My apartment dishwasher isn't cleaning very well. Any advice?

[nmassman44]

Well for starters after reading the posts here is the detergent choice. Cascade Action pacs in hard water will not clean well. When I lived in Mass the water hardness was on the soft side and I used Cascade Complete powder and got great results. Now moving here to Florida and our water being hard I found that same Cascade powder did not perform like it did back in Mass. Even with a rinse aid it left a residue on the dishes and tank of the dishwasher. I switched to Cascade Platinum and that performs extremely well in my water conditions. Don’t bother with the insanely pricey Cascade Platinum Plus pacs since they clean no better than regular Cascade Platinum. Another detergent that works well is Finish Quantum Hard Water pacs. They do a good job but not as well as Cascade Platinum in my opinion.
The other thing is when you are cleaning the filter on the dishwasher is to not just run it under water but to take a good medium toothbrush and scrub the screen til you can see thru it. I do that once a month with my LG dishwasher and I do it when a new month is about to come I clean the filter. Finish also makes a Hard Water rinse aid that does really well in hard water conditions like yours.

 

[ryner1988]

Mike, thankyou for the recommendation and I will certainly try that other detergent. I also am not a user of RinseAid, but perhaps I will try that as well and see what happens.

 

[jamiel]

yes, good detergent and rinse aid and a thorough clean of the filter/sump/etc (toothbrush is a good idea...if the filter's bent or anything it will need to be replaced).

 

[mattl]

Wirecutter just did an extensive test and review of DW detergents, top place went to a somewhat rare version of Cascade pod, 2nd to Cascade Platinum plus and 3rd to Finnish powder.  That would be my suggestion in this case.  With an 18" DW you would need a bit less detergent so a powder might be the best option.

 

I use Platinum pods almost exclusively, but for small loads I do keep a box of Cascade powder around.

 

[tolivac]

Before anything---CONTACT YOUR LANDLORD and tell them your apt dishwasher won't work.Had this a couple of times-they simply replaced the old dishwasher with a NEW ONE!

 

[toggleswitch]

Please run the water at the sink to ensure it is HOT.

Are you using detergent in BOTH cups? If you choose to use a pod in the closed cup, use powder in the OPEN cup. TWO charges of detergent works best when the machine has TWO washes. (Or two charges of ordinary powdered detergent works well also. )

A DW can't remove all baked-on food items. It is ok to let the machine do 90% of the work then do a quick scrub of pots and pans.

If a load is particularly greasy, you can do a pre-wash of sorts or a "rinse and hold" if it exists. Simply start the machine with detergent. When it pumps out, cancel the cycle. Start again with two charges of detergent on any cycle BUT "NORMAL" ( This cycle tend to be focused on saving resources, not getting results.)

Hopefully (to save time, water and effort) there is no pre-rinsing or pre-washing by hand involved, before loading the DW. . Leftover dishsoap can be catastrophic to good results in a DW.

Hope this helps.

 

[ryner1988]

I think I figured out what the problem is

I believe I may have been pre-rinsing the dishes too much to compensate for the issue noted above, however it might have actually been the contributor to the problem.

Last night, I made quesadillas and they didn't turn out quite right, leaked all over the place and made a pretty big mess in my skillet. I could not get all of the mess rinsed out no matter what I did. There were also some really dirty plates with butter on them as well as a couple days' worth of breakfast bowls with oatmeal sludge on them that I couldn't rinse off. I ran this load in the DW on the pots and pans cycle and all came out perfectly clean, I also noticed on the wash portion of the cycle that the spray arms sounded normal, not deadened so to speak as they had been sounding previously.

The only thing I can figure is that my DW has a soil sensor that determines how dirty the load is and adjusts cycle strength accordingly. So, I might have been unintentionally making it harder for the machine to clean the load properly by pre-rinsing, so there were still dirty spots on my dishes after the cycle in that case.

I knew of course that higher-end DW's have this feature, but perhaps that's just standard on most modern machines now and I wasn't aware of this. Just didn't occur to me that my little apartment DW would have this feature.

Time will tell of course but I really think maybe this is what was happening.

Any thoughts?

Ryne

 

[mattl]

Scrape but do not prerinse dishes.  Modern detergents need soil on dishes to work properly.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

pre-rinsing

Also use a rinse aid, and quit pre-rinsing.

 

[johnb300m]

I'll chime in and say that, unfortunately, once you land on a good combo of detergent for your water conditions, sometimes the detergent brand will "reformulate."
You'll then get weird results you're not used to.
I've had this happen in the past.
Procter & Gamble is NOTORIOUS for constantly futzing with their formulas.
Sometimes I have good luck with Cascade pods. Sometimes not.
Cascade powder is pretty consistent, but it doesn't work well in all water conditions.
I've had better luck with Finish products in the past, which are more affordable too. But they also like to change things up once in a while.
Finish powder WAS working best in my 90s era KitchenAids, especially with coffee stains.
But my local stores have all stopped carrying Finish powder :/
Even when I've moved addresses, the differences in water source chemistry often forces me to re-calibrate what detergent to use, and what machine I have.
It's a fun game.

This of course is always dependent on wether your flavor of machine is functioning properly. And from what era.
Older machines tend to not like the pods. Newer machines are programmed to work best with pods.
But SOME older machines can work with pods, but not all brands.

 

[toggleswitch]

I would say, be sure the water at the faucet is hot. (both portables and built-ins) Use a good powdered detergent in BOTH detergent cups. Chose a heated wash cycle.

DO NOT USE THE NORMAL CYCLE. That is where the govt tests for water/energy efficiency. Even the "1-hour cycle" will provide better results.

And as mentioned, clean the filters often.

The OCCASIONAL capful of chlorine bleach should keep the machine shiny and odor-free.

Best wishes!