Is there such think as Dishwasher Abuse?

[washer111]

I pose this question to people to ask if there is such a thing? Can you actually put too much loose soil into a dishwasher, and except stuff to come clean?

Maybe!

We No longer rinse our dishes, we did with our supposed "fire hazard" Electrolux/Dishlex DX302 in White, since we always used the "Quick30" or "Eco45º" cycle, with TABLETS (OMG!) and expected results. How silly do we feel, eh?
In fact, with the DishDrawer, we must be close to torturing the machine. Every day, greasy, protein laden plates, at least a teaspoon worth of oats, tea, coffee and milk all in the dishwasher, then nicely soiled forks, spoons and other utensils facing down in the cutlery basket.
Yesterday evening's load (and a number of others) were "near bob load" although, I'm sure some could find a place for one more thing (besides, I had every washable object I could think of in there). A generous amount of mash potato (well, leavings on the plate), grease from the chicken, tomatoe sauces, rice and meat from the day's school lunches along with the usual array of drinks. And a pre-rinsed casserole dish (I wasn't going to put something that had around 2" of oily stuff in the Dishwasher).
That must constitute abuse right there.

Or maybe not! Running the DishDrawer without it's drain filter, with everyday soils, thats crazy! Yes folks, we've had to do that since the drain filter on the bottom drawer went kaput (it has separated!). Amazingly, the dish-drawer cleaned the dishes, disposed of the garbage and CLEANED the that filter plate in the bottom. It is cleaner than the top-drawer's plate. Interesting!
The reason for this: A nice, sturdy magnetically driven impeller which obviously bashes the water up enough to get rid of nasty bits of knurr. With regards to the filter plate, the DD's wash arm has a sprayer on the underside to push dirt and grit towards the drain filter. This works, but all soils end up next to, but not really in the filter. Without the filter, soils are pushed towards the open area, and can be drawn back into the pump system thru the opening in that area, where the filter once lived. This leaves a lovely, clean filter plate, and gives this dishwasher the title of "Fisher and Paykel Double Dish-drawer WITH Soft food disposal and Self-Cleaning filters."

Here are some pics of yesterday evening's load.
Note, I also include some shots of the dirty filter plate and drain filter, which haven't been cleaned for at least a month. (I no longer touch the drain filter, since they are so easy to break. The old one failed because of my "daily cleaning" duty I used to perform).
Also Note that the plate you see at the back is one of 3 similarly soiled plates.

Finally, post your photos (new or old) if you think you've "abused" your daily driver in any way!

 

[washer111]

Whats Under that Casserole?

A cup!

That dish was pre-rinsed, to save our plumbing from "clogged" arteries...

 

[washer111]

This Morning's Results!

After the Regular cycle. I wasn't particularly tempted to use Delicate today... Although I trusted myself enough to not use the Heavy or Heavy Eco cycle!

 

[washer111]

That Casserole:

Came out great. I'm starting to think this DD is also beginning to remove years of burnt on garbage, as there is less and less after each run in the DD (if ever so slight!)

 

[washer111]

Aftermath of Lack 'O' Cleaning:

There was a shot of the filter plate, but since I can't stitch photos together, that wasn't worth the time and effort of everyone's eyes!

This filter I do believe filters out large bits of food during the wash cycle, but I'm sure sure how much use it actually receives...

So, should I go to jail for Dish Washer crimes?

 

[rapunzel]

"So, should I go to jail for Dish Washer crimes? "

Absolutely not. If a dishwasher can not handle dirty dishes it is the manufacturer that ought to be held to task for designing and manufacturing rubbish.

Now, had you used the heavy cycle (without eco option), your filter would have been cleaner.

 

[jerrod6]

I don't think you belong in jail but I do think some do a better job of scraping than you.  I put some items in the machine that have stuck on, dried or burned on soil  like cheese and that cannot be easily removed.  On the other hand I use a silicon spatula or paper towel to slide soft materials off of most  items.  My reasoning is that the DW is not a garbage disposer not even the ones that have a soft food grinder. Time has showed us that even Dw with soft food grinders have soil screens -not easily accessed by owners -  that must be cleaned. 

 

Have also learned that fiber supplements like Konsyl will cause problems.  This stuff is mixed with water, juice or used in smoothies and increases fiber in your diet that's the good.  The bad is that utensils, blender bowls, and glasses that come in contact with the fiber are left gritty; then when placed into the Dw with hot water the grit turns into a thick gel slime. The circulation pump on my Dw has no trouble pulling water through the gel covered filters, but the drain pump is not able to extract all of the water through this mess.  So after having one drain fault, finding gel/slime all over everything, having to get on my knees and suck the water out of the sump with a turkey baster,  then wipe slime off of everything, -  I wash anything that comes in contact with this fiber by hand.

 

[DADoES]

 
I *rarely* clean the filters on my unit.  I'd say maybe 5 times in 8 years.  I scrape to about the same degree as shown in your pics.  Probably wouldn't have pretreated the casserole quite as much as you did.  However, my older unit has different cycle sequences.  All cycles except Fast allow two wash periods.  I use 1 to 1-1/2 tsp detergent in the prewash dispenser cup, except in very light-soil situations.  Interestingly also, my drain filters are an older style that don't have the fine-mesh screen.

 

[jerrod6]

I rarely even look at my filters..... until I started using this fiber stuff. YUCK!

 

[washer111]

@rapunzel
I suppose the filter would've been cleaner, since the temperature and added wash time would've help to completely "scrape out" excess detergent and garbage.

@jerrod6
If we used that sort of stuff, we might be more careful with what goes in there! But the only fibrous material that goes in there is oats with traces of Physillium Husk and LSA (NOT LSD!) Thankfully, all filters on this machine are accessible. The pump can be removed through the tub, so you can clean the "sump" area quite easily.
By the way, the best scraping we generally do is open the bin and tip the plate. We do scape more thoroughly for oats, so we don't overload the thing too much.

@dadoes
The casserole didn't really have any soils apart from a large amount of slightly set grease. Rather than push my luck with that amount of oil, I rinsed it out. What you see there is any soils left after me rinsing the oil away.
Its also disappointing that my model doesn't feature the prewash, like older Australian models and to this date, American models. However, I believe the most recent iteration (via viewing of the User Guide from the DD60DCX7) no longer uses a 'Prewash' but a "Prerinse," there is no mention of adding detergent to that dispenser, so it probably isn't recommended/needed.

Next time I want to "clean" the filters, I might try running the dishwasher empty with some Citric Acid or maybe some detergent on the Heavy Cycle.
As I mentioned above though, running without a drain filter seems to mean the main filter plate is "self cleaning" and has remained clean even after loads of dinner plates like this. It's actually quite interesting. All thanks to that filter cleaning "jet" in the bottom of the wash arm, and a fiesty little pump impeller!

 

[Philip0603]

I only clean the filter on my Miele every 6 months, (yes I am sad enough to mark the day on the calendar) as the machine self cleans it's filters. And you can get pills to help with dishwasher abuse, perhaps talk to someone!!!!!!!!