Dish Washer Help

11 years ago

I bought a Sears dishwasher about 2 years ago, fortunately it is still under warranty. About a week ago, it quit running in mid-cycle. I removed the dishes and washed them by hand.I tried everything I could think of to get it running, pushed buttons, slammed the door hard, nothing worked. So I called Sears. Larry The Repair Guy came yesterday, had it fixed and running fine in about ten minutes. He gave it a good cleaning, determined I'd been using too much detergent. I filled the two soap compartments so full I sometimes had to jam the little door shut. I "thought" I was getting cleaner dishes using a lot of soap. Well all I was doing was jamming the machine. Larry scraped out all the concrete-hard detergent bits with a screwdriver. He told me to put one tablespoon of detergent in the main compartment only, no more. And ge told me to run 2 empty cycles to really clean out the DW. I did as instructed and I'm passing along his advice. More detergent is NOT better!

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Comments (9)

a2gemini
11 years ago
Absolutely!
Try running a load and pour Tang into the DW to help clean it out -just put in the bottom (use about 1/2 jar) per Appliance Doctor or by the commercial DW conditioner - I just did that and my DW looks brand new!
Also - DW work better if you don't clean the dishes first - my manual even says - do not rinse dishes first!
nerdyshopper
11 years ago
WE onjly use Finish tabs in our dishwasher. Look too smal but they work better than all the powders we ever tried.
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sara_the_brit_z6_ct
11 years ago
The guy who fixed a factory recall on my Bosch said the most frequent reason for getting a call-out was people who used too much detergent.

I actually break the Finish tab in half and that works perfectly for me (and others here - I got the idea from GW)
Jumpilotmdm
11 years ago
You needed to be told/shown that too much soap was bad????
jannie
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes, what a dummy I am!!! But I do read the Shampoo bottle. "Lather. Rinse.Repeat." For years I've lathered and rinsed, no repeat. So I save half every time I wash my hair.
whirlpool_trainee
11 years ago
I made the opposite experience. For weeks, I had been wondering about blue residue/film on the dishes - esp. knives and glass lids. Normally, a blue film means too much rinse aid so I played with the amount of it. Nothing. Than I thought it was too much detergent that didn't get rinsed away during the rinses (my Bosch uses only like 2.5 gallons per cycle). So I tried less detergent - nothing. More detergent for the pre-wash and very little for the actual wash - still nothing. Finally went online to describe the problem and it turned out I used too little detergent! I increased the detergent amount from 20 grams to 30 grams (one ounce) and now the final rinse water is clear. My dishwasher has a water softener, by the way.

Alex
Cavimum
11 years ago
I'm really grateful for this topic, @jannie. It helped me realize a new issue for us. We have a new Bosch DW that uses very little water; much less than our old 12 y/o Kenmore did. Apparently, I need to treat this new DW just like my FL washing machine, when it comes to detergent dosing.

Yesterday, after baking and running a small load of mixing bowls and dinner dishes on "Auto" wash cycle and a Tablespoon of a Cascade powder I found in the back of a cabinet, I had residual suds in the bottom of the tub when the cycle was over. I immediately ran an Express cycle with a half-cup of white vinegar in a custard up on the top rack. There still were suds on the floor of the tub, after the cycle was complete.

Keeping the OP in mind, it seems I need to gauge the size and level of dirtiness of my dishes and dose detergent accordingly to prevent the OP's problem. This is just like my FL washer. ( argh!Life is getting too complicated.) I like to use the Finish Powerball tabs, but smaller loads may require the powder so I can mete it out. Maybe the DW detergents need a 'he' version?
dadoes
11 years ago
Sudsing in a dishwasher isn't always caused by detergent. Too-high dosage of rinse aid can also cause sudsing. Rinse aid is dispensed in the final rinse, so running a 'flush' cycle will still show suds if it's either the cause or a contributing factor.
Cavimum
11 years ago
@dadoes - I did not know that. Thank you for commenting. Our water quality is 3 - 4 grains and dispenser is set on the absolute lowest amount. No salts in the water softener, naturally, and default is set to '0' so we left it alone. (I have to reduce dosage on our FL washer from what any detergent label says.)

I have learned from our FL washer that the best way to get rid of the residual suds is to run a small load with no detergent, so I'm going to do that tonight. Detergent needs something to attach itself to.

I'm going to pay attention and keep watch. So far, I've had full loads. This was my first small/light load.

Perhaps we don't need the Jet Dry at all, but things are awfully wet at the end of a cycle with the minimum level of dispensing. I am accustomed to years/decades of No Heat drying with our old Kenmore, and stuff came out much dryer in that machine. The interior wasn't as wet, either.

I'm aware that the Bosch is a different animal in its design & engineering from our 12 y/o Kenmore Elite(Whirlpool made), so we're still learning our way around.