Problem with the soap block thingie in my dishwasher. Help!

frobisher

For some reason the compartment in my dishwasher that holds the little block of soap isn't working properly. Every time I use the machine it goes through the whole cycle but the block of soap hasn't broken down and is still sitting in the little compartment even though the door of it has opened.
Any thoughts or advice? I can't be without it!

Alun

There's usually a rubber seal around the door that stops water getting in during the rinse cycle. If a small amount of water leaked in before the main cycle it could maybe cause the tablet to do that. Maybe the seal is worn or broken, or possibly also the door isn't closing properly.

Another possibility is that the door isn't actually opening fully. They're spring loaded and the spring can go, or the top tray isn't pushed all the way in, and the door is being stopped from opening fully when it bangs against the tray.

delly

I had this a couple of times and each time I opened the main door, the compartment door seemed to be open, but what it turned out to be was items in the rack that were stopping the comparment door from springing opening. Obviously as soon as i opened the main door, the comparment would look fine, which threw me off a bit.

Alun

Another possibility is (what I did once!) if you have one of those lemon scented dishwasher freshener thingies hanging off the top rack right in front of the dispenser it'll block it from opening properly. As delly correctly points out, as soon as you open the door of the dishwasher the soap dispenser door will spring open anyway, which can make your diagnosis of the problem difficult. If it is something like that, when you open the door, do it very gently and you'll hear the 'clack' of the soap dispenser opening.

frobisher

Great info! Thanks!

dools

Frobisher,

We never use that compartment. We just throw the tab into the bottom of the washer - never had a problem. So don't worry if the compartment is not working - the tab will work just fine thrown in loose

D

Alun

Any luck ?

frobisher

Alun wrote:

Any luck ?

Congratulations on your 2000th post!

yeah, I did what dools suggested and it's working a treat. Clean dishes again!:D

Alun

Thanks for the congrats! Hadn't really noticed TBH

Just putting the tablet in the bottom of the dishwasher means that the tablet will start to dissolve already at the initial rinse stage, rather than waiting for the main wash cycle when the little door opens, which isn't really the idea. This might be OK for lightly soiled dishes, but might not work so well when the dishes are really dirty. Personally, I'd still try and figure out what's really happening, but it's up to you, of course

dools

Frobisher,

Glad it worked. We have NEVER used the compartment - it's too fiddly and we're too lazy! we just chuck the tab in and never had a problem. To be honest I generally lightly rinse the plates,etc before I put them in (am a bit of an uber-cleaner). Nothing I hate more than half a plate of dinner and a bucketful of tea thrown around the diswasher....grrrrrr.....

Alun - you from Bray? I'm from just outside. Went to school in Bray.

Alun

dools wrote:

Alun - you from Bray? I'm from just outside. Went to school in Bray.

Not really ... I just live there. I'm English originally, but moved here 5 years ago after living for 20 years in Germany and Holland.