Dish washer empty

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Dec 7, 2003
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Florida, Cape Coral
Occasionally my dishwasher does not completely empty on the last cycle and leaves ~1 gallon of water. I checked the pump intake cover, and it is clean. I remember someone advising people having that problem to put some liquid it the dasher to clean the system. What liquid would they be referring to? Thank you so much. Ed
 
There is a screen on the bottom of the dishwasher that you're supposed to clean annually. Mine was pretty clogged up after 17 years of never cleaning it. There is also a check valve in the drain in the drain pump that can go bad. When I had the same trouble as you're describing, I cleaned the screen and replaced the drain pump and that fixed the problem.
 
The other thing to check is the final outlet from the drain hose into the drain. I had a fruit pit stuck in mine. The dishwasher wouldn't drain at all. You couldn't see it and the tech pushed it out (backwards toward the dishwasher) with a rod.

I had already replaced the drain motor but that didn't solve the problem (so I now have a spare).

That's apparently a very common cause of failure to drain (usually complete failure).
 
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Try running a gallon of vinegar and a 1 box of baking soda through a cycle to clean it. Empty washer pour the vinegar and box of baking soda in the bottom and run it.
When you mix a weak acid (vinegar) with a weak base (baking soda) you'll get lots of foaming and quickly end up with only salty water.

Running some vinegar through might get rid of some deposits. But I'd forget about adding the baking soda.
 
When you mix a weak acid (vinegar) with a weak base (baking soda) you'll get lots of foaming and quickly end up with only salty water.

Running some vinegar through might get rid of some deposits. But I'd forget about adding the baking soda.
Yeah, vinegar and baking soda mixture is recommended often, and for many years. I, like you, could never understand the reasoning since the baking soda would neutralize the acid. Maybe somebody with chemistry background can shed some light on this.

To the OP, they also make dishwasher cleaners, usually a citric acid that might help get things moving again.
Recently, I found Finish dishwasher detergent for hard water, and I figure that will have a tiny bit of acidity to it, so I switched to using that alll the time.
 
Occasionally my dishwasher does not completely empty on the last cycle and leaves ~1 gallon of water. I checked the pump intake cover, and it is clean. I remember someone advising people having that problem to put some liquid it the dasher to clean the system. What liquid would they be referring to? Thank you so much. Ed
Whenever my dishwasher doesnt empty completely I give it a couple of ex-lax and that usually does the trick.
 
Make sure the water level float has not taken in water. If it has and is heavier than it should be it will tell the pump the water is gone too soon.
 
some dishwashers also have a cleaning cycle... our newer LG unit connects to the wifi, and the LG app, and you can download and push different cycles to it.
why? because everything must connect to an app nowadays..

check the manual, YMMV, etc.
 
Yeah, vinegar and baking soda mixture is recommended often, and for many years. I, like you, could never understand the reasoning since the baking soda would neutralize the acid. Maybe somebody with chemistry background can shed some light on this.
I've been thinking about why people might recommend this.

The foaming action (which besides being a bit spectacular) might dislodge something interfering with the float. But to be honest that seems a bit unlikely.

If you don't get the acid and base components exactly balanced you'll end up with a salty slightly acidic or a salty slightly basic mixture. It seems to me a salty slightly acidic mixture would have some cleaning action on hard water deposits - though not nearly as much as plain vinegar (a weak acid) on its own.

So plain vinegar seems more likely to help. It would clean out some calcium hard water deposits.

It's worth a try but I don't expect doing a vinegar wash will solve the problem. It sounds more like something mechanical (like a float not working properly, or a pit in the drain hose) to me.
 
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I too have heard citric acid cleans dishwashers the best, as it cuts grease well. I've used these Affresh tablets in the past and they seem like good, periodic maintenance. Cheap enough to try and see if it helps yours.

 
Yeah, vinegar and baking soda mixture is recommended often, and for many years. I, like you, could never understand the reasoning since the baking soda would neutralize the acid. Maybe somebody with chemistry background can shed some light on this.

To the OP, they also make dishwasher cleaners, usually a citric acid that might help get things moving again.
Recently, I found Finish dishwasher detergent for hard water, and I figure that will have a tiny bit of acidity to it, so I switched to using that alll the time.
When baking soda is mixed with vinegar, the acid breaks down baking soda, releasing carbon dioxide gas that can help lift dirt from the surfaces being cleaned.
 
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