Very true, some machines don't need as much. I have a Whirlpool PowerClean and hard water. If we had soft water or a machine that used less water I'd use less most likely.
Is medium water a thing? I don't have soft water or very hard water.
My son, myself, and a butter knife pried up the cap on the bottom of the dishwasher. We got down to the screen & it looks good. Kinda afraid to start digging deeper.
The Cascade makes a huge difference. I ran a load & it came out much better. No food all over the dishes. I'm hoping the right detergent is the fix.
A Whirlpool guy told me today a person should use a teaspoon of detergent for every grain of water hardness. So if your water hardness is 15 grains, you should use 15 teaspoons.
I have to balk at this.
My water is 25gpg.....and there's no way I would go and use 25tsp lol.
Especially when most dishwashers today fill with 1gal of water or less.
Your glasses would dissolve in weeks.
I have to imagine a water charge variable has to be involved in that equation.
When your water is over 15gpg, it's pretty much a toss-up if your dishwasher will "wash" at all.
A traveling softener salesman some years ago tested my water at 9 grains. My dishwasher's dispenser has a capacity 2 teaspoons (10g) for the prewash cup and 6 teaspoons (30g) for the main wash cup.
not needing to rinse dishes, my dad told me the dishwasher is mainly a sinitizer, and that's why it was invented. A guy from Kowloon Alberta, or used to be, at least agrees with me. He siad rinse your dishes off. It wasn't on here, but it was in one of his online comments.
The first successful dishwashing machine was invented by wealthy socialite Josephine Cochran/e in an effort to avoid the troubles of her household staff breaking her china and crystal and get the job done quicker then handwashing. Sanitization isn't stated as a primary reason for her effort, although of course a machine can douse the dishware with water hotter than is safe for hands and with more aggressive chemical cleaners.
In a quick scan of the thread, I haven't seen anyone suggest to check that the machine is filling with the correct amount of water.. I don't know how much these are supposed to hold per fill, but maybe try adding half a gallon or so of water to the machine manually after it finishes each fill? See if that makes any difference. Could be a clogged inlet screen or restricted shutoff valve. Also I'd experiment with detergents- I'm having good luck lately with a Cascade pod in the main wash compartment and Cascade complete liquid in the prewash. I never rinse first and we are currently using a cheap dishwasher- NO dishwasher should be leaving food particles on the dishes.
The fill period is timed, usually 2 mins. Normal fill level is *not* controlled by the float. The float is for overfill protection ... for example in the event that the wash water doesn't fully drain, the next fill of 2 mins for rinse would overfill the tub so the float shuts the water off before that happens.
Normal fill level should touch the heating element, if not slightly cover it.
There is no adjustment screw for the water pressure or fill level. You may be confusing that with some models of washing machines.
My mom had a whirlpool gold point voyager dishwasher which would leave grit inside the glasses in the corners and leak rinse aid. I think the worst was leaving grit in glasses. She was forced to run pots/pans, soak/scour and heat dry. Finally, she'd had enough and bought a kenmore in 2011 and she didn't miss the whirlpool. My dad took possession of it until 2016 prior to the Frigidaire which lasted until late 2017. My dad has a Kenmore which has powerwave and triple filtration. I don't miss the food grinder due to my experience. Well, maybe a little. I think the alternating wash arms helped the dishwasher perform better than I expected.
When Kitchenaid discontinued using a constant rinse on the top of the tub, they replaced it sometime later with a supply manifold for the upper wash arm under the top rack with a manifold with a small slit in it that would spray water over the tops of whatever was in the top rack.
You may want to take a look and see if your machine has that style manifold and if so, make sure that there is not some debris or build up that is preventing the water from spraying out.
If there is no slit in it at all, send me an email as I have two of them available. I think it will help your situation. Not necessarily a cure all but certainly won't hurt.
Attaching pics of what it looks like.