Bosch Dishwasher not cleaning properly

[dustin92]

We have a Bosch Ascenta dishwasher, model not easily obtainable (it's on the side of the door facing a cabinet) anyway it's a couple years old and recently it hasn't been cleaning and/or rinsing well. It's had pretty heavy daily use but still seems to sound/act normal, water is being heated, cycles take normal amounts of time etc.. If I open the door quickly water is spraying from both arms and they seem to be turning. Normal everyday food soil is being removed but the majority of that is deposited in the filter at the end of the cycle, and any water remaining in the sump is cloudy and starts to smell after about 24 hours. Dishes look cloudy and streaked, anything dark has a film on it.. Dishes don't "feel" clean. We have been using Sam's club ultimate clean pods since we got the dishwasher new, and recently bought a box of Cascade complete powder when things weren't getting clean.. That works in very small doses- small enough I'm not sure it's doing any good.. Like a teaspoon or so or else everything is streaked. Using Jet dry in the dispenser, believe it's at setting 2 of 5. Filter used to go months between cleaning, now it's partially blocked every few days if I don't clean it. I usually use the Heavy Wash or Auto Wash with or without sanitize. Something's up and I'm not sure what, but I don't like it. Any advice is appreciated but I have checked everything obvious and to the best of my ability, just running out of ideas and not wanting to replace it if I don't have to.

 

[combo52]

Poor Cleaning Bosch DW

We see a lot of these that have bad inlet valves, often as they fail they do not let enough water in the DW.

 

To test try adding about 1/2 gallon of hot water after the DW has filled and is running, if the wash action improves noticeably change the inlet valve.

 

John L.

 

[mattl]

One other thought might be a partially block drain line.  If the sump water starts to smell after 24 hours odds are garbage is collecting there and not getting pumped out.

 

[thomasortega]

A third possibility is the detergent.

Try Cascade Fryer Boil out. You can find it on Amazon.

This product, now meant to be used to clean deep fryers in restaurants is nothing more, nothing less than the vintage Cascade dishwasher detergent.

You'll be shocked with the results after the second or third load. The first and second loads it will actually clean your dishwasher and get rid of that nasty film left by regular modern dishwasher detergents.

 

[DADoES]

 
Boil Out (formerly Cascade Institutional) has been my go-to for 8+ years, is a phosphates/chlorine bleach formula.  It works great for tea/coffee/tomato stains on plastics and majority of soil types ... but not on egg residue (which needs enzymes).

 

[jamiel]

Presumably you've taken out the bottom wash arm and made sure the downward-facing sweeper nozzle (sweeps debris off the metal screen into the fine filter) isn't clogged (so is actually washing debris into the cylindrical fine filter). Other than that I've got nothing...our Ascenta does a fine job.

 

[henene4]

Dunno about US machines, but EU machines of last gen (before the EcoSilenceDrive was introduced) could get clogged float&#92pressure switches and&#92or airgaps in the water pocket which led to further and further lowering of fill levels...

What's the age of the machine?

 

[petek]

Can't add anymore suggestions than what others have.. I'm perplexed though when you say it's a model not easily obtainable positioned on the side of a door facing a cabinet? side of a door?

 

[earthling177]

Pete:

A bunch of Euro Dishwashers have a sticker containing the appliance info (Model Number, Serial Number, Voltage, Wattage etc) that is located either at the left or the right side of the door, so, when you open the door, you can look at it.

Trouble is, when a kitchen layout is an L, it can easily happen that the dishwasher door can open just fine, but you cannot look at that label because it is facing another cabinet and there's not enough room for a person to look at it or photograph it.

(The Dishwasher in the picture [which I found by googling] would make it very hard to see the label if it were on the right side of the door, for example.)

http://www.kitchen-cabinet-design.org/images/kitchen-with-kitchen-appliance.jpg

 

[dustin92]

I used the Cascade institutional formula once years ago and it didn't do well with our hard water, plus if I remember properly, Bosch doesn't want detergents with chlorine used in it.. I do cheat and add a splash of bleach when it starts to smell funky.
Yes that picture is similar to the setup we have, our sink is to the right and the dishwasher opens in front of it.. The kitchen is a small U shape more or less. Weird setup I know, but it works. Both wash arms are completely clean and turn freely. It's still washing dishes but not as well before and there is usually food residue left in the filter or on the bottom of the dishwasher, whereas that was being washed away before. Dishes seem to have a food or detergent residue, which can be seen in the picture to follow.

 

[dustin92]

First pic is filter after one load, it normally doesn't get this dirty in a month.. Second pic shows residue on the black air fryer basket- I wiped some away to show the difference. This was after a normal/lightly soiled load washed on heavy wash with sanitize.

 

[appnut]

Have you tried the suggestion above to add more water after it fills for a cycle circulation phase and see if that improves the situation? That's implying that it's not it's getting as much water is it used to in should be for Effective cleaning. This a restricted inlet valve

 

[appnut]

Dustin, you mentioned hard water.  Hard water killed the distribution valve in my Kenmore Elite (KitchenAid) 2 years ago.  4 loads later, hard water also contributed to the failure of my pump overall.  It was noted on the invoice evidence of hard water build-up was noticed with the first repair.  The repairman, who had been repairing for over 30 years, suggested I I use Lemi Shine dishwasher cleaner once a month and also put some Lemi Shine dish detergent booster in the dispenser with the tablet/pod.  I also put a little Cascade Complete powder in the prewash dispenser each load too.  Thus far, no issues 2 years later.   the next time I replace the dishwasher, I'm going to get a model with built-in water softner.  

 

[sudsmaster]

I recently had an issue with an older Bosch (SHU43C) that's about 15-20 years old. The problem was not with the water inlet valve, but with the drain valve. It wasn't draining completely and yes, there were would be dirty water at the end of the cycle - to the point where it was above the coarse filter. Replacing it wasn't difficult and fixed the problem. It went back to washing as good as new. A subsequent problem was a lot of noise when draining. Apparently something got past the fine filter (I found a plastic blood glucose test strip in the sump). I pulled the cover over the drain pump and sucked out what water and debris that was in there (with a little wet vac, of course). It's possible there was some broken glass in there as well. Again, it's back to normal after that.

 

One thing I've noticed is that with this Euro style dishwasher, with no disposer function, it's important to keep food debris off the stuff being washed. The fine filter does a good job keeping debris out of the recirculation, but then it seems to try to flush it down the drain, past the fine filter. Sometimes that debris gets hung up in the air gap on top of the sink.  It's possible your drain line is blocked, as somebody already suggested.

 

 

[askolover]

Can you stick a camera inside and film a cycle? 

 

[dustin92]

Well life has happened and I haven't posted on here in a minute- we do use the LemiShime booster and I did find a small amount of stuff in around the drain pump port- cleaned it out but doesn't seem to have a lot of effect. It is draining completely but the small amount of water left under the filter in the sump is cloudy and greasy. I did add a quart of water to a cycle once it had started washing and it just drained it back out and continued washing. I did notice a different noise as the cycle is starting before the pump ramps all the way up, sort of a vibration.. It seems like when it's making that noise the pump is losing speed, I'm wondering if unfortunately the pump is starting to fail. Hopefully it's something simple, if we end up replacing a 2 year old high end dishwasher, it won't be another Bosch.

 

[sudsmaster]

When my Bosch failed, I had been using some Costco dishwasher detergent packs. I didn't like the results - cloudy water, deposits, and streaking. I switched (back) to Finish Tabs and the results are much better. Of course the  problems with the Costco detergent might have been related to the other problems the DW was having. I haven't gone back to it so see. Although I have a large amount left.

 

 

 

 

[joe_in_philly]

Slow sink drain?

I had something sort of similar happen with my Bosch dishwasher.

When the drain in my kitchen sink was partially clogged and draining slowly, I had grit on the “clean” dishes. In my case everything looked clean, but I could feel some grit on the dishes and the water in the sump at the end of the cycle looks cloudy. I would run the dishwasher at night, and didn’t know what was going on at first. But I realized that when the dishwasher drained (into the garbage disposal) it would back up into the disposal and even a little into the sink. When the drain pump stopped, some of the dirty water would drain back into the dishwasher. Once the drain was cleared the problem went away.

I believe one plus of the Bosch’s heated wash and final rinse is that it seems to keep my kitchen sink drain clear. Before I got the Bosch dishwasher my kitchen drain would get slow a few times a year. In the 14 years I’ve had my Bosch dishwasher the sink drain has only become slow that one time.

 

[sudsmaster]

I confess I'm getting a bit tired of having the clear the air gap on the sink before each time I run the dishwasher.

 

Last time I had the Bosch out from under the counter, I noticed that the drain line takes a big loop up to the top of the dishwasher. I am thinking this effectively functions as an anti-drainback feature - at least that's the impression I got from the manual. I am thinking of reconnecting the Bosch direct to the disposer port, and bypassing the air gap nonsense. Anybody else try this?

 

I suppose the worst that can happen is dirty drain water being flushed back into the dishwasher. The benefit could be not having to clear the air gap all the time.