Here we’re going to talk about seven different things that will affect the performance of your dishwasher, how well it dries, how well it washes, to identify if you have hard water buildup, or if you have etched dishes, especially glassware.
We will explain to you the exact reasons why your dishwasher is not working properly or not cleaning properly.
Table of Contents
Water Usage
The new dishwashers don’t use much water compared to the older ones. The older dishwashers, something that’s 15 years old or older, use quite a bit of water for washing.
The newer ones for a normal wash, they use approximately about six to eight gallons of water for the complete wash load.
The older ones used to use upwards between 12 and 16 gallons of water, which was a lot more water.
So with these water savers, it’s very important that certain things are taken care of so they do pressurize and wash properly.
The Filter
When your food is on your dishes and it’s being sprayed off of your dishes, what happens is it comes down to your filter at the bottom of your dishwasher.
You have two different filters, you have a coarser filter and you have this real fine mesh filter underneath it.
What happens is the water comes down, the food comes down, and hits this upper filter and then the water is pulled through it and then it’s re-pressurized and sent back up to your wash arms to continue washing your dishes.
As the food sits on the filter, the bottom wash arm has jets on it that pushes that food down into the mesh filter and it traps all the food and stuff inside the filter.
With food being trapped in there, it then pulls that water through the holes in this mesh filter and then re-pressurizes it and sends it up to your wash arms.
When it drains out, it drains from the center of this filter and pulls all that food and stuff that is inside of it out the drain and into your garbage disposal or directly into your piping under your sink.
This mesh filter gets clogged quite often and it’s not from the outside in, it’s from the inside out. All the food and the debris and even hard water will clog up this filter and when it clogs this filter up, the dishwasher cannot pressurize properly because it doesn’t have the water to do it.
So it’s very important that at least once a month you take this filter out, go over to your sink, wash the filter out, scrub on the inside of it. Make sure this filter is nice and clean and then put it back in.
Without doing this, you’re definitely going to affect how well the dishwasher washes and the washability of the unit itself.
Another thing that will affect the washability with these filters is if the filter is actually put back in place properly or not. It does have a lock sign on it, or most will have a lock on them or arrows or something to indicate that this is locked.
So when you put this back in, you have to put it in, turn it till it locks, pull up on it, make sure that it doesn’t come back up.
If not, what will happen is this whole filter assembly, once water gets in there, will float and once it floats, all of that food and debris that’s coming off your dishes is going underneath the filter and that food is then being pulled right into the wash system and then being sprayed back up onto your dishes.
When you have that happen, you’ll have food particles on your dishes. When you look in your wash arms themselves where the holes are, you’ll find pieces of food and debris in those wash arms and then you have to clear them out with a toothpick or something of that variety to get them cleared out.
Generally that is caused because filter is not locked into place. So when you put it back into place, you always want to make sure that it does go back into place, it is turned and it does lock and you pull up on it and it does not come up.
That way you’re going to avoid that problem from happening and have that excess food being sprayed back up on your dishes.
Captured Water
Also we’ll have washability issues where people complain every now and then their dishes don’t come out as clean as they did the previous load.
A lot of that can be attributed to the way that the dishwasher is loaded or if something had actually flipped over within the wash cycle.
For example, if we have a bowl that we put down in the dishwasher and then it gets flipped over during the wash cycle. That bowl is then capturing a lot of water that’s in the dishwasher, especially if it’s in the main wash, which is a very long wash cycle. So that water is then collecting in that bowl, so that’s making the whole water and the whole unit go down.
The dishwasher cannot pressurize properly and it will affect how well it does wash. So it’s a good idea to make sure your bowls are always turned down.
Hard Water
Now we’re going to cover hard water and dishwashers.
Hard water is extremely hard on dishwashers, like it is on most of your appliances, like your water heaters, your faucets, your filters on your faucets.
It is very detrimental to your dishwasher.
If you do have a hard water area, we recommend you use a dishwasher cleaner at least once a month to help keep the hard water down.
Seven or eight years ago phosphates were removed from the soaps for your dishwashers. Pphosphates are what combated hard water and hard water buildup. They’ve been removed from the soaps so because of that, you don’t have much in the soap to help combat the hard water within the dishwasher.
So it’s very important to run a cleaner through every now and then, at least once a month to keep the hard water buildup down.
Hard water will build up inside your wash arms, inside the wash tube, inside the filters itself.
You can scrub your filters off and get all the stuff out of your filters, but it doesn’t get rid of it in the wash motor itself and in the piping inside the dishwasher.
There’s a product that I personally recommend, it’s called Lemi Shine Dishwasher Cleaner. It’s a cleaner that goes in there, it’s a citric acid. Follow directions on the box, it goes through and cleans your dishwasher out really well.
Also I would recommend a particular soap, Cascade Platinum. It does help keep the hard water at bay in between cleanings and it does a really great job. People have been really thrilled with that product along with the Lemi Shine in keeping the hard water down.
Etched Dishes
The biggest issue people usually complain about the hard water buildup is on the glassware. But sometimes it’s actually not hard water that’s causing your glasses to turn white.
Sometimes it is because they are etched. Etching comes from usually using too much soap and having your dishes washed fairly clean.
The soap is designed to go in the machine to break down the food, to stick to the food, and go down the drain with it.
If you rinse your dishes off perfectly clean, there’s nothing for this soap to attack, so it starts attacking your glassware.
The easiest way to tell if it’s hard water deposits or if it’s actually etch is to take that glass, put some vinegar in it, make sure you clean it really good with vinegar, and dry it off. Once you dry it off, if it becomes white again, it is etched, which means there’s nothing you can do with your dishwasher to be able to salvage that glassware.
At that point all you can do is just keep using it or go purchase some new glassware, but it is not hard water.
If it’s hard water, what you’ll need to do is clean them really good with vinegar, clean your machine with Lemi Shine and then use a better soap and then it will keep your glassware looking really good.
Dishes Won’t Dry
One other thing that’s really important that a lot of people look over, it is really imperative with the newer dishwashers that you use rinse agent.
Most dishwashers, if you look at the bottom, there is no heating element down there for drying. Some use fans, some use other things, but this is an evaporative drying system.
When it goes into dry, it pulls the water droplets away from your glassware and your dishes and pulls it to the warmer surface, which is going to be your tank when it’s done washing.
What does rinse agent have to do with that?
Rinse agent removes spots because it is a surfactant. It takes that water bead and flattens it out, it makes it really thin.
If you took an eye dropper and you took two drops of water, and you left one as a drop and you took the other one and smeared it out with your finger, the one that you smear out with your finger is going to evaporate much faster than the drop that you left sitting right next to it.
The same thing with this.
What it does it takes your water bead, flattens it out, makes it really thin, so the evaporation process is much easier and the glasses come out dry.
The only problem is with plastics because plastic has cohesion that likes to hold on to that water bead and does not want to let go of it.
Stuff that’s plastic or something that has an indent in it where the water is trapped in there, where it can’t smear it out, those things are going to have very difficult time to get dry in anybody’s dishwasher.
But without the use of rinse agent, your dishwashers don’t dry very well at all. It’s very important to use it.
Most dishwashers have an indicator on them saying they’re empty. All you have to do is fill it up. Usually these will last anywhere between 30 and 40 wash loads and you’ll need to refill it, but that’s very important as far as drying of your dishes inside your dishwasher.
Wash Cycles
Now we’re going to talk about the wash cycles on a dishwasher.
Most of your newer dishwashers, especially your higher end ones, have an auto wash button.
The auto wash button is a fantastic cycle for your dishwasher. With the auto washes, most of them have a particulate sensor down inside the dishwasher that measures the particles going through this sensor and it determines how long or how much it needs to wash your dishes.
If it sees a lot of particles in it, it will extend your wash cycle, or run it run it for a longer period of time. If it doesn’t see as much, it’s going to shorten your wash cycles quite a bit.
It is a fantastic cycle, but there is an issue with the cycle, and it’s not really an issue with manufacturers. You have to look at it this way.
If you’re taking your dishes and you are cleaning your dishes well before you put them in your dishwasher, which is usually something we don’t recommend, usually what we recommend and most manufacturers recommend is knocking the big stuff off, rinse off your tomato based sauces, egg yolks and milk, and put it in the dishwasher. Let the dishwasher do it.
But let’s say everything in the dishwasher is nice and clean and you’re having breakfast or dinner and you’re saying I’m washing right away, I’m going to throw these dishes in dirty.
That can throw the particulate sensor off. As the dishwasher is looking at how many particles are in the water, it’s going to assume there’s not much there because it hasn’t had time to pull that food off of the dirty dishes yet, so it starts shortening the wash cycle.
When you get done, you’re going to say, well everything is nice and clean except for these few items you have put in after. Or you may have some food running around inside the dishwasher.
Generally with the auto cycle, it’s a good idea to put them all in dirty or all in clean if you want to use that cycle. That way it’s going to work properly.