Smelly dishwasher - please help - ok to use bleach?

[starrystarrynights]

Dishwasher is getting progressively smellier and smellier - the bottom drain thing is clean and the little Asda deoderiser just sort of half masks the small IYSWIM.

I put some newly made soup into a tub which had come out of the diswasher andwhen i heated the soup - in a plate - I coudl actaully smell the dishwasher - yuck!!

Take it that itwoudl be too extreme to run it empty a few times with some strong bleach and then empty to rinse the bleach out?

A colleague said the claners did this at work when our dishwasher there was really smelly but I'm not so sure if thats a good idea...

Would it have anything to do with ot using salt? i have never put salt in the maching and am not sure where it woudl go/what it would do!

Please help!

sorry about the typoes - forgot to spell check

I would run it with vinegar rather than bleach.

ER yes you HAVE to put the special salt in it you may have damaged the machine.

Don't put bleach or vinegar in it put the salt that is sold with the detergent for it in it!!

Cleaning - I buy little bottles of special dishwasher-cleaner - you run it on a hot wash with one upside-down in the cutlery rack and it freshens everything up.

Salt - it depends - if you use all-in-one tablets/liquid/powder/whatever and don't live in a hard water area, then you don't need any dishwasher salt. Otherwise, you do! There will be a section somewhere to put it - in mine it's at the bottom and has a big round screw-on lid, but it could also be on the door.

Check the filter in the bottom, where all the crap collects, if you do not rinse off first, this may need clearing. Some machines take this debris down the waste with the water, some do not. Does the plug hole/drain in your kitchen sink also smell? Is it draining away at a good rate? Are your dishes coming out clean? (sorry it sounds like a cheesy Ad!) You do need to use salt, it acts as a water softener & therefore prevents the build up of limescale (which can get very smelly & slime sticks to that) inhibiting the full spray/flow both ways, of water. Or maybe it's not pumping/draining all the dirty water out. If you still have it, read the manual/diy or plumber as required.

oust from superdrug

oh no - have def not being using salt! I've moved from a softwater area to a hrrdwater one so maybe I should be using some.

There is no manual with the dishwasher though - I should look online

Sorry am being really daft here but I use the fairy all in one squeezy tablet things in a hardwater area so should be using salt, yes?

plug hole does not smell and all dishes are nice and clean!
Many thanks

If you have hard water, it's always best to use dishwasher salt, even if you use the all in one tablets. Dishwashers have a built-in water softener which uses the salt to soften the water as it comes in. That works much better than the little bit of salt in the all-in-one tablet which will not be enough to soften all the water.

here's a link

If there is hard water building up somewhere, it may not be draining as well as it should, so that might explain the smell. But they do need a good clean-out from time to time anyway.

Agree you need salt.

I buy those dishwasher cleaner things and run a cycle with that in every few weeks. Also just occasionally run an empty hot cycle to give it a good clean. Sometimes put a bowl of vinegar in too.

Hardwater area dishwasher def requires more upkeep than soft water, unfortunately Definitely salt - you won't need to top up very often and your machine should tell you when you need to. I try to run a cleaner through it once a month (usually ends up being every 2 months). For both of these I just buy whatever is cheapest at the supermarket.

I also found that different cleaners had different results. Everything seems much fresher and cleaner since I switched to the Fairy liquitab things.

So I'm super brand loyal on the washing tablets now but a price whore on salt and cleaners