This is a thing with every dishwasher I’ve had, some models seem better than other. You wash the dishes and when they dry, they have a musty odor I can only describe as “wet dog”. Other people often don’t seem to notice this, so maybe I am just sensitive to it. Though if I point it out, then they smell it.
I have tried:
- Cleaning every nook and cranny of the dishwasher and filter
- Running with orange kool-aid/citric acid/lemishine in dispenser after each wash (works decently well)
- Running a rinse w white vinegar after each cycle (this works the best so far)
- Making sure dishes air dry instead of dry inside the dishwasher (always do this, helps a bit)
In all instances where this happens, the dishes are clean and don’t have food stuck to them or floating around in the water.
Has anybody else fought this problem? What worked for you?
Make sure the heating element is working. If you open the dishwasher immediately after the cycle ends, some steam should come up in your face and the dishes should almost be too hot to hold.
It’s not enough to just pick food out of the filter. It might still be slimy. You have to remove the filter and scrub its parts with a stiff soapy brush. Especially the screen type parts.
When the filter is out, check the hole where it goes to see if there is food or slime in there.
Don’t use liquid detergent, pods, or any detergent with fragrance. You don’t want dishes that smell like fragrance. If they do, then they’re not rinsed. Instead, use fragrance-free tablets. Fragrance interferes with the cleaning because the fragrance itself needs to be cleaned.
Put the detergent tablet in the bottom of the dishwasher, never in the door compartment.
Take both the top and bottom spinning spray-arms out of the washer and examine every squirt hole in each one to see if any are blocked. Bits of eggshell and vegetable are common culprits. Make sure each hole is completely clear by putting the spray arms inlet agains the kitchen sink faucet.
Last and most important, and probably your issue: the last thing you need to do before EVERY wash is to push both baskets into the washer, then reach in and give each spinning spray arm a spin to see if they spin freely or blocked by a dish. Listen when you spin it, if it is blocked you’ll hear it banging on a plate as it goes around. They are powered by the water, and even a slight catch on a plate or dish will stop it from spinning. This is what usually causes “wet dog ass” plates.
What’s your motivation for this?
Wouldn’t this just make the detergent get used up in the first cycle, which is usually the shorter one iirc?
Also, why the recommendation for using a tablet over powder? You get finer control over the dosage with powder, it’s a lot cheaper, and you can actually fill both the compartments of the detergent compartment, meaning that you get detergent in both the rinse cycle and the wash cycle, for maximum washing efficiency.
This tbh. The tablets are a scam.
Ridiculously detailed video about them here.
The TL;DW is: use powder over tablets, and fill both the main detergent section AND the prewash section (or just throw a little extra powder in loose)
Also, run the hot water before turning it on
Running the hot water before I guess only applies if your dishwasher doesn’t heat its own water, right?
It applies to all dishwashers except industrial. The washers assume a certain temperature of hot water coming in.
Is this the case for Europe as well? I know that European washing machines for example will take in cold water and heat it themselves, while American washing machines either take their water from the hot or cold lines depending on a user setting.
If your dishwasher starts washing shortly after you turn it on, then it probably didn’t have time to heat the water… At least in North America, dishwashers have water heaters but they still rely on hot water coming in for best performance.
I looked it up in my native language - as to get localized results - and it seems like the general manufacturer’s recommendation here in Sweden is to connect the dishwasher to the cold water, making any prewarming of the water unnecessary here.
I guess different advice for either side of the Atlantic is warranted, same as with washing machines - it’s basically not possible to run a washer here with cold water as far as I know, you can only run it at 30 °C at the lowest, where the washing machine will heat up cold water to that temperature itself.
Interesting. Kinda hard to understand the reason behind these differences sometimes. For clothes washers I think 30C would actually be considered cold in NA. My washer has tap cold, cold, warm, hot settings. So “cold” is actually heated… Only tap cold is unheated.
The channel Technology Connections had a great video on dishwashers. It depends on how you run your washer. Powder detergent in both the pre-wash and main wash compartments is the recommended option. If you skip the pre-wash (such as by using an “Eco” or Energy/Water-saving setting), then it makes no difference between putting the detergent in the compartments vs. the bottom of the dishwasher as long as your compartment is working correctly. If it isn’t, then indeed putting it on the bottom of the dishwasher is better.
Most of these are done except the tablet location.
Follow the manufacturer’s directions on this. Usually put them in the door so they are used during the longer wash cycle and not the shorter rinse cycle.
Also, if your dishwasher is older, it might not be designed for modern detergents. Older detergents had some ingredients that modern ones do not.