Oh FFS why are my dishes always dirty from dishwasher?

[AskBasil]

I clean the filters every single time, I have removed the bit where you spin that little wheel round to ensure no bits of food are caught in it and I do that every time, I wipe it down inside every time - what am I doing wrong? Tiny traces of food all over the dishes after every single wash. Is it just a crap dishwasher?

Are you overloading it? Blocking the water outlets with plates/chopping boards etc?

When you put the filter back in, make sure you twist it in properly, not just sit it in its home. That's where I've gone wrong in the past more than once, will I ever learn?

was it like this at the beginning?

What dishwasher tablets are you using? I only really like Fairy.

We had this problem when we used the super expensive all-in-one tablets. I don't think our dishwasher could cope. Since we reverted to cheap tablets, salt and rinse aid we have had no problems. Might be worth a try.

Could it need the salt topping up?

Ours is the same, and am at a loss. Have stopped using it at the moment as I'm sick of it! Yours isn't a beko is it?

What dishwasher is it?

Do you use all in one tablets plus add salt and rinse aid?

We have a Miele. Add new tablet each time, salt and rinse add redone when low which is around once a month. Every is clean including baked on stuff

Is the Di shwasher salt empty?

Do you make sure the arms can spin after loading it?

Ours did this. It was a Beko. We bought a Bosch and haven't had any more problems.

We had this problem and it turned out to be nothing to do with the dishwasher. The pipe work taking waste water from the kitchen runs uphill

It did in our old house too. Bizarre.

Does it need more salt?

Have you checked that there are no kinks in the out flow pipe? Ours is free standing and we have to pull it away from the wall a bit.

Do you rinse the worst of the food off them before stacking the dishwasher? That helps ours.

It probably needs salt and rinse aid.

Our old one used to do this.

Bought a new dishwasher, ensured that plates are not too 'foody' when loaded into the machine, don't overload and keep up with the salt and rinse aid. I do all pans by hand too.

Seems much better.

Make sure you are loading it correctly! My DH insists on loading it so stuff touches. Of course stuff doesn't come out clean!!
Run it empty to clean it?

Have tried all that's suggested here, apart from using rinse aid as someone once told me if you're using the all in ones, you shouldn't use the rinse aid. Will try that.

Make sure when you push the baskets in that both spray arms have room to spin and aren't catching on anything.

Try running a finish dishwasher cleaner through it and use separate salt, rinse aid & detergent instead of all in one.

Yes I think I'll go back to separate salt etc.

Thanks for all the tips.

I use the all in one tablets but I always use salt and rinse aid too.

I use super-cheap tablets eg Tesco everyday value plus salt and rinse aid.

I don't get better results with expensive tablets. But the salt and rinse aid are essential, ime.

Aldi dishwasher tablets are the best I've used, and they're £2.99 for 50!

Have you taken the spray arm off, put your fingers over all but one of the holes and blown as if you're playing a flute, to make absolutely sure none of the holes are blocked? A few grains of rice caught in there can make it much less effective.

Ever since our friend did that for us and thus restored our useless dishwasher to perfect functioning, we have also been extremely scrupulous about scraping ALL solid detachable food off the plates before they go in - ie not a single grain of rice should be left. It has made a big difference.

And always use rinse aid.