What is wrong with my dishwasher?

[WazFlimFlam]

I have in the past week done the soda crystals, hot water and a plunger thing, and then done run a wash with a dishwasher cleaner in it.

The glasses still come out dirtier than they were when they went in despite us rinsing everything off beforehand, the arms are still full of black crud, and the bottom of the machine is always dirty, like the dirty water hasn't drained away properly.

I can't see a way of detaching the arms either.

How can I fix this?

Detach the arms and clean them out as a first step.

Google your make and model to find out how!

Make sure the drain and filter are not clogged. Finish do a great dishwasher cleaner that I use once a month. Run the dishwasher empty with it on the hottest setting.

It is not blocked, I can force the water through the arms using a plunger and hot water and soda crystals if you see what I mean.

How do you clean out the arms after you have detached them? If I can?

I had this problem. No clue as to how to remove the arms, could see they were blocked.

Got a crochet hook and inserted into the holes in the arms. OMG the crud that came out of there!

Sparkling glasses once again now.

Have you removed and cleaned the filters?

Yes I have removed and cleaned the filters.

What size was the crochet hook cathyclown?

It’s the spinny arms that need a good clean 🤢

If you Google your dishwasher you should be able to find the manual online - this will tell you how to take apart the user serviceable parts.

Next time you run the dishwasher spin the arms to exactly vertical before you start - this will show you if the arms are spinning during the wash.

How do you clean the spinny arms? other than with a crochet hook... When I try to pull gunk out of them it just bungs up the holes even more.

Find the manual. You should be able to remove them and then you can just run them under the tap.

You are all geniuses. There was a little bit of plastic film completely covering the bit where water goes into the top spinner. I have run some v hot water through it and it is coming out clear, and will try to soak the spinners properly when it is no longer Sunday evening sometime later in the week.

For anyone finding this thread, the manual is crap-to-borderline useless.

1. To remove the top rack you need to snap back the little grey bits of plastic on the end of the wheel runners, then it will roll off. Then turn over the top rack to remove the spinner.
2. You need some brute force to turn the nut.

Anyway, the fact it was a bit of plastic explains why pumpkin endless caustic chemicals through the machine to dissolve grease and limescale was failing miserably, and nothing seemed to improve the top spinner!

I feel like a plumbing genius. DH is annoyingly underwhelmed.

On my dishwasher the arms click apart so you can clean the holes properly.

Cherrytree mine don't.

Right, stuff is still coming out of it dirtier than when it went in. I have the spinny arms soaking in v concentrated cleaning fluid and vinegar, but if this doesn't work, I may have to replace them.

Has anyone had any luck buying them online?

Yes, we bought spinny arms online - can't remember where from (sorry, not much help) but they were about £13 from memory and sorted the problem.

Are you in a hard water area? We are and out last dishwasher got horribly blocked up with lime scale. Not necessarily where you could see it but they was loads in the drainage pipe which stopped it from draining properly. We had similar problems to you.

I used dishwasher cleaners regularly but they are more for grease than linescale and had no impact. A couple of doses of a limscale remover sorted it and we now use salt and rinse aid instead of just the all in 1 cleaners.

Can you disconnect the drainage pipe and investigate? I paid a repair guy to do this and felt a fool when he cleared half a sink full of limescale from the hose..