Re: CLEANING THE DISHWASHER?

violann · ‎03-10-2010

During my married life I have lived with 4 dishwashers, and my present one is #5.

Two of them had cleanable filters, which I preferred. The filters were easy to access and I could do it by myself, with. O help from DH.

One of the dishwashers had a waste disposal unit built in, so during the course of the wash cycle it ground the waste and flushed it.

My current dishwasher appears to have neither, but I'm still attempting to find the use/care manual online. There may be some mistake that I'm making with using it, and I hate to blame it for its ineffectiveness if I'm not using it correctly.

Besides, I like my kitchen with its bisque/almond appliances, and that's another reason why I want to do the best with what I have.

Pooky1 · ‎12-23-2015

your post reminded me i havnt ran white vinagar thru my coffee maker in a while so i bought a gallon and did coffee maker and added to my rinse aid dispenser with rinse aid in dishwasher. good tip. thanks for sharing it.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

@violann wrote:
During my married life I have lived with 4 dishwashers, and my present one is #5.

Two of them had cleanable filters, which I preferred. The filters were easy to access and I could do it by myself, with. O help from DH.

One of the dishwashers had a waste disposal unit built in, so during the course of the wash cycle it ground the waste and flushed it.

My current dishwasher appears to have neither, but I'm still attempting to find the use/care manual online. There may be some mistake that I'm making with using it, and I hate to blame it for its ineffectiveness if I'm not using it correctly.

Besides, I like my kitchen with its bisque/almond appliances, and that's another reason why I want to do the best with what I have.

I used to have a Bosch DW and the filter just came out and I could rinse it and replace but currently I have a GE and it requires someone to get in the DW - take off the spray arm and then remove the entire bottom of the dw - no way I'm doing that.

Tinkrbl44 · ‎08-23-2010

Pouring white vinegar in the rinse aid contanier .... great idea ..... thanks!

Pooky1 · ‎12-23-2015

i have never had a dw that you had to clean and take out filters. sounds like a huge pain. mine does have the disposer to grind up stuff thought. i remember years ago when washers had filters you had to clean out. they wernt to bad. dont miss them thought.

violann · ‎03-10-2010

@Pooky1 wrote:
i have never had a dw that you had to clean and take out filters. sounds like a huge pain. mine does have the disposer to grind up stuff thought. i remember years ago when washers had filters you had to clean out. they wernt to bad. dont miss them thought.

I did the white vinegar yesterday, and the thought also occurred to me that our "new" house has very hard water, and we had a softener on the water system in the old house.

Fact is though, that although this dishwasher was top of the line, it's also at least 20 years old, so old that as of today, I can't even find the serial # online.

Tinkrbl44 · ‎08-23-2010

@violann wrote:
@Pooky1 wrote:
i have never had a dw that you had to clean and take out filters. sounds like a huge pain. mine does have the disposer to grind up stuff thought. i remember years ago when washers had filters you had to clean out. they wernt to bad. dont miss them thought.
I did the white vinegar yesterday, and the thought also occurred to me that our "new" house has very hard water, and we had a softener on the water system in the old house.

Fact is though, that although this dishwasher was top of the line, it's also at least 20 years old, so old that as of today, I can't even find the serial # online.

@violann

Your best bet is to call the manufacturer's customer service # and see if they can send you a PDF of the manual. It worked for me once with an oven in a new home. No matter what I did, I couldn't set the darn clock!

Twins Mom · ‎04-03-2016

Havarti -
That is a very good idea of putting in softener dispenser. It gets so funky even when I am careful and I can imagine this will help inside. I use vinegar occasionally in dishwasher and once or teice a year use the cleaner they sell. Vinegar is a great quick clean with microfiber (which QVC got me hooked on).

Twins Mom · ‎04-03-2016

A repairman once told me to fill a cup with vinegar and set that cup upright in top basket. Then run cycle.

coffee drinker · ‎03-21-2010

Read some place that citric acid will clean the DW. It does a good job. It can be found at WM where the canning jars are and cost less than $3. I fill the soap dispenser and let the machine run its regular cycle. I must admit I don't clean it as often as I should.