinegar wash with our dishwasher full, because the dishwasher had been leaving crud all over our dishes that wouldn't wash off by hand. The vinegar cleaned up our dishes 'til they sparkled, too.

I hope that will work for you!

As our top of the line dishwasher has aged we need to go through a few extra steps to keep this from happening:

1) clean the filter screen at the drain point of the dishwasher every time
2) run the 3 minute rinse cycle along with 1/2 of vinegar before actually washing the dishes
3) clean the screen again after the rinse cycle
4) certain detergents work better than others, I tried a natural detergent and it did not work so I went back to Cascade which is what was recommended by the manufacturer.

Hi B. - I hate that too. I found that happens most when I overfill the d/w or when I inadvertently place a large dish or bowl on the bottom that somehow obstructs the flow of water up to the top of the d/w. I also dont stack bowls at tightly as they allow me to on the racks - especially if they have stuck on foods.

hope that helps you!!

Hi- great replies already, and I plan to try some of those too! We had this problem, and it even persisted after getting a new dishwasher. After trying a million things and spending way too much of having repair people come out, we realized it was our water pressure! So if the other replies/suggestions don't seem to change anything, make sure the water pressure in your house is strong enough. Good luck!

First try switching to a liquid soap. That will help a little. The next thing is that what we have to do is to take the water bars apart and clean them out every once in awhile and we have to clean the trap, because our dishwasher has the mulching attachment with it and so it has a trap that needs to be cleaned.

it could just be your detergent. it seemed like our plastic never got clean. once we switched to a natural detergent the came out spotless.

Our dishwasher has the water spout that comes up from the bottom. If we load the washer a certain way, mainly with a large pan that hangs over other dishes, then the dishes under the pan don't get clean, becuase the pan is blocking the water from the dishes.

Does that make sense? So maybe play around with how the dishes are arranged?
M.

I agree with everything Kris said. Our older dishwasher has problems. Vinegar is great. Natural detergents do cut it. I love Cascade! My mom's old dishwasher did it, too, and her new one doesn't, so I'm really looking forward to needing to replace ours and see if our problem goes away, too. I'll try the CLR on the spray nozzles, though. Hadn't ever thought of that. GL!

You may need to do a cleaning on your dishwasher, the jets are probably clogged. You can get dishwasher cleaner from most of the appliance stores. I think I even saw it a Walmart. Not expensive and it works. Good luck.

You might want to take a toothbrush...and som CLR and scrub down the 'spray nozzles'...maybe they are clogged in certain spots?

Good luck!
Michele/cat

I have had a similar problem. I have tried many things, including getting a new dishwasher, using "dishwasher cleaner" with citric acid, running ice cubes through the garbage disposal on the advice of the place where I bought the dishwasher, cleaning the filter in the bottom of the dishwasher, cleaning the kitchen sink drain. I know that sometimes it is pans blocking the soap dispenser or the spinning arms. There are also some foods that stick more like avocado or eggs. My husband buys the soap, so I don't always get to pick the brand, but I have tried using less soap. We also have a "scrub" cycle that uses more and hotter water that helps. Most of the time, I just send the bad dishes back through after scrubbing them with a magic eraser.