AIBU to ask why the fuck my dishwasher won’t clean anything?

[AlohaMolly]

It’s a Bosch dishwasher, maybe six years old. I have, in no particular order -

• repeatedly rinsed through both dishwasher arms
• cleaned the filter
• filled the dishwasher salt
• filled the rinse aid

Neither the top nor the bottom racks are remotely clean, I put the dishwasher tablet in and it doesn’t clear it away, when I open it at the end of the cycle it’s sitting their looking at me.

It’s been almost a week, I’ve tried everything I can think. I’m going to take a sledgehammer to the bastard thing if I have to open it one more time to find still dirty dishes.

Please help!

LockdownLil definitely not the door, the cycles are running normal length and there’s no other appliances near by.

My dishwasher did this too....or it covered everything in a gritty sandy film...i took it to the tip and 3 years later still wash up by hand.

When the cycle has finished, are the dishes dry, or does it have steam coming out when you open it? If the heater is knackered then it won't be drying.

[quote AlohaMolly]@CovidClara tipped what forward?

If it’s not getting hot enough, is that an engineer problem? I’m so broke and in welsh lockdown for the next —million years— week or so[/quote]
Bosch is the same company as siemens

What works always for siemens- whatever the issue-always- had them for 35 year

tip it forward when empty- as far as you can
tip it back

bingo! (believe me)

Great thread OP. And yes, just chuck the tablet in the bottom.

Maybe the water isn't heating to the right temperature to dissolve the tablet. Run an empty cycle with just the tablet and check if it's dissolving. Also check your water pressure is high enough

Maybe the lovely @PigletJohn, MN's resident helpful plumber, will have some suggestions..

If you're able to, remove the spinny arms and take a needle to the holes. When this happened to me it was because tiny bits of sweetcorn were stuck in the holes.

This happened to ours twice, and it was because it wasn't heating up the water. We were out of warranty but got a spare part off Amazon for£13. Second time it happened, exactly same problem. It was as if the bit that does temp had corroded.

I think it resets a load of sensors rather than being actual magic

Ah smol! I've always been an avid fan of their washing tablets but recently ordered their dishwasher tablets and had exactly the same issue. I cancelled them and swapped back to original brand and problem disappeared.

I wonder if the smol dishwasher tablets are just a bit rubbish?

My dishwasher has broken 3 times in the last few months. £60 call out charge each time. The engineer lectures me on the same things (which I do!!) I clean all the food off and rinse, keep salt and rinse aid topped up. Use dishwasher cleaner. It’s just broken again.

It’s Neff so same group. I can’t face another £60 so I guess it’s a new dishwasher. Why don’t they work!!! Ours is 3 years old at most.

That tablet has been through three half hour wash cycles. Those things that are still dirty have been through five - one rinse, one intensive 2.25 cycle and three half hour cycles.

Mine will clean everything except anything placed in the bottom right hand corner. Those items come out completely untouched by water or detergent no idea why. The arm spins round so if it wasn’t working surely all the bottom row would be dirty but no. Just the right hand corner. Of course all the dirt is then baked on due to the drying function so requires a soak rather than just putting it through again. It is a Miele too and I thought they were good.

Have a look in the water jet thingys. The teeny tiny holes can get clogged with plastic or food bits and then no water can come out.

I've got a Bosch and it frequently doesn't clean properly. It is a terrible diva and will manage a half-arsed job only if everthing is meticulously stacked with lots of space between.

The cheapo Beko one is works cleans a total jumble of stuff that people ram in any which-way.

Ooh I had this and my MIL (who is normally a PITA ) told me how to fix it. You take off the spinny helicopter blade thing which is attached under the top rack and there’s bits of old food trapped inside which you need to get out of the tiny holes - I used tweezers. The old food stops the water coming out properly and rinsing everything. No need for new parts/repairs/replacements (hopefully!)

I don’t want to believe it’s the smol tablets because I’ve used them for about a year and they’ve been fine. I always resent having to shell out for dishwasher tablets during my grocery shop and love that they come through my door!

Unfortunately it’s an integrated dishwasher, so no magic shimmyshaking it around

I can’t remember if Ive had a face full of hot steam recently... I’ll check that too!!

If it is the water heater thing, it’s going to be a ball ache because it’s integrated isn’t it.

I’m well versed in the stupid holes in the stupid arms unfortunately. I frequently play whack a mole with whatever shitty bit of food is stuck in there and then manage to soak myself when rinsing them through, every time

@EggyPegg

I had this with my old Beko. DH agreed to buy a new one after I declared that I couldn't keep doing this.

On mine, the arms no longer rotated, so the water was just pitfully dribbling out of them into the same spot. Open it a mid cycle. Check the position of the arms. Close, wait for it to kick in again (and theoretically start spinning).if they're in the same position when you open it the second time, they're not roatating.

My Beko lives at the tip now.

Had the same issue with the arms not rotating, the problem was the seal joining the arm to the water inlet was aging and cracked (aren't we all!) So not enough hot water was coming through, causing the arms not to spin, fuck all was clean and the tablet sat not dissolved at the bottom of the dishwasher. We ordered replacement seals online for a couple of euro and are back in business again.

Oh sorry, I thought I’d solved it for you there! I hope you get to the bottom of it then!

Don’t mean to sound judgy but.... if you are regularly putting stuff that dirty in I reckon the spinny things might be clogged up. Dishwashers can’t cope with properly cleaning stuff that dirty. When did you last clean it, filter and all?

Eight minutes in to the cycle and the arms haven’t moved...

Ours is like this. Im told its the water pressure. So its worse if the washing machine, taps or shower are on. Has your water pressure changed at all? New houses built near you or anything?
Ours seems fine in the taps and shower. You can only tell by the outside tap which just trickles.

Smol are crap according to nearly everyone I know who's used them.

We used to have similar problems with an ownbrand tablet. Could only get some flash finish ones one month and I happily pay the extra now. I tried swapping back and could see the difference immediately