how to clean a dishwasher

sharalee99

Half a cup of soda crystals to clean, just stick in half a cup and put on normal cycle. Then to freshen, next time you use a citrus fruit, like lemon, lime or orange, keep half, squeeze out the juice and put the empty fruit in the washer. It will last for a few cycles

eslick

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

Thanks but doesnt it make it smell.... well, urm .... vinegary?

not by using the white one but then again used malt and never had an issue

Horseunderwater

Yep! Soda crystals will get rid of gunk in drains OK. And you can clean around the seals etc(door) with a mix of cheap Bio wash liquid for clothes and soda crystals disolved in hot water - you do not need much to do that at all. You might need slightly more elbow grease, but we are talking saving mega pennies here. Soda crystals currently retail around 90p in tesco/sainsbury/asda, but may be cheaper else where. And they last along time. White distilled vinegar more expensive than normal brown malt and that will do just as well if you want to de scale and no it will not leave a smell.
You can use a mix of soda crystals and bio wash liquid to clean glass door of ovens - floors - showers - loos - taps - mirrors - and will end up with a nice sparkly house for very little outlay. When I say Bio wash I mean the basics one from sainsbury/tesco in a bottle for around £1.30 something. Do not need much. And I use the powder version in Wash machine with Soda crystals to wash OH clothing on the hot wash and they now come out far cleaner than when I just used the washing powder on own. You can also add vinegar into conditioner bit and that will help with the static. And no smell. Try it and see. My house is now so much cleaner than when I tried using all those expensive ones. Especially the irritating trust pink one! Never worked in a month of Sundays!

Crisp_£_note

When you say citrus fruit would a grapefruit work as well?

I dont very often buy any fruit that needs peeling (other than bananas) so would lemon juice work as well or is there something I can soak in juice to hang in the dishwasher? Like those fridge hanger things?

Thanks have just added those bits to Tesco shopping list and deleted the finish stuff! Off to Lidil next week so will check out their varieties. Thanks as well for the oven cleaning tip that was my next tast to tackle sooner or later!

Dumb afterthought would Lemonaid or cola work ?!

NeverInDebt

white vinegar is ideal just buy cheapest around not Sarsons. I also use soda crystals in washing machine to clean that out and get rid of dirt which may cling inside, use hottest wash

Gillybean103

We have been having some problems with our dishwasher cleaning the top shelf.. It has been leaving gritty bits over everything. We have tried cleaning out all the filters and running it with nothing in it but it's still the same

Has anyone got any ideas what we could do to sort it out?

Alton_Towers

I take the blade out and flush it through with hot water, also might be worth taking the top basket out and checking where it connects when pushed in as mine was gunged up. Hope that makes sense!

babyshoes

I agree, check that the inside of the spray arm isn't blocked. Our old dishwasher had a couple of lemon pips that had somehow gotten inside and needed to be removed with much difficulty and a pin...

squeaky

Yep. Sounds as though some of the holes in your top spray arm are blocked.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4852098_poor-cleaning-of-dishes-dishwasher.html

Farway

Have you checked salt & rinse aid levels?

Sometimes the "all in one" tablets are just not good enough