Residue on dishwasher dishes - like white brown granules

[Arabella36]

What could be causing this + what can I do? Already posted this on chat but hoping to tap into more knowlegable housekeeping brains here!

At the moment there is salt in dishwasher and I'm using rinse aid and finish tablets.

TIA

have you cleaned the filter and rotor arms? Also try running a dishwasher cleaner through it on a hot wash cycle (with no dishes in)

We have this intermittently. It's generally a build up of yuck inside the rotor arm, which is easily unscrewed and washed in the sink. Dishwasher cleaners tend to extend the period between dismantling/washing but don't remove the need entirely.

In our case I expect that it's because our dishwasher is on its last legs (11 years old, heavy use) but keep putting off buying a new one as it's possibly the most boring thing to spend money on.

sandy residue is food particles.

Yes, take out and clean all the filters (there may be three, check the instruction book), take off the spinning arms and clean them out in the sink. Verify that there are no vessels left upright during a wash so they can hold the dirt.

When you say "At the moment there is salt in dishwasher" do you mean you have previously been running it without?

Do not put things in the washer that have a lot of food scraps on them. Usually scraping is enough but some people rinse off scraps under the cold tap. A dishwasher is not a waste disposal.

Cooking utensils with burnt-on food may take so long to come clean that some of it is still present during the final rinse. Plates and utensils that are not washed while fresh should be given a rinse cycle to wash off and wet residue so it does not set hard.

Look at the waste hose to check it is not kinked, squashed, obstructed or excessively long, and the waste water flows easily and quickly away. If there is a horizontal run in the waste hose, have it go right up nerxt to the d/wr, then loop down again so that nothing can run back. If the hose connects to the sink waste, verify that it loops up higher than the water level in a full sink, otherwise sink waste will run down towards the dishwasher.

Thank you very much piglet, swatch and Seona. This is great advice.

I have located and cleaned out the filter, it was fairly yuck! Will be interesting to see how this wash turns out. I couldn't see how to open up the rotor arms though.

piglet - I usually do put salt in, and someone suggested the problem could be too much product - salt+ all-in-one tablet + rinse aid. What do you think?

salt doesn't get into the washing water, it is only used to regenerate the miniature water softener, which prevents limescale. I can't believe using salt does anything but make the machine work better.

You generally get better results using separate salt, tablets and rinse-aid. Stunningly, "Which" often finds cheap tablets from Aldi and Lidl are best buys.

You need to keep your filters clean. Depending on how much waste is on your plates and pans, you may need to clean them after each wash. If you do it frequently, they only need to be tapped against the side of the sink, and occasionally rinsed. You will soon realise that peas, cabbage leaves, and paper labels on marmalade jars, are troublesome.

For the spinning arms, you need to look at the instruction manual that you put away unread into your junk drawer the day you unpacked the machine