How to make sure your dishwasher is cleaning properly

If your dishwasher is leaving your dishes dirty or streaked, there are a few things you can do to make sure they come out cleaner. This video will show you how to make sure your dishwasher is cleaning properly.

What you'll need: Dishwasher Accessories

Video Transcript: How to make sure your dishwasher is cleaning properly

IMPORTANT: BEFORE REPLACING A PART IN ANY ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE, YOU MUST ENSURE THAT THE APPLIANCE IS FIRST UNPLUGGED FROM THE MAINS

If your dishwasher leaves your dishes still dirty or streaked, there are a few things you can do to make sure they come out cleaner.

Adding dishwasher salt will help to soften the water, which makes the detergents work much more effectively. You should not use normal table salt as it can damage your dishwasher.

The salt goes into the Water Softener, which you'll see here at the bottom of the machine. It's best to keep this regularly topped up with dishwasher salt, especially if you live in an area of hard water, to help your dishwasher to do its job better.

Rinse aid is what stops water droplets from sticking to your dishes and leaving marks or streaks. The rinse aid liquid goes into this compartment, and a lot of dishwashers allow you to control the amount that's released in a wash. If you're still finding streaks on your dishes, turn this arrow up to add more rinse aid, but if you're noticing a milky or blue film, you'll need to turn it down.

Another culprit when it comes to dirty dishes are your dishwasher's filters, which can get blocked up by food. They're easy to take out and wash - you can see how to do this in another of our videos.

To get the best possible wash, the spray arms on the top and bottom of your dishwasher need room to spin round, so make sure you're not over-filling or stacking your dishes too high. It's possible to change the height of your top basket by repositioning it like this.

You should also make sure your cutlery basket doesn't have any holes in it as the cutlery could fall through and obstruct the bottom spray arm. If it does, you can easily get a new one from the Buyspares website.

It's also a good idea to run a regular service wash using a limescale and detergent remover sachet in an empty dishwasher. This will help prevent limescale build-up which can damage parts of your dishwasher.

All of the parts and products mentioned in this video are available from the BuySpares website.

BuySpares Top Tip:

If food residue is left on plates this will be washed off and breakdown in the dishwasher and may end up leaving small crusty contamination on glasses and plates until rinsed clear. To prevent this always thoroughly rinse of all traces of food and sauces to get the best results possible.

Get the Part: View our range of Dishwasher Spares

* All information provided is a guide only. BuySpares accepts no liability for any problems occurred while attempting any advice shown. If in any doubt contact a qualified repair service.