My dishwasher isn’t cleaning effectively.

Dishwashers are incredibly good labour-savers and we have all become accustomed to the relative ease of filling them up with dirty dishes and retrieving sparkling clean dishes only a short while later.  So, if your dishwasher stops giving you the dazzling results that it delivered when it was new, what is going on and how can you restore its washing performance?

  • Cloudy glassware

    Hard water can result in mineral deposits which build up over time and form a layer on glassware, causing it to look cloudy or misty to the eye. Hard water calcium deposits can also cause your dishwasher to have problems, so be sure to make sure that you are using the right amount of dishwasher salt to soften water where required.

    If you wash glassware very frequently, you may also find that corrosion forms on the glass surface and has actually caused your glasses to become opaque.

    You might also discover white spot "mineral deposits" again caused by hard water.

  • Salty taste

    Be careful to make sure that you are not overfilling the salt reservoir in your dishwasher. Spilt salt can also wash around the machine and get deposited on your dishes, so clear up any spills as soon as they occur. Check that the lid of the salt reservoir is well fitted and that there is no stray salt escaping into the wash. If these efforts do not resolve your problems, you may need to consider asking an engineer to investigate further.

  • The dishes are still dirty

    If your dishwasher isn't cleaning your dishes and utensils well, there a few things to check.

    One of the most obvious but often overlooked, is to consider whether you are stacking your dishwasher sensibly. In the rush to clear away dirty dishes after dinner, it can be tempting to adopt a slapdash approach in filling the machine and failing to take adequate care over how differently types and sizes of dish are stacked in the machine. You want to stack your dishwasher in a manner that allows the hot water to circulate around the dishes efficiently, so be careful not to block the jets of water coming from the rotating spray arms by inserting inappropriately large trays or dishes which might interfere with water circulation.

    Further, check the spray arms themselves. They have small holes in them which can become blocked and prevent the water from efficiently reaching your dirty dishes. You can clean the holes out with a suitable small implement, such as a needle. If the spray arms are damaged, they are easily and cheaply replaced and usually come out with ease.