Dishwasher not cleaning dishes

rustynutz

Anyone have any idea why my Whirlpool dishwasher seems to be leaving a lot of dishes dirty?I've used a dishwasher cleaner which didn't seem to make much difference,my next solution is to add some salt,what does this actually do?

Joey the lips

It happened to me. As well as using the cleaner what i done is took a sewing needle and cleaned the jets out. I also gave the filter a good clean.

I think salt only works on the dishes so it will have no impact

Alun

Yes, give it a thorough clean to start with. Remove the filter and give it a good wash in hot water .. it tends to accumulate greasy deposits which can build up and smell. Also try and remove the spray arm (or arms if there are two, one top and one bottom) and make sure the nozzles in it aren't blocked with anything. In my experience the main culprits are lemon pips, but small bits of bone or grains of rice are also a possibility. Also make sure that the spray arms can rotate freely and aren't being blocked from rotating by anything. Sometimes handles of pans, or cutlery (if the cutlery holder has a hole in it) can drop down low enough to stop the arm from rotating.

If all that checks out, maybe there's something wrong with the heating element or thermostat and the water isn't heating up sufficiently?

Also don't overload it. For example, loads of big pans in the bottom section will adversely affect the way the water gets distributed around the machine.

BTW The function of the salt is to regenerate the ion exchange resins used in the built in water softener in the dishwasher. That's mainly to avoid limescale streaks on glasses, and doesn't have any impact on the cleaning properties.

RebelButtMunch

Id bet there is rice/egshells/corn/chipped plates or what not stuck in the jets. Especially the angled jets. The water coming out of the angled jets turns the blades around and distributes the water evenly.

biko

It could be lime scale, do you live in a hard water area?
Leave the filters etc soaking in white vinegar overnight (50% vinegar and 50% water) and that should clear the lime scale.