Dirty Dishwasher - Rochester,MN

I read somewhere (haven't tried it yet, but I have one at home) that you can put the contents of one packet of Lemonade flavored Kool-Aid in where the detergent goes and run an empty cycle. It's supposed to dissolved the film and grime as well as make it smell better than vinegar might.

I found that with the hard water we have here, those gel packs are horrible to use in the dishwasher. Using them leaves the dishes with a film and like you say, dirtier then before. Even putting the vinager in the rinse cycle didn't help much at all. I went with Cascade gel in a bottle not the packs and it solved all my problems.

You can try running it through a cycle with no dishes but a cup or two of vinegar.

I would try what the below mom suggested about the cup or two of vinegar.

Also might want to consider switching dishwasher soap... we had a similar problem and we kept trying different dishwasher soaps till we found one that work the best with our dishwasher/water. In our trial and error we found that name brand worked better then the store brand because we have hard water even with a water softener. You could also see if using one of the those dishwaser soap packets works better for you or not then the soap.

I recently discovered that not all dishwashers are self cleaning! Who would have thought!!! Some dishwashers have a filter that you actually have to remove and clean. It is usually in the base of the dishwasher under the wash arms. You can usually search your model online and download the manual if you have lost it. That should tell you everything you need to know. I was so annoyed when I discovered this about my dishwasher!

www.thosecrazybeans.blogspot.com

We had this problem and found out it was our water. We have city water but it was leaving a film in our shower and bathtub too. We got a water softener and we no longer have issues with the dishwasher or the shower!

Do you have a water softener? We did not have one when we got our new dishwasher, and minerals were building up and blocking the jets. After we got the water softener, our problem was taken care of. Good luck!

What happens if you run it once, empty, with just plain water and no detergent? I don't know, but it might help you to figure out exactly what the problem is.

Have you tried running a cup or 2 of vinegar in there. I have sometimes done that especially before we got a water softener because our water was so hard.

Just put a cup or 2 of white vinegar in the door lid - you don't even have to put it in the dispenser and run as normal. I have done it with dishes in there and without.

Good luck!

Hello A.,

We have also gone through this issue and I can tell you from my experiences there are a number of things to consider:

1.) We cleaned out the filter and ran a "Vinegar Cycle" which loosened up hard water deposits (like lime). This process needed to be repeated more than a couple times to get back to square one.

2.) When the dishwasher was "clean", we found in order to optimize the performance moving forward we needed to have "softer water". We got a water softner.

3.) We also found were using too much Dishwasher Soap (gel) at that time... Cut down on the amount of soap being used.

4.) After finding out all four of our family members in the house are Asthmatic we decided to "GO GREEN" and started with Seventh Generation dishwasher powder. We found we were constantly left with undesolved grains and unclean dishes (very disappointed).

5.) We switched to ALL NATURAL Shaklee Dishwasher soap and LOVE IT! We decided to switch to all of our cleaners to the Shaklee 'Get Clean' line and haven't look back.

You'd have to spend more than $3,400 to get the same amount of clean found in the Get Clean Starter Kit! (for less than $150.00 (MN SRP)). Give it a look: http://togethergreen.myshaklee.com/us/en/products.php?sku...

Best wishes,
S.-

I know you said you tried a magic cleaner thing already, but have you tried Lemi Shine? We don't have a water softener and were getting white residue on everything. I tried Lemi Shine and it is FANTASTIC!!! The inside of my dishwasher looks brand new and my dishes have no more white stuff on them! I know you can get it at WalMart, and I think Target also carries it. It is awesome!

We had the same thing happen, and I thought there was something wrong with the dishwasher, so I called the repair guy (we have a service plan), and he told me that part of it was because we didn't have a water softener, which isn't a big deal (lots of people don't). To fix it, 1) Run your dishwasher with a HUGE bowl of vinegar. I used a casserole-sized corningware bowl, and just set it right side up in the middle of the bottom rack. It will hold almost a whole bottle of vinegar, but vinegar's super cheap. Then, he said to reduce the amount of soap I was using. I was filling the prewash, and the regular dispensers. He said to ONLY fill the regular dispenser HALF way, and not to use the prewash at all. Since then, we only have occasional problems, and the vinegar rinse helps. Sometimes, I put all my glassware in the top rack and the vinegar get those clean, too. I'm happy because it now takes a LOT longer to go through a bottle of detergent. Good luck!

Your dishwater probably has lime and hard water build up. Follow the suggestions the other mothers gave you by usin vinegar. Vinegar natrually disolves lime and hardwater build up. One other suggestion would be to pour several cups into the bottom of the dishwasher and let it sit for several hours before running a wash. This will give the vinegar a chance to really work at the deposits. It may take several washes to get it all cleaned out but after that you will want to put a cup of vinegar in with every other load around the rinse cycle. It will help keep down the lime and hard water and make your glasses shine.

Have you run vinegar through it? Vinegar is about the most amazing thing, I'm finding out...or I've also heard that bleach could help, but I've never tried that...good luck---I have to use our dishwasher as a drying rack--it don't work and we don't have the counter space for a real rack.

For residue in your dishwasher I would try running it with soap only. Also you need to rinse your dishes before you place them in the dishwasher it doesn't sound like you have a disposal associated with your dishwasher. After washing it soap only, wipe it down with dry clothes and then pour 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar to clean it out.

Hi Amy,
I might have a few suggestions for you. You can try to put vinegar in one of your places you would put your soap and then put baking soda in the other one. Run it a full load but do not put your dishes in there. Never use powder detergent in your dishwasher. It will put a film on your glasses. Sunlight lemon detergent is really good at keeping your glasses clean and the ones that you already have residue on them it will start taking some of that off. I love lemon sunlight detergent because I never once had my glasses ever get residue on them. Powder detergents are no good because it sits up on top of your dishes and never fully disolves. I hope some of these suggestions help. Good Luck!!!!!
C.

Hi Amy,
You've gotten all sorts of good advice already and I wanted to piggyback on some of the things folks mentioned...

I had this same thing happen to me last spring. I thought it was a faulty dishwasher, but it turned out to be a faulty water softner. I had a repair person out to fix the dishwasher, but he first used a test strip to evaluate the water hardness (based on my complaints about what was wrong) and it was immediately evident that the water was too hard. I believe you can purchase test kits yourself - probably someplace like Menards or Home Depot? The repair person recommended that once the water softner was repaired/replaced that I run an empty dishwasher cycle w/ 1 cup of vinegar to get it clean. That did the trick - the vinegar removed all the filmy/soapy residue from the racks and the stainless steel interior. I also ran another empty cycle after the vinegar one, just to be sure that there was no left over vinegar in the machine.

Along the way I learned that I use far too much dishwasher soap, I would bet that a lot of us out there probably do that! I was also told that powder is better than gel - it dissolves better and is less likely to leave any residue behind.

Good luck!!