Thursday, March 26, 2009
Smelly dishes from the dishwasher--no more
Two years or so ago we still had our ancient dishwasher. It appeared to clean the dishes, but when we took them out of the cupboards afterward, the glass dishes would smell like rotten fish or bad eggs or stale milk. So we would wash them by hand. Finally the dishwasher broke and after six months we got a new one. This one also cleaned the dishes, but after a while the dishes started to smell. I did research but found no help, even on the helpful Internet. I had several repair guys come out since the washer was under warranty. Nothing seemed to work and their suggestions didn't solve the problem ("clean the dishwasher" "clean the filter"). Finally the plumber replaced the pipes under the sink--after I put my finger through one of them and the duck tape over that hole started to leak. The smell vanished. Aha! The smell in dishwashers seems to come from disposals and plumbing. When the smell started to come back (probably from the old disposal), I began to clean my disposal at least once a month with the Wal-Mart disposal cleaner. No more smells. Since Wal-Mart didn't have cleaner the last time I went, I started dumping 1/4 cup of Comet down the drain and running the disposal with some water going. I would also pour in a bit of dishwashing liquid to make sure I got lots of suds. The smells haven't come back so far. I think when I get a new disposal, that will also help. Have you discovered how to clean something that seems impossible to clean?
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4 comments:
White vinegar is also supposed to work.
Hum, that was a problem! I'm glad you found a solution.
Our dishwasher at our old home left a film on our clear glasses. It looked like they were permanently etched. We just blamed it on hard water and figured nothing could be done. We had to replace the dishwasher at some point and within a month or two those same clear glasses gradually lost their film and became sparkly clear again! Amazing. I had thought it was irreversible damage.
Another vote for white vinegar, here!
Our water here in the Phoenix area is so hard that we have to run vinegar through the dishwasher every six months or so, or the dishes get coated with a white powdery film. Pour about a cup of vinegar in the dishwasher and run it through an empty cycle. I poured more in after I heard my dishwasher drain the first time, and it worked better
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