Hello, did you all look at the insides of your dishwasher with a little more confidence yesterday? How far did you get in the inside view videos, did it put you to sleep? The spray wands do not mess around, powerful water pressure for sure. That was my take away from those videos. Not sure what we are talking about, look at yesterday’s post, The Anatomy and Physiology of the Dishwasher.
For our trusted workhorse to keep giving us sparkly streak free glasses and dishes we need to give some love and attention back to her. The biggest issues that can cause problems, is the buildup food particles on the door frames and on the reservoir and filter. Hard water can be an issue too causing build up that can clog the water jets in the spray arms. What is hard water. Per wikipedia “Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates and sulfates”.
I highly recommend doing these steps in order. It is a perfect time to clean when you just unloaded DW and have a lean sink and cleared countertops. The first step is to take out the bottom rack. Once that is removed, we can begin.
The Filters
Back to the familiar picture of my dishwasher that was in yesterday’s post. The filter is the other gray part on the right that is on the big gray circle in the middle. You are going to twist and pull up to remove. Let it soak in warm soapy water, then you will use a soft bristle brush to get any residual grime off, then rinse and dry it off. Do not replace until you have removed and washed the filter tray. As you can see in the above picture that mine has collected some gunk over the 11 months we have been here. To remove the filter tray, pull towards you and slanted upwards. Spray and use a scrub brush to get the buildup off.
I removed the cylinder filter and found a thick film of residue on it and several chia seeds attached to the inside of it. It is made of a soft mesh material so be present and use a light touch while cleaning. Also, it will probably be water where it is located, totally normal, just giving you a heads up so you won’t be surprised. The larger flat one was of course dirty; I used a soft old toothbrush for both that worked well. I now understand why it is recommended to clean them and the entire dishwasher once a month.
Spray Arms
Both arms were easy to remove and had gunk in the spray holes when I took them to the sink to bathe them. It was an easy removal and wiped them with soap and water and dried with a micro cloth. After watching the videos linked in yesterday’s post, I know that having clean and cleared spray arm holes is crucial to getting dirt off our crockery. Just pull them off and then snap them back on.
The Door Frame
I do admit that there is some food debris on the top inside of the door in my dishwasher now. A common phenomenon and somewhat easy fix. I then followed the directions per Melissa Maker from Clean My Space’s video on How to Clean Your Dishwasher Like a Pro; 1) Spray the door with an all-purpose cleaner. 2) Made a baking soda, soap, water mixture. Just a little of each to keep it a pasty consistency. I had leftovers of this concotion and put it on my kitchen sink and let it sit for a bit and then scrubbed the sink with a micro-cloth to get a bonus shiny sink. 3) Put the mixture around the frame and black rubber gasket with the adi of a toothbrush or small soft cleaning brush. 4) Go around the fram of the door with the same brush but rinsed and wet. 5) Wipe down the same area with a wet cloth 6) Follow up with a dry cloth.
Racks
Just take a soapy cloth to them to wipe them down if there is film. They should be pretty good to go since they get a cleaning pretty regularly when the machine is in motion.
Vinegar and Baking Soda Rinse
Are your glasses looking a little spotty and streaky and when you open your DW’s door there is a funky odor? Never fear vinegar and baking soda are your cure. Put a cup of vinegar in a container and put it on the top rack with a completely empty machine and start a wash cycle. To go a step further to ensure all yucky smells and grease is gone, throw in a cup of baking soda on the bottom of the dish cleaning device and run a short wash cycle. Do not put the two together to wipe out a step; when vinegar and soda are mix, they bubble and could make more of a mess than you began with. Just FYI, the detergent company Finish has a dishwasher cleaner product.
Must Watch How –To Videos
How to Clean Your Dishwasher with Vinegar and Baking Soda This video is so well done with a huge side of humor.
How To Clean Your Dishwasher Filter A quick and informative look of how to clean your filter. My dirty filter looked similar to the one in the video.
I am so glad that I learned the information to properly care for my dishwasher. It is not so scary, nor time consuming. After doing it, I wondered why did I put this task off for the last year. I think the roadblock was doing the research to know how to do it and with anything new, one has the mindset that it is tedious and time consuming. Now I know how to help my dishwasher do it’s job better and to get even more sparkly dishes that I will have to wear sunglasses in my kitchen.
See you tomorrow when we discuss the proper way to load a dishwasher. As always thanks for reading.
Aimee