Hey everyone, just reporting back. First copper load completed. Not total elimination, but definitely less. I’m going to experiment with different cycles and regular drying vs. air drying option. The smell has been happening consistently for 2+ years now so I wasn’t expecting an overnight miracle,

I’m using a Frigidaire Pro series, was installed new when condo was constructed. Like others, the smell is only evident on ceramic and glass, less on stainless steel, ONLY when windows are open to fresh air. No odor when using central a/c. If you want to super charge the odor, put the item in a sunny open window. - yowza! I also feel like I smell the same odor from my stainless steel sink, but I’m just too aware of it to be objective.

Its after dark here now so unable to test in sun, fresh air still triggered the odor, but I perceived it to be less intense.

I can say for sure that fresh air has nothing to do with the wet dog smell. I never have my windows open and have suffered from this with both a Bosch and Miele. I'm convinced it only happens when dishes with egg residue are washed. However, I'm going to try the copper tubes. I'm intrigued and will be delighted if I no longer have to wash egg dishes by hand. :)

Hi Cheri. I think the open windows might exacerbate it, not necessarily cause it. We have been suffering with the smell on and off with the windows fully closed. But I thought I had kicked my wet dog smell for good through a freakishly religious combination of prerinsing, egg avoidance and extra hot settings.

The weather just turned nice here in Washington. So I brought a nice glass of water into the office, took a sip, and ahhhh. It tasted like, uh, nothing, exactly as it should. And then I opened the window to enjoy some fresh air. I took a second sip and... got a face full of Fido. Yuck. The smell did eventually dissipate, at least to a tolerable level. But this still isn't fixed.

I'm waiting for my copper couplings to come from Amazon and I'm going to see if that magic hack does the trick. I'm hopeful!

One other thought... any chance that PEX plumbing vs. copper plumbing could be contributing to this issue? If copper is an Antimicrobial substance, my guess is that PEX is not, but I’m just spitballin’...

We had both copper (Bosch) and PEX (Miele). Two different houses. Still get the wet dog. Mostly with eggs but sometimes randomly. We just can't figure it out! Oh, and we just moved and the Miele in the new house occasionally has wet dog (I know it's not just me...my kids smell it too LOL).. I wonder if it's the enzyme detergents as others have suggested. I find it intolerable when egg residue is left on dishes but it still shows up randomly, faintly, sometimes.

My copper fittings showed up so I’m going to give it the old college try! I’ll post an update in a week or so to add some data into this grand experiment of ours!

My report: the copper worked for one run but that was all. Dog smell returned. Read that using citric acid destroys dog smell which is caused by eggs. The recommendation is to run a cycle with a bag of Lemon KoolAid mix. I ran an empty rinse cycle with 2 tablespoons of Lipton Iced Tea instant mix (first two ingredients are sugar and citric acid). I actually did this twice just to be sure. Then I ran a rinse without anything added. This resulted in successfully having two full dishwashing cycles without dog smell! Note that we rinsed all dishes before loading, and the copper was still in the machine. I am next trying a single rinse cycle with lipton tea mix and will report the results this week. I will continue to experiment: remove the copper, stop rinsing the dishes before loading. But this is encouraging, and if It ends up that I do a lipton rinse between every two cycles, that would be considered a tolerable solution!

Lemi Shine products variously are primarily citric acid or contain it.

https://lemishine.com/collections/kitchen-dishwashing

I had the same issues with my newer dishwasher. Tried coppers in the washer. Didn't help. Washed any dishes with egg on them. Didn't help. I normally clean filter before every wash and do a routine cleaning done with sani option so that was out of the usual suspect lists.

What DID HELP was a baking soda and a bit of white vinegar.

I used simple, unexpensive dishwashing pod I got from Costco(ones that do not have rinse-aid), sprinkled about 3-4 table spoons of baking soda on the bottom of dishwasher then added about 2table spoons of white vinegar to rince-aid dispenser.

Normal wash, not even with hot-drying option selected, dishes smell nothing but clean.

Whether windows opened or not, or whether washer door cracked opened or not after washing cycle is completed, I have not had the same issue ever again. And, you know when you know, what a trementous relief it was to not worry about that fishy-gagging smell again you guys!

Hope this helps someone out there :)

Jeannie HJ Han I will try your baking soda and vinegar method because mine isn't working.

Just putting this out there...don't have the smelly dishes issue here, but had a small load of dirty dishes last night that I didn't want to sit overnight. I ran a Normal cycle in the dw to save water and electric on the small/half load. Opened the dw when cycle finished and the odor of aquarium water was strong enough to fill the kitchen.

I don't use the Normal cycle on my Bosch Ascenta because it doesn't clean all that well compared to other cycles. I normally use Auto or Heavy with good, not-smelly results. For what it's worth, running the Normal cycle on a small and not filthy load produced aquarium water smell.

Wishing everyone the best of luck overcoming this issue.

My wife and I have been using the copper pieces that @Steph recommended for a few weeks now. No smell at all. I can NOT BELIEVE IT. I'm scared to celebrate too early, but I have to say we have not noticed the stench. We've run many cycles and used our dishes indoors and out on the deck. I hope this great odorless trend continues. Huge thanks to @Steph for sharing this solution!

-Ben

@Ben Rubenstein @Steph I also have had improvement with the copper pieces that @Steph suggested. I notice that with our warmer weather coming back, there's been a slight odor here and there in glasses only, but nothing like it was. I also am going to try @dadoes suggestion for Lemishine along with it. Besides, who doesn't love a lemony-scented dishwasher? Win win!

New report: I have eliminated dirty dog smell in the last two wash cycles:

1. Rinse dishes, especially dog/cat food and egg.

2. Days that I don't run a regular cycle, run a 9 minute rinse cycle with citric acid (I am using two tablespoons of lemon iced tea mix right now, will see if I can get pure citric acid powder). This is with or without any dishes in the machine. Don't let the wet machine sit for 24 hours without refreshing.

3. Use LemiShine detergent for regular wash cycles. This contains citric acid.

This has been working for seven days. I will update as I refine my method.

Thank you Steph! The copper totally addressed our 'wet dog' or for me 'sea water' smell coming off our glasses, plates and cutlery. Has been a huge issue for us and this fix has totally addressed the problem. Many thanks.

Thanks, @Steph for the recommendations. I thought I'd tried so many different options: replacing hoses, using different powders, using tablets, vinegar rinses, Tang, and straight citric acid. And very limited improvement. I could swear that I'd tried a liquid detergent, too, but figured I'd try again -- it's almost completely gone. I think I'll get some copper couplings for good measure.

Just a heads-up for anyone trying out straight citric acid: it's possible to overdo it. I got so frustrated with the smell that I was throwing in a few spoonfuls with each load. It eroded all the edges of some of our dishes (Relatively inexpensive "Corelle" plates and bowls, but still annoying. FWIW, it didn't seem to affect our Fiestaware). And while it did help the smell slightly, it was still pretty gross most of the time.

Everyone having luck with Steph’s copper confirms what I had mentioned way above. The wet dog smell is from volatile compounds released from bacteria. So figuring out how to prevent the bacteria (my fix was a whole house water filter and conditioner) or how to kill the bacteria (copper) should rid you of the gag-inducing smell.

The one thing I have been able to do to treat this smell is to use the prerinse programme - about 15 mins, 4 litres water and very little energy used but put a abiut 4 tablespoons of washing soda in. It doesn't take from the dispenser so I put on the bottom inside of the door. Then I follow up with a 1 hour programme at 65 degrees using 10 litres in my Neff. Overall it uses about the same water and energy as a single go on a longer 'auto' programme. I've had some success with this. I have tied a couple of copper pipe fittings in the wash but no success

I have a whole different theory. We had two types of Corelle dinnerware. Older stuff with a pattern, and newer plain white stuff. The newer stuff always seemed to be the smelly plates and bowels. So we bought some new dinnerware, not Corelle, and put the plain white stuff away. It's been 6 months, and no more smell.

I am also wondering about the white Corelle dishes. My last home had two dishwashers, Asko SS, both with the same problem of smelly dishes. New home, new dishwasher, GE, same problem. I have tried vinegar, lemon juice, bleach and baking soda, each with an empty dishwasher on hot water. The unit smells clean when finished and sometimes for the first load after cleaning, then back to the same smell. We rinse the dishes well before we load the dishwasher. I have run the dishwasher with only glasses a few times and they smell fine. I am wondering if it has something to do with the Corelle.

My parents have a set of Corelle (and other kinds of dishware). They don't use the dishwasher all of the time but neither it nor the dishes have ever exhibited an odor.

I'm only suggesting a specific set/style of Corelle.

We have the white Corelle salad/dessert plates dedicated for the dog's (homecooked) meals, and some white cereal bowls for occasional use by us, and a Bosch DW. No smelly dishes in 12 1/2 years.

Okay, when I first read this Corelle theory, I thought, "nah, couldn't be... it's just glass." But then I thought a bit more... I don't remember the exact timing, but I'm pretty sure we got Corelle plates around the same time as our dishwasher. Maybe shortly afterwards? As many have concluded, the problem is a bacteria issue. Somehow, we finally seem to have *almost* completely gotten past it by using liquid detergent instead of powder. Others seem to have conquered it by adding copper (which I have on deck in case smells reappear with warmer weather). So I imagine that if the introduction of certain materials (e.g. copper) can create conditions in the dishwasher that can get rid of the stinky bacteria, the opposite could be true, too. If the smell reemerges with warmer weather, I'll definitely be trying the "no Corelle" approach for awhile.

TRY THIS, IT'S WORKED FOR ME.

1. CHECK AND CLEAN THE FILTERS AT THE BASE OF THE MACHINE, EVERY 30 CYCLES.

2. BUY A DISHWASHER CLEANER, 'FINISH' OR EVEN A CHEAP ONE ONE FROM LIDL. USE ONCE EVERY 30 CYCLES IN THE EASY CLEAN PROGRAMME.

3. ROUTINE DAILY USE OF MACHINE. BUY SOME WASHING SODA CRYSTALS (THESE ARE SODIUM CARBONATE DECAHYDRATE - DON'T CONFUSE WITH BAKING SODA POWDER). LOAD THE MACHINE AND THEN SPRINKLE ABOUT 4 OR 5 TABLESPOONS OF THE SODA CRYSTALS LONG THE BOTTOM OF THE DOOR AND RUN A 15 MIN COLD RINSE PROGRAMME. ONCE IT'S DONE ADD YOUR DISHWASHER DETERGENT IN THE DOOR AS USUAL AND RUN A 1HR 65 DEGREE WASH. THIS DOUBLE WASH USES ABOUT THE SAME TOTAL AMOUT OF WATER AND ELECRTRICITY AS THE MUCH LONGER 'ECO' PROGRAMME.

NOT HAD A SMELLY GLASS FOR MONTHS. MY THEORY ABOUT THE SMELL IS A GREASY MACHINE INTERIOR AND THS SODA CRYSTALS ARE AN EFECTIVE DEGREASER AND WATER SOFTENER.

WASHING SODA CRYSTALS IN THE UK COST ABOUT £0.80 FOR 1KG. IT'S WORTH A TRY

Chris Woolliscroft

We are new members to the "wet dog smell" club and it's driving us insane too. Started with our old Bosch dishwasher so we bought a new one. Smell continued. We have tried every idea listed... but nothing seems to work. Has anyone had long-term success at keeping the wet dog smell out of their new dishwashers? Thanks so much for your advice.

We had it for a solid few years when we got a stainless dishwasher. Experimenting with different detergents seemed to be the fix we needed. Seems like an obvious variable to play with, and I think we had tried maybe 4 (2 powders, 1 pellet, 1 liquid?). But we finally tried another liquid and it has been fine. I don't think we had the smell once this past year. It comes down to a question of chemistry/biology: what environment lets the smelly bacteria thrive? Introducing copper into the environment has worked well for some of these people on the thread. For us, it was detergent (Cascade Original Lemon Scent liquid, FWIW). I also tried citric acid, which sort of worked for a bit, but not reliably -- and mostly just destroyed some dishes (admittedly, I overdid it). I bought copper ferrules, but never had to use them. Good luck!

Our fix is not putting any dishes into the dw that have egg residue on them - a small inconvenience.

I hand wash the ”egg” dishes with lots of soap. No more issues for us. must be some sort of chemical reaction?

From the very beginning of this thread my thought has been the same, all is fine until we open a door or window. At that point my husband ops to use paper or plastic dishes. This is usually in the spring when we are so excited to open up after winter. We have a Bosch, the dealer told us years ago he was getting calls from all over the city re: this smell. He mentioned that something was removed from the detergents that allowed “the smell” to occur.

I'm the poster that mentioned the copper couplings solution - it's still working for me. Occasionally (every 6mo?) I may have to sand them or put new ones in, but no smell whatsoever otherwise. I also use Cascade tablets - doesn't seem to matter which. Other detergents still left a hint of smell. Also, I will mention, the smell started with our purchase of a new stainless steel dishwasher. The day prior, with our old plastic dishwasher, no smell. So I'm not convinced it's any change in the detergent manufacturing.

I have a Bosh, and fixed it right away. If your DW has a screen to clean before each wash, like a Bosh dish washer, the issue is the lock down mechanism. I have a detailed thread on it some where, its been about a year old. Basically you remove the lock down cylinder and clean the mating surfaces. Once cleaned use silicone adhesive to fill in the screen's holes smooth at the mating ring for the lock down to seat. It will keep particals frkm being trapped under the lock down ring and screen area under lock down. The issue started after 3rd wash, since correcting, no more issues.

Well, we have tried everything mentioned in this thread and while some things helped, we realize it only happens when a window or door is opened. Must be some kind of negative pressure, sucking air out of the drain. The smell is putrid. Now we only empty the dishwasher with all windows all doors closed.

I posted my solution above years ago, and that was to only run the dishwasher when you have the AC running. That still works.

I tried another idea this summer though, and I think it worked really well. I bought 10 copper plumbing couplings and placed them on the prongs of the rack. You'll just need to soak them in vinegar once a month or so and they will get shiny again. It's a cheap and easy method to try.

China Chrystal/Delicate Wash cycle also seems to work best for getting rid of the smell.

This ridiculous nightmare began for us a few months ago. Our dishes had wet dog smell out of dishwasher and we noticed DW did too. Bosch was old so we replaced it with a new Bosch. Smell continued. I found this post and I’ve tried everything except adding a filter to the kitchen water line. The wet dog smell will go away for a few days and then return with a vengeance. Steph- do you think combination of water filter and copper did the trick? City water coming Monday to test water just in case. Thank you!

We replaced our dishwasher last year. Never had a problem with smells in any DW until this Siemens, overpriced one. Steel interior as always. The initial 'new' smell wore off and apart from being absolute rubbish at drying it worked after a fashion and there was no smell for a while. Until we changed to Ecover Zero tablets and the new unperfumed formulation of Lidl rinse aid. I clean the filter frequently and run the cleaning cycle. If I stop using both products the smell seems to go off. This time it remains on all the washing up even after washing by hand, soaking in hot water and re-washing twice. The milk glass items do not retain the smell, all other mugs, plates and bowls still smell. I use vinegar in a small bowl in the top rack, it has not helped this time. I believe it is something that has been removed from the DW products, phosphates were removed a while ago, and recently I have noticed the lack of phosphonates in the tablets we use which are fragrance free/eco. We use fragrance free because dishes don't need perfume, neither does the food that is eaten from them, it is as bad as the wet dog. I will not be buying Ecover/eco tablets again as they don't seem to be fit for purpose if they leave bacteria on dishes. I have also noticed that the dishes and cutlery are not coming out as clean as they used to and thought it was the machine, however I now believe it is the removal of cleaning agents from the detergent that is causing the problems.

I have a set of bowls that have been washed as follows: dishwasher with Ecover, smelled foul. Cleaned DW, filled salt. Washed again with a different eco tab, still smelled. Washed by hand, still smelled but getting fainter. Cleaned DW again on maintenance setting, washed again, they still smelled a bit. Finally added oxy bleach (unperfumed), removed them this morning and they still smell. I have been using the hottest cycle.

This is something that needs addressing by manufacturers of cleaning products, rather than adding more and more fake perfume to everything and destroying the planet that way to hide the bacterial smells, affecting people with allergies and destroying sense of smell, they need to create detergents that stop bacteria growth in machines - look at the increase in black mould in washing machines as another example of this.

When you hand-wash, try rinsing with cold water after.

Amylase enzymes is the cause in most cases. We'd been having the same issue with the "wet dog" smell - started about a year ago. Even after cleaning with vinegar and baking soda and even bleach, it never solved the issue and finally we bought a new DW as we needed a new one anyway. Surprisingly, the wet dog smell returned immediately. After a LOT of research and thought and experiments, I think we finally figured out what is causing this smell and it isn't what most ppl think. Rather than coming from bacteria as most suspect, it is actually coming from the Amylase enzymes in the DW detergents themselves. Almost 100% of the detergents here in the US now have replaced traditional detergent ingredients with enzymes which break down food. The gasses which are generated by these enzymes cause a "wet dog" smell. When we switched to a detergent that did not contain enzymes (Amylase in particular), the smell completely vanished. We began making our own DW detergent and the smell never returned. Unfortunately, the non-enzymatic detergents left the dishes not looking sparkling but rather dull. We have not come up with a perfect solution yet. Either we have dull dishes or we have "wet dog" smell. The industry needs to solve this problem. Currently, their solution is to add fragrances to the ingredients and push rinse-aids to help get the enzymes off. As we all see - it isn't working. Enzymes are great for breaking down food - but unless they can figure out the off-gas problem, this is going to continue to occur using maintream detergents - especially "all natural" ones that rely on enzymes to clean.

I wonder if someone can explain this to me. We sold the house with the smelly Bosch. But the beach house Miele smell persisted. We just remodeled the kitchen in our new house and after a few runs that Miele started to smell too. I decided to do as I was prompted and add salt. I've never done thie before. The smell went away. So, I bought another box and added it to the Miele at the beach house. NO SMELL! After four years of dealing with this, it was simply gone. Can someone tell me why the salt, which I thought was to prevent calcium build up, would get rid of the wet dog smell so quickly? I'm baffled.

That’s an interesting theory. Why is the smell worse when the windows are open? And why doesn’t every household in America all have this problem? There can’t be a lot of people making homemade detergents.

That’s an interesting theory D T. Why is the smell worse when the windows are open? And why doesn’t every household in America all have this problem? There can’t be a lot of people making homemade detergents.

Chery127, your salt idea is interesting. how much salt did you use?

DT, that Amylase connection is a very interesting finding. It explains why the only detergent that didn't result in immediate doggydog was the one without amylase and the other enzyme. It is almost impossible to find non-enzyme detergents and the good one was randomly found at a Dollar store. I am buying all I can online but that's not sustainable since it's hard to find.

I’m convinced the smell indicates there is a hygiene issue with the dishwasher. Clean the filter and the lip beneath the door, and a cleaner like Afresh. Since doing that my dishes no longer stink.

I already ruled that out by replacing the dishwasher. the stench was still there.

What a problem. Lots of opinions and suggestions here but no solution. No mention of contacting dishwasher manufacturers who must surely know about this issue. I contacted Neff in the UK for advice who suggested using a dishwasher cleaner every 30 cycles (every two weeks in or house of two people). Tried that in addition to my 15 min prewash in cold waterand soda crystals, often also with a squirt of bleach, followed by the 1 hr wash at 65C using Fairy Platinum plus (most expensive detergent ever?). Still some odour on wineglasses out of the cupboard next day. What I'm now doing is rinsing the wineglasses just at the end of the wash cycle under the boiling water tap. This works. Would love to hear a proper technical explanation ( and solution) from a scientist at a dishwashr manufacturer, but I won't be holdong my breath.

I believe I have solved my problem based on D T's theory that the cause is amylase. Detergent without amylase is nearly impossible to find and I randomly stumbled on a product without it and I no longer have the smell. I have bought a ton of the product on ebay from various sellers and have probably 5 year's supply in my shed if I can keep it dry.

As far as asking the DW manufacturers to help, forget it. Bosch absolutely has nothing to say about stinky dishes. They replaced every part they could think of under warranty. How stupid, stupid stupid. They should be experts on this in order to save themselves having to do pointless warranty repairs. But no. They are ignorant as possible. If they ever wised up, they would wake up the detergent makers to do something. I don't know how bad older generations of detergent are on the environment, It needs to be discussed.

jaykeith, what is the product?

Nellie's dishwasher powder or nuggets do not contain amylase. I never personally tried either so can't comment on their performance.

What worked for me is using more powder detergent, going from about 1.5 tablespoons to about 4 tablespoons divided between the prewash and mainwash cups, using Afresh and cleaning the filter regularly. I'm also starting to use the sanitize option more to keep the overall hygiene of my dishwasher better. I think the underlying issue is bacteria build up within the machine and then on dishes themselves. Yuck!