How needy is your dishwasher?

[Bakerposs]

Mine seems to demand salt and rinse aid weekly?
I also have to regularly (like more than once a week) clean the arms and the filter.
It still regularly punishes me by not properly cleaning things but ‘burning’ on the mess so it then needs scrubbing. Or by not draining properly so I have to dig around in the water to get the filter etc.
we do scrape the plates etc before putting them in but dont rinse them. Is this where we’re going wrong?

Oh, and no rinsing unless it's to remove a big blob of e.g. Mayo/Ketchup. Family of 2 adults, 3 kids. Tbh I tend to hand-wash a lot of the saucepans simply because there isn't room in the dishwasher and I want everything cleaned up and put away rather than waiting by the sink. If there's room, I put the saucepans in.

It has decided to retire so it's pretty needy.
Before this acting up asking for service twice a month was it's norm.

@BertieBotts- we have a Miele but it was the most basic model they did (a jubilee I think). We are a family of 4 and run the dishwasher at least once a day. We hand wash pots and pans and proper knives, wooden spoons and so on (anything that says hand wash). But all crockery, glasses and glass or ceramic dishes go in there.

Everything comes out sparkling except very occasionally. I think it’s the Fairy tablets that make the difference.

Bosch dishwasher, nice non limescaling Scottish water, never add salt or rinse aid as it’s not needed.

I wonder how many here who never put rinse aid or salt in the dishwasher, or clean the filter have partners that just do it.

We are in a hardwater area and top the salt up every couple of months and rinse aid probably once a months. The filter gets cleaned about weekly because the last dishwasher died by filling the kitchen up with water. That needed a new kitchen floor and was a lot of hassle that I'd like to avoid!

Are you using my dishwasher 🤪
Mine also randomly refuses to turn on without fiddling around and holding buttons down

@LattePatty Definitely not a basic Miele here but sparkling results every time. My DD is happy with her Bosch too. Checking quality makes a difference.

I use the own brand all-in-one dishwasher tablets (I don't notice any difference to the fancy ones other than they cost me 1/3 less!). I top up the rinse aid and salt whenever the light comes on, as I'm in a hard water area and it needs the extra boost. RA once a week-ish, salt is much less frequent, maybe once every 8 weeks, as the reservoir is huge. I also clean the fine mesh drum filter once a week or so, as it gets greasy. 8ish year-old Smeg built-in.

I tend to hand wash anything with baked on food, like big baking dishes of lasagne. Mostly because they take up too much room in the dishwasher and I'd have to pre-soak them anyway to get the really baked on stuff off. So I might as well just hand wash that anyway.

Had dishwashers since the late 90's and this is how I've always done things, seems to work for me.

My husband didn't know where the filters were until I showed him a couple of months ago 😂

Mine is pretty chill really. Asks for rinse aid about once a month and asks for salt about once every three months. He’s clearly a laid back one.

Can’t answer for everyone. But ours is a mid range machine. Food gets scraped into the compost bin, but that’s all, I sometimes soak the pans before lobbing them into the machine, but that’s only if if manage to burn weldfood on the pan. Plates, saucepans, cutlery, wooden spoons, sometimes the washing up brush, all gets shoved in. 70* wash, 90% time comes out clean. I clean out the filter once a week, otherwise that’s it. Washing at a lower temperature, regardless of dishwasher tbs, is useless, and everything would need re washing. I don’t over load it, one wash a day.

@BertieBotts Mine is a not quite top range Miele. They are around £1800 I think now but models do change and mine is integrated. It has a few extras but essentially we bought it because it’s so quiet. We barely know it’s on and it’s a star.

We hand wash non stick and never put them in dishwasher. We also soak anything really difficult, eg really stuck on food. However le Creuset and all stainless steel saucepans go in but I always soak first. Dont ever put in excessive oily pans and certainly rinse off food and sauces. You have to give the dishwasher a chance!

I don’t deep clean it. Occasionally has a cleaning capsule but you are abusing it if you don’t soak and put gunk into it. I cannot fault Miele. Yes, the door opens and a light comes on but, it’s like everything else, care for it and it will repay you. We are 2 but we entertain quite a lot.

We live in a hard water area and it’s probably a little bit mistreated. It’s my partners domain and he is good at filling the salt and occasionally doing a service wash. But I suspect he doesn’t know about the filter - I might check that with him.

it’s not as needy as my robot hover mop tho… 6 years of daily use and I’d never go back to actually hovering the kitchen but jeez that thing is needy 🙄

Ive got a 18 year old Indesit dishwasher so a cheaper brand. I use the 3 in one Tesco own capsules. I scrape the plates but don't rinse them under the tap. I never put salt or rinse aid in and touch wood, washes and dries well.

We have soft water so no need for salt (officially - I actually went online and looked up the water hardness, and read the information in the manual which I doubt most people bother with!). When we lived in an area with hard water we did keep the salt topped up religiously though, as it really seemed to matter.

We used to add rinse aid but haven't bothered for years now. We use the Lidl "All in One Power" tablets - not the cheapest ones, but not the most expensive either.

The filters are removed and rinsed about once a fortnight. We scrape chunks of food off things but otherwise no prerinsing or prewashing - that would seem to defeat the purpose of having a dishwasher!

Everything comes out sparkling.

@BertieBotts. I would say mine is low-moderate maintenance. As I said upthread, I do the basic upkeep on my mid-range, 8+ year old integrated model. I also forgot to say that I wipe around the door seals once a month or so (more often, if I remember, amazing the gloop that builds up). I don't wash big things like pans, baking trays or baking dishes in it, mostly because they are a waste of space and are easy to clean by hand. I'd rather use the dishwasher for fiddly things.

We do consume meat and/or dairy most days and use olive oil and butter, so it does have to deal with proteins and grease. I scrape plates/remove residue but don't rinse. That feels like a waste of water to me, if I'm going to rinse the whole load first, I might as well just hand wash it.

Dishwasher is run everyday, maybe twice when we have people over. We are a household of 3 adults.

TBH I had never thought of soaking things before I put them in the dishwasher. It doesn't say anything in the manual about this so I assumed you could just put stuff in without soaking first. Is this a thing that used to be advised? Or are people just copying over behaviour from hand washing? I don't find burnt on stuff is any worse than anything else.

I do scrape/wipe out oil or fat with kitchen paper.

£1800 is probably 5x the max I've ever paid for a dishwasher but TBF three of the dishwashers I've ever owned were second hand and cheap or free. One of them was so old it was called the Lady Plus that was actually the best one of the lot, never had a single issue except for it being a bit noisy, I reckon it is probably still going and must be about 30 years old.

This sounds very plausible (and disgusting!) I’ll see if we can get it out and have a look at it the pipes

Yes but you ignore them if you using all in one. I clean the filter when I think of it and that's about it. I've had a dishwasher for over 30 years and did use salt and rinse aid in the early years but not since the all in one tabs.

Tends to hide his neediness by having strops a lot of the time. Crucial to keep topped up with food 5 times a day. WiFi controlled.

(The dishwasher is my teenager)

I use a low amount of salt and rinse aid with the all in one tablets because the tablets aren't sufficient for hard water areas, they are more for average type water.

Is it a Miele?

I have a Neff and a Miele. The Neff gets on with it, the Miele throws a strop every other day.

Not convinced it cleans better for it either...

I don’t rinse plates. That’s the point of a dishwasher and mines cleans beautifully and I love him

tho never put plastic kids drinks bottles on the bottom if doing 70* or they shrink /change shape

I add rinse aid as makes glasses better but do use Aldi lemon posh tabs with both salt and rinse aid in them

cheap ones don’t seem to work as well

maybe time to change him if doing all their things - that’s what my old one did after 4yrs or so.

The holes in the arms get getting stuck with food /rice so didn’t clean as well. Odd non drain and flooded kitchen floor

so binned him

We put salt in occasionally. I didn't even know there was place to put in rinse aid! I don't know where filters are unless it's that big one on the bottom. We do rinse dinner plates but the rest goes in sans rinse.

I use Morrisons tabs. I will check what they have in now! We've had it nearly 2 years and begs that we didn't have a dishwasher for 10 years. Our old IKEA dishwasher was awful. This one is Hotpoint and I love so much about it. It's lack of neediness is a new tick!

How do you unclog the pipes? My dishwasher has suddenly stopped working as it wont fill with water. Google says it could be a pipe issue. It’s integrated so I don’t even know where the plug is. It’s only about 4 years old.