We had two household crises: (1) The upstairs toilet clogged, and even after vigorous plunging was only flushing half-heartedly (i.e., the water went down, but not the toilet paper), and (2) The dishwasher stopped cleaning the dishes, even though it sounded like it was running normally.
In time-honored tradition, I first made two unfounded accusations:
Then, this past weekend, Paul purchased some sort of toilet device and used it to discover a BRANCH flushed down the toilet. So it WAS the children’s fault, but not in the way I thought: Henry had flushed his “sword,” by, he assures me, “accident.”
Less success with the second crisis: we switched back to regular dishwasher detergent, but there is still food all over the dishes (and splashes of food/milk untouched on the inside of the dishwasher door), so we are hand-washing. Another branch, this time crammed in the dishwasher water-sprayer? STAY TUNED.
Our dishwasher stopped working too. Same issue, just not getting very clean, sometimes I dont’ think the dishes get wet at all, at least on the bottom rack. Also hand-washing. Which, UGH.
My dishwasher stopped working back a few months ago– it would make all kinds of wooshy, promising noises and then I would open it and… there was all the food and grossness still stuck to the dishes. I finally had to have a repairman come fix it. There was a problem with the, uh, control panel I think? It was nothing that I could fix by turning it off and on again, flipping the circuit breaker, or cursing at it (which encompasses the extent of my dishwasher fixing abilities).
We tried everything to get our dishwasher to actually WASH DISHES before I gave in and bought a new one. Best purchase ever. Dishwasher technology has greatly improved in the last 10 years and not only does the new one get my dishes clean (and dry!) I can run it while we are watching tv or the baby is sleeping nearby. It’s magically quiet. The amount it improved my life was worth a lot more than the money is cost. If you can swing it, I recommend replacing it.
We thought our dishwasher was broken after using “environmentally friendly” soap for a while. It took quite a few loads with normal soap to get back to normal. Cascade “All in One” worked the best to really clean things out!
I’d be seething if it were my own children and my own toilet, but can I just say: a ha ha ha ha a BRANCH OMFG how did he even get it DOWN there?
Try Cascade Action Packs. They are magical…they really get your dishes clean. Also, how old is your dishwasher? I read an article about old/older dishwashers and how they don’t heat water well, which means your dishes don’t get sanitized, let alone clean. Eww.
Way back in the early 90s, one of my mom’s cousins came from Ireland to live with us in LA for three months. She was only 18 at the time.
Our household’s only toilet clogged, so my parents had to call the landlord. He was the kind of landlord who did a lot of stuff himself to save money, so he came out and snaked the toilet (?) and anyway it was discovered that my cousin, unaware that American plumbing is far different from British plumbing, had flushed what the landlord referred to as A Sanitary Napkin.
She was mortified.
Sometimes the filter gets clogged in a dishwasher. You’re supposed to have them serviced regularly, and ours always cleans better after the guy comes and does the regular maintenance. Cheaper than a new dishwasher. Besides, I feel like you JUST GOT your dishwasher, so it can’t be that it’s old.
We have a clog-prone toilet. I never considered that there might be a branch down there. Then again, Henry doesn’t live at our house.
URGH. Glad the toilet is working, at least. I hate hand washing, so I’m sending lots of sympathy!
We had a dishwasher in college that we periodically had to run with no dishes just to clear it out. Then it would clean dishes again.
The mere thought of hand washing dishes makes me want to DIE!!!
Our dishwasher was doing that and we cleaned out the bottom of it where it drains (I have no idea what it is called) Once we cleaned out all of the crap that was stuck in there it did a much better job of cleaning….
A branch/sword. Huh. That… makes complete sense.
Good luck with the dishwasher! Maybe it has an equally reasonable solution.
Do y’all have a water softener? We found out that was the culprit, and also never by Kirkland’s dishwasher detergent (the stuf you get at Costco). We had the same exact issues and they were resolved successfully.
We had a similar dishwasher problem. We googled something like “dishwasher not cleaning well” and my husband read up on it and unclogged something. Here’s a NYT article (NYT — it must be important if it’s there!) that talks about different solutions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/garden/21fix.html
I know you didn’t ask us to solve it but I can’t help myself to try. Handwashing would make me want to just move.
Shai makes a good point. If you get mineral sediment buildup in the bottom of your tea kettle, that means you can also acquire it in your DW, particularly in the little holes where the water comes out. Check the directions, but I think you can run an empty cycle with Lime-away or some such product. Also, not to blame the victim, but overloading will cause the problem you describe.
Also, as Allyson noted, the action packs help, because they help the water sheet off the dishes and rinse away the crumby feeling residue.
The special soap might have clogged the water sprayers. Maybe try running it through several times with no dishes in it?
If it were me I’d bleach out the inside but I’m sure that’s probablly not safe so don’t do that, ha!
Same sitch here with the dishwasher only ours was quietly leaking while sounding like it was cleaning. Dishes came out dirtier than they went in! So DW is a drying rack now until we get get tired of hand washing…we just replaced the M/W so we are trying to pace our appliance purchases…
;.)
Another thought on why dishes aren’t quite getting clean: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132072122/it-s-not-your-fault-your-dishes-are-still-dirty
It is so weird I am having the exact same dishwasher problem. I however, live in an apartments and so THEY have to fix it.
Glad Paul can help do some home repair for you guys
that is all
There is an article in this month’s Woman’sDay about dishwasher issues. It seems like maybe your sprayer is clogged. Supposedly you can fix that yourself with a toothpick?
One of my roommates in college washed a dish that had sunflower seed shells (husks?) in it in the dishwasher, which then clogged not only the filter at the bottom (also known as a trap) of the dishwasher, but also the little holes of the sprayer. Further issues arose when the garbage disposal got clogged. In short, ditto what everyone says about cleaning your filter, and you can take the sprayer bar (it always reminds me of a helicopter) out and check that those holes are working, maybe unclog them somehow, but ALSO, make sure the connection of the dishwasher to your garbage disposal is still sound and that the disposal is working correctly.
Thinking back on those college days… man, before we fixed that dishwasher, it stunk to high heaven. Luckily, we had a pretty handy landlord.
Oh! I am reading every single comment because this is happening to me toooo. (Also, lady in NPR article seems like a real bitch. Word?)
Hopefully something will help because the Cascade isn’t working either. I am pretty sure we have a clogged something-or-other, though.
Go read the article Gwen posted!!! Recently, manufacturers of dishwasher detergents have been removing phosphates from the detergents in order for them to be more environmentally friendly. It is mandated by some states and will probably be mandated by all in the near future.
I thought that our brand new dishwasher was a dud. There was stuff stuck all over them. I just happened to hear the story on NPR one day while in the car.
I switched to Finish All in 1 Powerball Tabs (following internet research) and always keep the rinse agent reservoir full. Our dishes are much cleaner and I am much happier!
TracyB
I was ready to dump my Bosch until a technician came out and took a look at it. No parts necessary. Empty your dishwasher. Run two cups of vinegar through a regular cycle. Do that twice. That will clean crud and mineral deposits off of the sensors and generally spiff things up. Then use Lemi Shinte (WalMart) along with your detergent when you run loads of dishes. I also added use those Jetdry baskets (they hang from the top rack). I’m embarrassed to say how happy I am when I can empty the dishwasher and all the dishes are clean and shiny. Ugh. My life has come to this.
1. I’d heard about the reduced phosphate thing. But our dishwasher (which is relatively new—less than a year?) was working fine until suddenly between one load and the next it stopped cleaning the dishes.
2. Paul checked the connection to the disposal (and made sure the disposal wasn’t clogged); I took out the sprayer and looked for gunk in the holes, but no visible gunk.
3. Our model has a self-cleaning filter, but I could see it when I took out the sprayer, and it looked fine. It had a little detergent on it—but so does the rest of the inside of the dishwasher, since it’s…not working.
4. We use a rinse aid already; there’s a compartment for it in the dishwasher near the detergent cup.
I looked up the manual online, and the ENTIRE troubleshooting section is “You probably loaded the dishes wrong.” NO info about filter, or about unclogging sprayers. Thanks, Kitchenaid! It does suggest running the dishwasher with 2 cups of vinegar in a bowl in the bottom, so I’m trying that now.
Oh Henry… haha
Oh oh oh! Next time your toilet is clogged (not sure whether this would have helped with the um, sword), try this: squirt some hand dishwashing soap down in there, let it sink, and then flush. This works for me nearly every time. Like when my husband flushes a paper towel of dog poo, for example, and clogs it.
Fay- Ooo, I will add that to my repertoire!
Our sink and our shower/bath clogged on the same day. That was a really bad day. Confession: I don’t have a dishwasher.
We have a KitchenAid, too, and our pump gets clogged if you don’t scrape the dishes thoroughly enough. Supposedly it has a food grinder, but it doesn’t seem to take much to jam it up. Find a good repairman: yours should still be under warranty, no? Also, do you have hard water? We just started using a product called Lemi-Shine (available on Amazon) and it works awesome without phosphates. Here in NY, you can’t even buy dishwasher detergent with phosphates anymore, it was banned a few months ago. I understand that you can still buy Commercial Cascade, though, from a restaurant supply place and that does contain phosphates. I’m all for environmentally friendly and clean my house almost exclusively with natural cleansers, but having to wash dishes twice isn’t exactly great for the environment either! At the moment, though, the Lemi-Shine is working great for us and after just a few uses my glasses are coming out sparkling and even the inside of the dishwasher looks cleaner. Good luck!
In the “Queen of Clean” book, she recommends putting a bowl in the bottom of the dishwasher with one cup of bleach in it, run through the wash cycle (no detergent) but do not dry, then run through the wash cycle again with 1 cup of white vinegar in the bowl. She also says that you can put all of your glassware in at the same time and it will clean that too. I do this every now and then to clean out the dishwasher, especially when it starts to smell funny!
Maybe I would know if this I was on Twitter (I just can’t bring myself to do it) but how did the dishwasher thing work out? Vinegar helpful?
Kelsey- My dad came over and tinkered with it, and now it works again! It was something about the upper rack being adjusted to a different position or something, and blocking the upper sprayer or something.