Pink Orange Colored Dishwasher?

[askomiele]

Hy!
My miele dishwasher turned 5 last week. But it's suffering from a kind of orange fever! Everthing that is made out of plastic is covered with a greasy orange/red color. Tried running it empty with normal detergent or special cleaning agent but non of this works. Can someone tells me where it's comming from and what I can do to get rid of it. I mean it's a miele so wanne use it till i'm in my 50'ties (witch is again 30 years to go)

 

[revvinkevin]

Photos?

Perhaps you can post some photos of what you are talking about?

Do you know if your city has hard water?

 

[askomiele]

We have hard water, but the guy who dilevered it preset the machin to make the water soft enough. We don't have any hardwater deposit on glasses nor other things.
A photo: the upper sprayarm is covered in a orange film. The normal color can be seen on the screw cap where the arm is attached to the waterpipe (upper part of the photo).

 

[maytagbear]

That looks like

tomato staining.

Have you tried using a high concentration of peroxide?

Here in the States, P&G sells "Cascade Plastic Booster," which is peroxide gel, and it gets tomato stains out of plastics, including wash arms.

Good luck!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[stevet]

let's IRON out this problem?

Perhaps your water is very high in IRON. I have seen many commercial machines which have no lime deposits in them due to water softener use but the iron is left behind and coats everything in a rust or orange colored hue.
You may want to try running a cycle with a few tablespoons of Oxalic Acid and then a fresh water quick cycle(no Detergent)

Also, the detergent you are using may be high in chlorine content which will precipitate the iron out of any water especially at higher temperatures. Changing detergents may help too.
Also, if your unit has a water softener in it as you allude to, can you change the salt in it and use a salt which sequesters the iron? I know Morton Salt makes a product here for regular size softeners which will do that, but they are the standard pellets which I don't know if they would fit your smaller softener.
Hope this helps.

 

[nmaineman36]

A thing about water softeners in a dishwasher. I have a Miele as well and they strictly say to use only dishwasher salt. Any other salt like table salt or salt of any kind other than dishwasher salt will ruin the water softener. On my Miele it automatically adjusts itself to the water hardness. Here in Lynn the water runs about 10 to 11 for a hardness. The only time I have ever seen orange on my arm is if I run a load with tomato sauce ie spaghetti sauce . I usually use that Cascade Booster to get rid of it. And I use the new Finish Quantum tabs and Cascade Complete or Ecover powder.
The salt I use in my dishwasher is the Miele Salt. Recently I had to buy some more salt and the dealer was only carrying the Somat special salt for dishwashers.I will have to say that the Somat Salt is a tad different compared to the Miele salt. Its whiter and larger in size and its made by Henkel in Germany.

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Askomiele,

I have that happen with my 3yo G2220 from time to time.

Usually after washing pans/plates etc with tomato based stuff in there.

In mine it usually goes back to white after a few washes.

I use Finish Powder.

 

[MrX]

This happens my machine too when I use certain pasta sauces. I think it's just super-concentrated essence of tomato. It's definitely not Iron deposits etc.

The best thing you can do is ignore it! It will go away after a few decent washes.

If you're really concerned about it, use an old formula detergent e.g. Sun LiquiGel / LiquiGel lemon.

These still contain chlorine bleach and are popular amongst a niche market who prefer their performance to modern enzyme & oxygen bleach based formulas.

They're brilliant if you don't have any patterned / painted dishes i.e. everything's white or stainless steel.

Run a wash with a large dose of Sun LiquiGel with no dishes and your machine will be bleached back to its original colour!

Dishwasher cleaners may help too, you can run something like Finish Dishwasher cleaner or Sun Dishwasher cleaner through the machine and it will *usually* remove everything.

The best way to avoid this problem is to pre-rinse any dishes that contain tomato puré / paste.

It often stains tupperware quite badly too.

 

[ronhic]

WOW....now I think I know....

....what has stained some of the plastic chopping boards.

We have the same issue with boards, though not all of them, some plastic containers and the 'large particle' filter. The spray arms seem to be ok in ours...

 

[rolls_rapide]

That'll be why Bosch and others...

...have grey spray arms and cutlery baskets.

 

[spankomatic]

Looks like tomato sauce to me. It will do the same thing if you heat some up in the microwave using a plastic bowl.

Jim

 

[chestermikeuk]

More Lickley Tomatoes!!!

Do you use tablets or powder?? I find if I use powder and sprinkle some on the door or use the pre-wash compartment it usually gets rid of it while prewashing...if you dont, as most dishwashers do an auto pre-wash on most programmes, all you do is spray the cold water mixture all over the rest of the tub and dishes etc...

If it still resists, using a dishwasher cleaner on the hottest wash, should do the trick!!!

 

[kinnakeettom]

place a cup of tang powder in it and run it thru a wash.
you will be surprised.