To never have cleaned my dishwasher

[Pavementworrier]

Is it true you're supposed to do it monthly???

I’ll get mine too then. I’m still fairly new to the dishwasher party, only having one for 2 years. I run the machine care program monthly and the products are not cheap. I rinse filter every couple of weeks but it’s never gungy. I live in a hard water area so I just want to look after my dw.

Well I took the filter out of ours and it was a bit gungy but not too bad. The spray arms were fine. Now running a cleaning cycle. Oh and I did the seals and around the door and the edge where it opens which wasn’t dirty at all.

And the extractor fan filter is soaking in hot soapy water.

I’m on a roll.

@Pavementworrier - good news that yours was ok.

I run a dishwasher cleaner product through the machine every 3 months, and feel pretty virtuous doing that much!

Washing machines and dishwashers have to be put through a service wash every so often. Do you have a dryer? You have to clear the fluff from the filter and clean the vent. It helps it run more efficiently as well as preventing a fire hazard.

I use soda crystals in every wash - we have hard water. Calgon is just soda crystals in a tablet.

I think it’s more to do with the number of cycles because if we have been away for 2 weeks it is longer and shorter if we have had a lot of times when it is on twice a day rather than once.

I clean mine on the first of every month and top up the salt and rinse aid at the same time. I do the washing machine, tumble dryer, water softener, water filter and clean the kitchen bins on the same day. Whole thing takes about 15 mins max using a steam cleaner.

Bugger must do the hob extractor filter. DH does like to fry food.

Our dishwasher, there's only two of us so takes two days to fill. Pans washed by hand. The filter at the bottom is never greasy. Fish bones not scraped off the plate are a bugger to remove. I've never found it smelly or gunked up.

We don't have limescale I wonder if that makes a difference

Anyone else clean their dishwasher and washing machines yesterday after reading this thread 🙋‍♀️.

I do clean them but probably quarterly

Never done ours. Life’s too short.

No, but I did but some cleaner! 😁

I can’t believe there are people here who have never cleaned their filters. Are your dishes not coming out covered in dried up sludge?

I do mine every time it stops cleaning as effectively, ie when things aren’t squeaky clean. I do a dishwasher cleaning cycle occasionally.

I do clean the filter now and again. I never run a high temperature cleaning programme and never use salt or Calgon but we are in a soft water area and it's totally unnecessary.

Do you wash your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher?! 😜

I had a family member who did this, by the way! She said the dishwasher was just to “sanitise” the dishes. 🤣 rest her batshit soul ❤️

I ran some bleach through the washing machine after reading this thread. As recommended by Hotpoint. I rarely use bleach so didn’t feel too bad about the environmental effects….

I will say, in defence of my fellow slatterns, that I have rarely ( and not in the last five years) done a maintenance cleaning wash in my washing machine. I'm in a hard water area. I've moved my machine at least three times and it has lasted at least 20 years.

I have never cleaned the filter in 10 years nor can I find it when I had a look!. I did buy some cleaner though and thought £5.50 was bit steep !

I have found out our filter isn't the replaceable kind, almost like a bagless vacuum, dh has been cleaning it all of this time! 🫣

Finish cleaner is very expensive in supermarkets, it's one of those things that B&M sell for £1.99. I generally get a couple when I go in.

I'm doing mine now😇

God, wish I had one of those shops near me!

I have the answer to this. You need a second filter. Available from eBay or online spares suppliers for about £10 if that.

When you do the cleaning programme using Aldi or Lidl dishwasher cleaner, rather than that overpriced Finish nonsense, take out the dirty filter and install your new clean filter.

Then run the cleaning cycle with the yucked up filter in the dishwasher so it's cleaned without having to put in any effort yourself.

I'm not great at cleaning, but with the dishwasher I do regularly empty the filter, and also chuck a cleaning pod in with the normal cycle every couple of weeks.

The dishwasher repair man advised it to stop grease blocking the pipes.

It is much cheaper to buy 2 cleaning pods for £1 than to call out the repair man regularly.

OMG....I wasn't. It's clicked in now, will report back.

Our old DW stopped heating , the repairsman said due to no salt we have a very hard water area ) . Apparently it randomly flushed out the salt container so if I topped it up I had no clue if it would last a month or 24 hours

Current one has a warning light but I check the levels every 1-2 weeks anyway.

I did ask DH as he loaded the DW this morning if he was dazzled , he said "Well I know you cleaned it last night......."
Peasant .