Cleaning your dishwasher is an important job that’s often overlooked. Here’s how I clean our dishwasher and keep it like new!
Dishwashers are one of the best inventions ever made! They clean dirty dishes for you and save you time standing over a kitchen sink, especially after you’ve made a big meal need to deal with lots of dirty dishes, glasses and utensils. Over time, the dishwasher, which cleans everything, can create a build-up of soap scum, grease and food debris, which may impact the way your dishwasher works. A dishwasher needs to be taken care of regularly, requiring thorough cleaning for it to function at its best and provide you with the cleanest dishes.
Here are some simple steps you can follow that will make your dishwasher continue to work efficiently as when you first bought it.
Cleaning Your Dishwasher
- remove all dishes from your dishwasher.
- use multi-purpose spray to wipe down the inside edges of the door.
- spray inside your dishwasher along the base of the door (this is where I find the most gunk build up), and use a paper towel or old toothbrush to remove the gunk.
- for stubborn gunk, pour over some boiling water and wipe away, no need to scrub too much as it will easily wipe away after it has gone through a cycle.
- remove any food caught in the cutlery basket/tray.
- place a jug filled with vinegar (I used 1 and a half cups) on the top rack of your dishwasher.
- to freshen the smell of your dishwasher, sprinkle a cup of baking soda (or bicarb) into the bottom of it
- turn your dishwasher on an economy setting, using the hottest temperature and run through a cycle.
- once the cycle has finished, use a cleaning cloth to ensure that all gunk is removed.
- Wipe down the outside of your dishwasher and any surrounding cupboards or walls that may have splatters from dirty dishes. The Peppermint Stainless Steel Cleaner is great for this and polishes and protects your stainless steel and chrome-plated surfaces.
it is best not to pour the vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher as many run their drain pump at the start of each cycle to clear residual waste water left over from the previous load, therefore draining away the vinegar you just poured in.
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22 comments
Thank you for this! I’ve never known the best way to clean the dishwasher and I certainly didn’t want to pay asking price for the commerical cleaners to do the job. Looking forward to giving your method a go 🙂
Ooh yeah! That gunk under the door… Get rid of that!!!
My parents lived out in the country where they had minerals in the water. They would put a cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle with every load. The dishes came out spotless and the dishwasher never had any build up. This works like a charm!
is this the same for 2 drawer dishwashers
Yes it is the same for 2 draw dishwashers. U can actually pull them further apart and clean even more parts just remember how you got it apart so u can get it back together.
Don’t forget to pull out the filter from the bottom, it gets all covered in gunk, if you don’t clean it regularly, you’re dishes won’t wash properly
Is the vinegar in the bowl meant to all spill out during the wash cycle, or just some spill out and more water collect in the bowl?
run a load of citric acid instead of powder in an empty wash with vinegar as the rinse
Don’t forget to remove and clean the filter. Then remove the spray arms and clear any foreign bits that block the spray nozzles.
Great tip thanks
How often do you recommend cleaning your dishwasher?
Hi Alison,Ooh i usually try to clean mine every few weeks.
Cleaning the filter is the nastiest thing ever. Needs to be done though.
It is isn’t it Christy, i’m always glad once i’ve done.:)
Thankyou so much for this dishwasher tip! For years I have done this by hand, dismantling and scrubbing etc (a very messy job) because I have found none of the commercial cleaners have worked.
Finally I used the jug of vinegar on the heavy duty setting and to my amazement, all clean! The filter basket was full of the gunk that collects under the cover of the pump etc and the spray arm was completely clean! and so much cheaper and healthier than the chemicals listed in the commercial dish washer cleaners!
Vinegar is amazing Val, I am so glad that you have seen how well it works 🙂
Hi Kat, I had cleaned my dishwasher a couple of times now using this method. I found at the end that the jug with vinegar is still sitting on the top shelf full. Is it supposed to empty throughout the cycle?
The dishwasher you are dealing with also requires cleaning very much. It is quite essential that you maintain the dishwasher so that it can work for longer life span. Thanks for sharing these wonderful tips. This will surely help a lot of people to understand. Keep up the good work!
Benchtop dishwasher afterpay
Clean your dishwasher with vinegar and baking soda once a month to keep it working well.
Isn’t it amazing what these basic home ingredients are capable of?! Kat x
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