Eco friendly dishwashing - a warning

katyp

I have just paid £101 to get my dishwasher repaired, and it seems the cause was trying to be eco-friendly.
It seems that using the 50C wash as standard and Ecover or Clear Spring detergent does the machine no good, and had completely bunged it up.
Apparently, you need to use 65C as standard, otherwise the pipes do not get properly cleared of the grease build-up.
Also, eco-friendly detergents do not have the oomph to clear the pipes either, so the combination of the two ended up with my poor machine having angina and needing a complete clear out.
I thought I had better let people know my experiences, and what the engineer told me. Apparently, there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of problems with gunged up pipes in both dishwashers and washing machines since people started to lower the was temperatures and use eco-friendly products.

frivolous_fay

[EMAIL="I@ve"]I've[/EMAIL] been told that you should do a high temp wash every now and again to nuke any bacteria and shift grease. Ours doesn't get enough use to get truly grunged up, so we've got away with our 40 washes... so far!

surfsister

in the info for my machine (AEG) it says run the machine through a hot wash 60 degrees plus empty to clean it out once a month or so.

BB37

When you put it on a 60+ wash add half a bottle of white wine vinegar, there is no smell and it leaves it sparkling and fresh.

Charis

BB37 wrote: »

When you put it on a 60+ wash add half a bottle of white wine vinegar, there is no smell and it leaves it sparkling and fresh.

For those watching the pennies, the white vinegar in gallon containers available from greengrocers and Asian food shops is a lot cheaper and works as well.

Lately I have been periodically using the expensive little 'one use only' dishwasher cleaners from Finish. Tescos were giving away so many points for them on those little till spits that I calculated (on the basis of using them for Deals to get four times the points) that Tesco were actually paying me to take the dishwasher cleaner away.

moonrakerz

Charis wrote: »

Tesco were actually paying me to take the dishwasher cleaner away.

I was going to mention this story - but managed to find it with Google !

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970115/ai_n9642924

greenbee

I find I have no problems using ecover products in my dishwasher, and running it on low temperature washes.

I clean the filter between loads (not every time, but it does depend on what's been in there), and periodically run it empty with either soda crystals (to degrease it) or vinegar (when the rinse aid is empty, and before filling it up) to descale it. This regime appears to work well. The machine is cleaning effectively, looks like new inside, and doesn't smell.

Antispam

I have used white vinegar on a high temperature wash on ours as it wasnt washing properly and it seems to have done the trick

bellamonkey

Where abouts in the dishwasher do you put the white vinegar

fembo_2

hi. I live in a hard water area and was concerned that the low temp washes on both my dishwasher and washing machine were not getting things as clean as they should. My mother recommended putting a scoop of washing soda into both along with the normal detergent. My dishwasher was sparkling after the 1st wash! I get mine from either morrisons or home bargains at about 55p a bag so much cheaper than the manufacturers product.
Dont recommend its used on woollens though!