4 Reasons Why Your Dishwasher Isn't Cleaning Your Dishes Properly

If you want your home to be a nice, welcoming environment, you need to keep it clean and tidy. It’s particularly important that you clean the kitchen properly because if there are germs and bacteria around, it could make you sick. If you’re lucky, you might have a dishwasher to do all of the hard work for you. However, dishwashers aren’t always as great as people think and sometimes, they find that things are going in dirty and coming out a bit less dirty, rather than coming out sparkling clean. If you’re having the same problem, you should look into some of these reasons why your dishwasher isn’t working properly.

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You’re Rinsing Beforehand

You’ve probably heard that you need to rinse your plates off before you put them in the dishwasher but that’s actually a myth. Most people do it and they think that it helps keep the dishwasher clean. That was the case in the past but in modern dishwashers, it’s not necessary. In fact, it actually makes the dishwasher less effective a lot of the time. Modern dishwashers have sensors that decide how long the cycle should be and what temperature to wash at based on how many food particles are on the dishes. If you clean most of it off, it will run a short cycle and won’t clean very effectively. You do need to scrape any large bits off but there’s no need to rinse.

The Filters Are Clogged 

If you aren’t scraping those large bits of food off before you load the dishwasher, you’re likely to have a problem with clogged filters. All of that excess food left on the plates will get stuck in the filter and over time, it will build up into a horrible mess. A lot of that will start coming away during the wash cycle and get stuck on your plates again. To avoid this, you’ll need to take the filters out and clean them or consider replacing them if they’re really bad.

The Spray Arms Are Clogged 

In places where you have hard water, you can get a buildup of limescale and soap scum in the spray arms so they don’t clean effectively. The best way to avoid this is to choose the right dishwasher detergent (click here for some suggestions) that is designed for hard water. This should help to stop the buildup of limescale in the first place. If it’s already happened, you’ll have to remove the arms and try to clear the limescale out.

The Seals Are Dirty 

Nobody ever thinks to clean the seals around the edges of the doors in the dishwasher, which is why they’re usually filled with grime and old food. All of that residue is getting onto your dishes when you put them in to wash, so they don’t come out nice and clean. If you get in there with a toothbrush and scrub them out, you should notice a big difference.

A dishwasher should make life easier for you but you do still have to look after it properly if you want beautifully clean dishes.