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Andrew Joiner
11-02-2013, 12:56 PM
Our 8 year old dishwasher was not getting the dishes clean. I was confident that the dishwasher being equipped with a built in chopper/garbage disposal was doing it's job. I looked in the bottom ,saw a ring of black mold around the seal so I ran a little liquid bleach thru a wash cycle. Black ring was gone but dishes had black flecks on them. The bleach loosened up a bunch of hidden black junk.
I took every thing apart. What a mess. The spray arms were clogged with black jelly like gunk. All the tubes and inner parts were clogged. I soaked them all in bleach. Luckily the bleach dissolved the gunk in the inaccessible parts.

Now I'll run a little bleach thru a wash cycle periodically.

David Weaver
11-02-2013, 1:27 PM
Never do here, but if you saw what my dishes looked like (my wife's prerinse is basically 99% of a wash) it would make sense why we don't. I know they put choppers and pumps and stuff in dishwashers, but if we put something in the dishwasher, it never has anything on the dishes that wouldn't go through a very small opening - it just avoids trouble to do it that way and the dishes come out cleaner.

ray hampton
11-02-2013, 6:01 PM
do bleach remove the mess or do the bleach bleach it out so that we can not see it

Gordon Eyre
11-02-2013, 6:52 PM
Never do here, but if you saw what my dishes looked like (my wife's prerinse is basically 99% of a wash) it would make sense why we don't. I know they put choppers and pumps and stuff in dishwashers, but if we put something in the dishwasher, it never has anything on the dishes that wouldn't go through a very small opening - it just avoids trouble to do it that way and the dishes come out cleaner.

+1 I pre-rinse all the dishes by hand before putting in the dishwasher. It doesn't take long if you wash them immediately after eating and we never have any dried on gunk on our dishes. Actually we use our dishwasher as a sanitizer.

Myk Rian
11-02-2013, 9:45 PM
Use half the soap you do now. If the instructions say fill the soap dispenser, fill it half way. That's where the crud comes from.

phil harold
11-03-2013, 1:26 AM
I run a about a half a gallon of vinegar to remove the white film it leaves on glasses periodically

I also discovered the other day if I throw some borax in with the washing packet I dont have to do the pre-rinse in the sink
the dried oatmeal in the bowls disappear

we have hard water out here...

I have not understood our new dishwasher it is quote an energy star model but takes up to 3 hours to do a load and seems to do a poor job of washing until I added boraxo to the mix
seems to run longer than any other washer I had before, so where are the energy savings?

after a quick search I found this

Increase the power of your dishwasher detergent by sprinkling a 1/4 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax onto the bottom of the dishwasher to reduce spots and film on dishes and glasses.

Rick Potter
11-03-2013, 1:22 AM
Along time ago we were told to change dishwasher soap brands occasionally, and also to run some vinegar in it when it leaves soap scum. It seems to work.

Rick Potter

Brian W Smith
11-03-2013, 3:35 AM
I "am" the dishwasher.Try to bath everyday.....but occasionally fall asleep on the couch?

We live in an 1810 Federal period "repro"....no DW.

ray hampton
11-03-2013, 11:51 AM
Along time ago we were told to change dishwasher soap brands occasionally, and also to run some vinegar in it when it leaves soap scum. It seems to work.

Rick Potter

not all vinegar are the same , some are red , some are white, will you recommended red or white ?

Bruce Page
11-03-2013, 12:18 PM
+1 I pre-rinse all the dishes by hand before putting in the dishwasher. It doesn't take long if you wash them immediately after eating and we never have any dried on gunk on our dishes. Actually we use our dishwasher as a sanitizer.

I do the same. Our dishwasher has a filter screen at the bottom that I check periodically but I have never found anything in it.

Robert Delhommer Sr
11-03-2013, 12:27 PM
DW insist on rinsing dishes immediately after eating and we also put a cup of bleach in the dish washer every week or two and also put a cup of white vinegar occasionally. Seems to help. :)

ray hampton
11-03-2013, 1:10 PM
DW insist on rinsing dishes immediately after eating and we also put a cup of bleach in the dish washer every week or two and also put a cup of white vinegar occasionally. Seems to help. :)

Do you add the bleach or vinegar to the wash powder ? vinegar will foam when mix with baking soda, I would hate to see a foaming washer

Rick Potter
11-03-2013, 7:20 PM
Ray,

Never used red, just white. No idea if it makes a difference.

Rick P

ray hampton
11-04-2013, 2:52 PM
the internet talk about red vinegar as if it are cider vinegar and the white vinegar being made from grain, IS this right ?

Stew Hagerty
11-04-2013, 3:59 PM
some are red , some are white, will you recommended red or white ?

It depends... Did you eat red meat or fish?

Eric DeSilva
11-04-2013, 4:23 PM
Never do here, but if you saw what my dishes looked like (my wife's prerinse is basically 99% of a wash) it would make sense why we don't.

I recently had a cooking instructor tell me I was wasting my time rinsing my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, so I dug into it. See this article, which supports that view: http://shine.yahoo.com/green/should-you-pre-rinse-your-dishes-before-loading-the-dishwasher-1677291.html

FBOW, with two adults and a five year old, it takes us days to fill up the dishwasher. If I didn't rinse, I'd be afraid the smells would get noxious. But otherwise, I'd think twice about it now...

Bruce Page
11-04-2013, 5:10 PM
I recently had a cooking instructor tell me I was wasting my time rinsing my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, so I dug into it. See this article, which supports that view: http://shine.yahoo.com/green/should-you-pre-rinse-your-dishes-before-loading-the-dishwasher-1677291.html

FBOW, with two adults and a five year old, it takes us days to fill up the dishwasher. If I didn't rinse, I'd be afraid the smells would get noxious. But otherwise, I'd think twice about it now...

My MIL told me the same thing but I found that I spent as much time checking each dish, glass & pan to make sure they were clean (very anal) as I did doing the pre-rinse.

Stew Hagerty
11-04-2013, 5:22 PM
My MIL told me the same thing but I found that I spent as much time checking each dish, glass & pan to make sure they were clean (very anal) as I did doing the pre-rinse.

Not that depends on your dishwasher. My Bosch does not have a "disposal" built in, so I need to pre-rinse. Even so, I'll never own anything but a Bosch ever again. It is absolutely the best dishwasher I have ever had. It is the quietest and the most effective (best cleaning). It uses less soap. And, it doesn't have an exposed electric element for drying so you can put anything anywhere.

All that said, I do run through some dishwasher cleaner (I buy it at the store) about once a year. It gets rid of the "stuff" that is in, and under, the strainer.

Eric DeSilva
11-04-2013, 5:41 PM
Vinegar is produced through fermentation of alcohol. "Red" vinegar seems like shorthand for "red wine vinegar," which is made from--surprise--fermented red wine. "Cider" vinegar is made by fermentation of apple cider. "White" vinegar is made from fermenting distilled spirits--corn and malt--so, yes, it comes from grain.

Todd Willhoit
11-04-2013, 6:32 PM
My Bosch does not have a "disposal" built in...

Most new dishwashers don't. Eliminating the disposal improves efficiencies, lowers noise, and increases profits. :rolleyes:

ray hampton
11-04-2013, 8:57 PM
It depends... Did you eat red meat or fish?

I ate dark meat today without vinegar

Justin Ludwig
11-04-2013, 10:08 PM
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by David Weaver http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=2174762#post2174762)
Never do here, but if you saw what my dishes looked like (my wife's prerinse is basically 99% of a wash) it would make sense why we don't. I know they put choppers and pumps and stuff in dishwashers, but if we put something in the dishwasher, it never has anything on the dishes that wouldn't go through a very small opening - it just avoids trouble to do it that way and the dishes come out cleaner.
+1 I pre-rinse all the dishes by hand before putting in the dishwasher. It doesn't take long if you wash them immediately after eating and we never have any dried on gunk on our dishes. Actually we use our dishwasher as a sanitizer.

+1 When dishwashers first came about (in my world 25 years ago), everything "looked" clean before being put in the DW.

Doug W Swanson
11-04-2013, 10:45 PM
I never pre-rinse my dishes and very seldom have a problem with anything left over after the dishwasher runs. Mainly because we make sure the dishes are well organized and not just scattered all over.
We did have a problem with spots a few years ago. After much research what here is what I ended up doing:
-cleaned out the bottom of the dishwasher really well
-ran a cycle with no dishes and a dishwasher 'cleaner' ( I don't remember the brand)
-use a little of this every few cycles (http://www.lemishine.com/)

Ever since then, the dishwasher works great and no more spots!