Dishwasher Maintenance Tips | Cleaning Your Dishwasher
The following dishwasher maintenance tips will help your dishwasher last longer. Taking care of your dishwasher and keeping it clean is a easy way to keep it running longer without having problems. If you use your dishwasher daily it really does not need to be cleaned that often.
Make sure you are rinsing off your dishes good and getting all the food off before loading them in the dishwasher. Even if your dishwasher has a hard food disposer/grinder equipped, it’s best to not load dishes before rinsing them off a bit. Left over food items can cause blockage, wear and tear and even damage the unit.
Check all the spray arms in the washer every once in a while and make sure that none of the water outlet holes are stopped up. If you see any that are clogged with any build up, just use anything with a fine point on it to clear the blockage (Toothpicks work well). This will ensure that the dishwasher is able to use the full water pressure to clean the dishes with.
Keep the door gaskets clean by wiping them down every so often with a damp rag or sponge. Be sure to clean under the bottom of the door as well, some models have a gasket under the bottom of the door and they are prone to leak when they get grit and grime built up on them.
Check the bottom tub of the dishwasher for any debris and keep it cleaned out regular to avoid the dishwasher getting clogged up and stopping water flow to the spray arms.
Be sure to clean the filters often, refer to your owner’s manual for instructions to clean the filter on your model dishwasher.
Once a month run a empty cycle just to clean out the unit, you can use Affresh or similar cleaners to aid in the cleaning cycle.
You can wipe down the outside with a rag and warm water and a little dish soap if needed. If you have a stainless steel unit do not use bleach to wipe it down.
If you are not going to be using the washer for an extended period of time make sure that all the dishes are removed and leave the dishwasher door cracked open to allow it to breathe, if it’s closed up for a while and it’s still wet inside, it will smell bad when you go to use it again. Hopefully these dishwasher maintenance tips will lengthen the lifespan of your dishwasher.
