Your kitchen sponge holds over 400 different types of bacteria. The temperatures needed to keep these germs off your dishes are too high for your skin to handle, which is why dishwashers were invented.
Not only do dishwashers get your dishes sparkling clean, but using them saves you a ton of time. They’re super convenient until they break.
There will come a time during the life of your appliance when it will refuse to drain or it won’t get your dishes clean.
These are only a few dishwasher problems that you’re bound to experience. Check out this guide for a full list of issues that you can fix on your own.
1. Your Dishes Come Out Dirty
You’ll typically use up less water by using your dishwasher than by washing your dishes by hand. That is unless you’ve got to run the same dishes through the wash multiple times.
It’s frustrating to pull out a glass that’s covered in caked-on food and white spots. Before you call a dishwasher repair technician, make sure that you’re not doing anything wrong on your end.
Read the user manual to check if you’re overloading the machine. Depending on how you organize your utensils, one or more of them could be preventing the spray arms from spinning.
Dishwashers are powerful, but most of them aren’t strong enough to handle stuck-on condiments. Always scrape your plates before putting them in the machine.
If you confirm that you’re not doing anything wrong, check the drain screen and door gasket for blockages. Give the spray arms a spin. If you’re met with some resistance, you may need to clean them.
2. The Dishes Aren’t Drying
Not many homeowners know this, but dishwashers are made to work with liquid rinse aids.
It prevents water droplets from forming and helps to ensure your dishes always come out dry. The lack of water droplets also prevents spots and streaks.
Even if your dishwasher tablets come hand in hand with rinse aid, you should still pour a bit of liquid rinse aid into the dispenser.
If you’re currently using rinse aid, the reason why your dishes aren’t drying may have something to do with your heating element. If it’s broken, the heat could be turned off before your dishes finish drying.
3. Your Dishwasher Is Leaking
Is your machine leaving puddles of water on the floor? This is one of the most common dishwasher issues that homeowners face. The good news is that it’s easy to fix.
The first thing you should do is check your door and door gasket for cracks and other signs of damage. If you see any, you’ll have to call a dishwasher repair company to come to replace the seal.
If the problem isn’t with your door, it might be the float switch. It’s the component that reads the water levels in the machine. If it’s stuck in the down position, it will allow too much water to flow through.
You can get the float switch unstuck by clearing away any plastic or other obstructions resting around it.
4. The Dishwasher Smells Bad
If your dishwasher smells bad, it’s going to cause your dishes to carry an awful odor as well.
Look at the bottom of the machine to check for wet food. Clearing it out should solve your smelly dishwasher problem.
If your dishwasher is letting off more of a chemical smell, that means one of your plastic containers may have gotten caught up on the heating element and melted.
5. Your Dishwasher Isn’t Draining
The moment you open your dishwasher, it floods your kitchen with water. That’s a strong indicator your machine isn’t draining.
If your power happened to go out while the dishwasher was running, that would be the problem. Since it didn’t get to complete its cycle, it never drained. Run the cycle a second time to fix the issue.
Most dishwashers run into the same drain as the garbage disposal. So, if the machine doesn’t drain, there may be some built-up food clogging things up. You can clear the obstruction by running the disposal.
DIY or Hire a Repair Company?
You can use DIY methods to fix all of the problems listed above. You won’t be able to use those tactics for every dishwasher malfunction, however.
If you can’t seem to figure out why your machine is leaking, you may do more harm than good trying to handle it on your own.
In some cases, you might not have access to the tools needed to fix the root of your dishwasher’s problems. If you’re not that handy, you could end up getting hurt too.
Save time and money by hiring Ridge appliance repair instead. Not only are they affordable, but they’re also quick. Unless worse comes to worst, they’ll have your dishwasher working again in a single afternoon.
They also offer 24-hour repairs, so if your machine breaks in the middle of the night, you have someone around who can handle it.
Get to the Root of Your Dishwasher Problems
Is your dishwasher spitting water on your floor? Are your dishes not getting dry?
These are both very common dishwasher problems that homeowners face every single day. For the most part, you can fix them on your own.
If you can’t figure out the source of the issue, though, don’t try to play around with your machine and hope for the best. Hire an experienced appliance repair company instead.
For more tips that will help you make minor repairs around your home, visit the Lifestyle section of our blog.
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