Help - I put drain in locker in my dishwasher rinse aid compartment

[Stesha7]

Edit: curse autocorrect - title should say drain unblocker.

It’s early and the bottles are the same colour okay

I started pouring it in and immediately realised it wasn’t right, so stopped after just one “glug”. It’s very thick, so I was able to rescue some of it out with a wet wipe.

The bottle has lots of scary warnings. I googled it and found lots of different advice, not entirely sure all of it is relevant. But what I’ve done so far is pour lots of water into the rinse aid compartment in the hopes of flushing it out, and now I’ve put the empty dishwasher on a hot cycle as per google, but I’m wondering if it might not be better to just do lots of short cycles?

any thoughts MNetters? I’m worried I will a) poison my family and b) need a new dishwasher - it’s only 6 months old!!

What is in the drain unblocker - I imagine it is not food safe? In which case yes, I'd want to make sure it had completely been cleared from the dishwasher so lots of short empty cycles sounds sensible!

Yes I would keep doing cycles and maybe get a dishwasher cleaner, you need to put your drain unblocker further back your cupboard.

You could maybe contact the dishwasher manufacturers and ask them.

Are you leaving the lid off the rinse aid compartment when running it empty?

I would flood the compartment with water to try and rinse it all out.

google how to drain rinse aid from a dishwasher. There is a a guid about using a syringe or turkey baster. Which sounds good! A capol syringe would be ideal

Putting water in the dishwasher is probably a better idea.

@ReluctantSwimMumAs far as I can tell the unblocker is basically lye and bleach. So yes not something I particularly fancy with my tea.

I’m just sticking to water, I’m nervous to add any other chemicals to the mix as I don't want to end up chlorine gassing myself.

@AnOldCynicno I closed it - that was rather dim in hindsight. I’ve started another cycle with it open - thank you!!

@Coffeeishotit actually was very far back in the depths of the cupboard, unfortunately that is where the rinse aid also resides as I don’t often remember to refill it I only tend to do it when the dishwasher prompts me to refill the salt, which is not often. But yes point taken. Maybe I will get some bright coloured labels to stick on all the scary things

thanks everyone - I will carry on with the short cycles, flushing the rinse aid compartment out with water in between each one

Be careful trying to rinse it out, it's corrosive and causes chemical burns.

It also may react with other household cleaning products and release noxious gas so don't put anything else in the dishwasher until you think it's flushed out.

Can you pour lots of water in so it overflows and let the overflow drain into the dishwasher and run a cycle with the rinse aid cover open so it gets flushed out?

@mydogisanidiottI just had a look thank you, but I think my rinse aid compartment isn’t the right type to work with that. The holes are very tiny, and I can’t see any way to take it apart. I will have to see if I can find something specific to my model maybe

Ah, cross posted while I went to see what the rinse aid reservoir looked like in our dishwasher as we use all in one tablets so have never put rinse aid in it.

Looks like you've got it sorted.