Dishwasher
The appliance whose commonest complaint — cloudy glasses — the manufacturer identifies as permanent damage rather than dirt.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Never mix with other cleaning products
- Do not apply to a hot surface
Start here
What this is, what tends to go wrong with it, and what to do about it.
Made from
Which part are you cleaning?
These parts take different answers. Cleaning one the way you clean another is a common way to damage this.
- Dishwasher filter
The single component behind most complaints that a dishwasher has stopped cleaning or started smelling, and it is designed to be removed by hand.
Household plastics, Stainless steel
Things not to use here
- Dishwasher spray arm
The part that does all the mechanical work. A blocked jet leaves a wedge of the load dirty, which reads as a machine problem rather than a hole problem.
Household plastics
Things not to use here
What tends to go wrong
A hard, chalky calcium carbonate deposit left by hard water. Dissolved by acids, essentially untouched by detergents.
Why it is difficult: Water hardness, Crystallisation, Adhesion and cohesion
A soil class rather than a stain. Alkali removes it, heat welds it on, and almost every household mistake with it is a temperature mistake.
Why it is difficult: Heat-set stains, Protein denaturation
- Fingerprintsvia its material
Skin oils transferred by touch. A greasy soil rather than a dirty one, which is why water alone does not shift them and why they return immediately.
Why it is difficult: Surfactancy
- Water marksvia its material
What hard water leaves behind when it evaporates instead of being wiped away. A mineral film, not dirt, and the fix is at the drying stage.
Why it is difficult: Water hardness, Evaporative deposition
- Rustvia its material
Hydrated iron oxide from corroding iron or steel. Distinguish a surface deposit, which cleans off, from active corrosion of the item itself, which does not.
Why it is difficult: Corrosion and passivation, Why old stains are harder, Adhesion and cohesion
- Burnt-on food and carbon depositsvia its material
Food heated until it carbonised and bonded to the surface. Time and softening do the work; scouring powder does the damage.
Why it is difficult: Contact time, Carbonisation, Adhesion and cohesion, Why old stains are harder
- Greasevia its material
Fats and oils, which water alone cannot lift. Removed by surfactants, by heat, by solvents, or by alkalis that convert the fat into soap.
Why it is difficult: Why oil resists water, Emulsification
- Heat tintvia its material
The rainbow or brown bloom on stainless steel that has been heated. Not a deposit and not dirt: the metal's own surface oxide, thickened by heat.
- Mouldvia its component
A living growth, not a stain. Killing it and removing the staining are two separate jobs, and neither addresses the moisture that caused it.
Why it is difficult: Porous and non-porous surfaces, Moisture control and recurrence, Cleaning, sanitising and disinfecting, Organic load, Surface roughness
The science behind this: Moisture control and recurrence, Corrosion and passivation, Water hardness, Chloride attack, Cleanability is designed in
In detail
Most dishwasher problems are diagnosed backwards, and the manufacturer's troubleshooting section is more useful than its care section for that reason. Cloudiness on glassware is not a film to be removed: it is identified as ETCHING and stated to be permanent, caused by a combination of soft water and too much detergent, and prevented by using less detergent in soft water and the shortest cycle that gets glasses clean. No product fixes it, which is worth knowing before buying one. A white film on the interior is the opposite problem — hard water minerals — treated with dishwasher detergent on a damp sponge and no other cleanser, because others may foam. General film is addressed by an empty cycle with white vinegar added mid-way, or citric acid crystals if that fails. Black or grey marks on dishes are aluminium rubbed off utensils, not staining. The care instruction is short: never use a sharp object, scouring pads or harsh cleaners on any part of the machine. One safety line matters: wait at least twenty minutes after a cycle before cleaning the interior, because the heating element is still hot enough to burn.
What works
Acetic acid (vinegar) is safe on, in specific conditions, Dishwasher
Safe only in specific conditions
This is only appropriate within specific limits. Outside those limits, no claim is made.
Only within these limits:
- Run on a HOT cycle with no dishes in the machine
- Clean the filter first — the cycle does not reach what the filter is holding
- Roughly once a month, not as a substitute for removing and rinsing the filter
A manufacturer naming white vinegar for an appliance interior, which is unusual. It is a maintenance cycle rather than a cleaning method, and it does nothing about the food debris that causes the smell.
Evidence
Supported
Sources
Removing Odors in your Dishwasher
Whirlpool Corporation · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That a proprietary dishwasher cleaner or white vinegar may be run on a hot cycle without dishes, ideally once a month, and that the drain filter is removed and rinsed under hot water at least monthly. (states this directly)
Why
- Dishwasher is explained by Moisture control and recurrence
Related
- Dishwasher has the component Dishwasher filter
- Dishwasher has the component Dishwasher spray arm
- Dishwasher is made from Stainless steel
- Dishwasher is commonly affected by Limescale
- Dishwasher is commonly affected by Protein soil
Hacks and claims involving this
Sources for this page
Sources
Owner's Manual: Dishwashers GSD4500, GSD4800
GE Appliances · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That cloudiness on glassware is etching and is permanent, caused by soft water and too much detergent, that white film is hard water minerals treated with dishwasher detergent and no other cleanser, that sharp objects, scouring pads and harsh cleaners must never be used, and that the heating element needs twenty minutes to cool. (states this directly)