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I find that recent models of dishwashers don’t work nearly as well as older models. They don’t heat up enough to dry water off of plastic, and the enzyme based
by Xcelerate 6y ago
I find that recent models of dishwashers don’t work nearly as well as older models. They don’t heat up enough to dry water off of plastic, and the enzyme based detergents don’t seem to clean as well as the old phosphate detergents.
Also, the dishwasher in our current apartment (a cheap Whirlpool) often leaves a wet dog smell on the glasses, and we can’t figure out where it comes from or how to get rid of it. Apparently, this is a rather common problem, with hundreds of posts scattered across the internet where people with the same problem unsuccessfully try dozens of home remedies that fail to fix the issue. I never remember wet dog smell from the older units so I can only assume this results from some sort of energy saving feature that backfired.
- briefcomment 6y agoMaybe it doesn't dry enough to remove all moisture, and there's mold/mildew in some of the rubber areas, like what happens in washers.
- tommymachine 6y agoThe regulations on the wash cycles, including water volume, time, energy, and detergents, are very restrictive. Older units were not subject to the same regulations. For example, due to laws in California most commercial dish detergents won’t contain TSP (trisodium phosphate). I’ve been adding a bit of powdered TSP with the detergent pod to each load and it seems to have improved the results.
- copperx 6y agoI believe detergents never used TSP to begin with; they used another more unstable posphate which worked better.
- Symbiote 6y agoSo fuck the environment, the rules are for other people?
- tommymachine 6y agoIt seems like you’re implying that laws in California apply also to people who live in other states?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Xylakant 6y agoIndirectly, they do. Same thing as ES rules. The EU rules do not apply to the US, but by virtue of being a huge market, products are designed to follow those requirements. And companies will want to avoid creating entirely different product lines for different markets - so at least some of those rules and restrictions will end up in those products.
- airstrike 6y agoAre you pre-rinsing your dishes before loading them in the dishwasher? Have you run a "cleaning" cycle? Here's one guide on google, not sure if it works https://www.today.com/series/how-often-should-you/how-clean-dishwasher-t17946 https://www.today.com/series/how-often-should-you/how-clean-... Do you open your dishwasher as soon as the cycle is done? For best results, according to my layman's opinion, make sure to open it and even pull out the racks / give the top rack a nice shake / check for any water left in recipients
- JimTheMan 6y agoIf I had to pre-rinse the dishes before putting them in a dishwasher, I wouldn't bother using a dishwasher. I'd wash them by hand, it only takes marginally more time.
- airstrike 6y agoYeah, you're not supposed to put them full of food into the dishwasher. It's not like the thing runs on anti-matter – it's just hot water and soap.
- baq 6y agoYou’re supposed to throw leftovers out before putting dishes in the dishwasher but rinsing before is overkill and greatly reduces both time and environmental gains of using one.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoAre there any environmental gains of using a dishwasher?
- leadingthenet 6y agoYes. It uses dramatically less water than washing by hand, if you have a full load.
- evancordell 6y agoI have the exact same problem and have gone down the exact same rabbit hole with no real solution. Fully disassembling (essentially uninstalling), cleaning, and sanitizing everything that touches water seems to fix it for a few cycles, but it slowly comes back over time. The problem has followed me across states, houses, and dishwashers. I’m assuming it’s modern enzymatic detergent like you suggest. Slightly more frustrating is that not everyone seems to smell it, or not as strongly as I seem to. It’s like dishwashers everywhere are gaslighting me.
- etrautmann 6y agoI’ve had the same experience at my parents house. Some glasses smell odd and nobody else seems to smell it. I also typically have a terrible sense of smell but find this off putting.
- srgpqt 6y agoAs strange as it may sound, it could be because you use a little too much detergent.
- mulmen 6y agoI have experienced this. Do you know why this is? It seems very counter-intuitive to me. Does it have to do with the ratio of water to detergent or something? I have no idea how a dishwasher actually works, is water being recirculated?
- tobyhinloopen 6y agoIirc using too much soap prevents the soap from being “absorbed” into the water, causing it to be left behind, including the dirt it grabbed.
- rsynnott 6y agoIt doesn't help that the detergent manufacturers, who have an interest in selling more detergent, tend to be generous with their dosing instructions. Always follow the appliance manufacturer's dosing, not the detergent manufacturer's.
- jbay808 6y agoI've noticed that new dishwashers require much longer to get the job done, too.
- DoingIsLearning 6y agoI noticed that as well with a fairly new dishwasher but I just assumed that is because new dishwashers generally optimize to use less heat and less water, so the way to achieve similar results in this 'eco' mode is to have longer programs.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoIt's in the name of energy ratings; using less water at a colder temperature will reduce energy usage. As for the smell "wet dog smell" is usually mold; rinse your plates of food remains before putting it in the dishwasher, clean out your filters regularly (not as necessary if you rinse beforehand), and run a hot, empty cycle with soda crystals. Also, leave it open to air out if it's not running (doesn't need to be open all the way, just enough for the insides to stay dry). All of that also applies to washing machines. Basically, moisture in a closed space will cause mold and smells.
- bluGill 6y agoIf I need to rinse my dishes before hand that defeats the purpose. I'm 90% done with hand washing at that point so I may as well do it all by hand
- rsynnott 6y agoI wouldn't worry about the rinsing thing with modern machines. Leaving the machine open to avoid mold is definitely advisable, though (some machines have vents for this, but most don't).
- feanaro 6y agoMy SO and I have been discussing this for years and everyone we've spoken with about this stared at us like we were crazy. It's weird finally encountering someone who is describing it in the exact same terms. We do experience it in relation to our dishwasher sometimes, but I don't think the dishwasher is an essential component: it happens with handwashed dishes too. The essential factor, as far as we've been able to determine, is wet dishes which get in contact with outdoor air. However it only happens on some days and more often in some months/seasons! My theory so far has been that it's a reaction between some molecule in air (something which varies in concentration over a period of days, perhaps a pollutant) and water. But it may as well be that it is interacting with detergent residue. The interesting thing is that we don't actually manually measure detergent for our dishwasher but use detergent tablets, so the quantity never varies.
- organsnyder 6y agoOur newer Bosch unit is the best-performing unit we've ever owned. We do follow their instructions to always use rinse aid (it has an automatic dispenser that needs to be refilled every couple dozen cycles), as well as the recommended detergent (Finish Powerball tablets, which we happened to be using already). We scrape off as much food as we can into the compost, but we only rinse things when we know they'll be problematic if they dry out before we run it (such as bread dough, eggs. etc.). Yeah, it takes a few hours to run, but it's so quiet for most of the cycle we need to rely on the status LED to know it's running. We usually start it right before we go to bed (or better yet, set the timer after dinner so that we don't forget but can still load in dishes from a late snack or whatever).
- ip26 6y agoWe had a bad fish smell on glasses; it was due to food particles trapped in the pump housing behind the screen filter. Disassembly and a hose-down of the screen, plus a vinegar load, fixed the issue. I suspect the offending food particles will tend to always be somewhere near the heating element, aka bacterial incubator.