𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝑪𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝑾𝒂𝒚.🧽🪥

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2d (edited) • Articles

What if I told you that the machine you trust to clean your dishes is actually coating them with bacteria, mold, and rotten food particles every single cycle? What if your dishwasher is dirtier than your toilet and you've never cleaned it once? I looked inside mine after two years of daily use, and what I found was so disgusting that I almost stopped using it altogether. Read on, and what you're about to discover will make you want to clean your dishwasher immediately!

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑾𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.🤔

Think about your dishwasher for a moment. You load dirty dishes, add detergent, press start, and trust that it's cleaning everything perfectly. But here's the question nobody asks. Who cleans the cleaner? Your dishwasher is constantly exposed to food particles, grease, hard water minerals, soap scum, and moisture. It's a warm, wet environment where bacteria and mold thrive. Yet most people never clean their dishwasher. Not once. Not ever. They just keep running cycles, assuming the machine cleans itself. It doesn't.

I never thought about cleaning my dishwasher until I noticed my supposedly clean dishes had a weird smell.🫢 Not fresh. Kind of musty and unpleasant. I ran them through again. Same smell. That's when I decided to actually inspect my dishwasher. I opened it, looked beyond the dish racks, and what I saw horrified me. Black mold around the rubber seal. A thick layer of slimy buildup in the filter. Chunks of rotting food stuck in the spray arms. Hard water deposits coating the interior. This disgusting mess was where my "𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛" dishes were coming from. 🤢 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑘. And then I felt angry that nobody ever teaches you to clean your dishwasher properly.

Here's the right way to maintain your dishwasher, because this is genuinely important for your health!

𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝑶𝒏𝒆: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒊𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑫𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝑪𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏.🪥🧼🫧

The filter is where most of the horror 😱 lives. It's designed to catch food particles so they don't recirculate onto your dishes. But when it's clogged, water can't drain properly and food particles do recirculate. Most people don't even know their dishwasher has a removable filter. It's usually at the bottom of the dishwasher, under the lower spray arm. Remove the filter. I guarantee you'll be 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑.

Mine was covered in a thick, slimy layer of decomposed food and grease. I took it to the sink, ran it under hot water, and scrubbed it with an old toothbrush and dish soap. The amount of gunk that came off was revolting. It took five minutes of scrubbing to get it truly clean. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑙𝑦. Monthly. I'd never done it once in two years!

𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝑻𝒘𝒐: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝑨𝒓𝒎 𝑼𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈.

The spray arms have small holes that shoot water to clean your dishes. These holes get clogged with hard water deposits and food particles. Remove the spray arms, they usually twist off easily. Use a toothpick or small wire to clean out each hole. Run them under water to flush debris. I found several holes completely blocked on mine. No wonder my dishes weren't getting clean. Water couldn't reach them properly.

𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑽𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓 𝑫𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝑪𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏.🛁

Place a dishwasher-safe bowl filled with two cups of white vinegar on the top rack. Run the hottest, longest cycle with the dishwasher empty. The vinegar steam breaks down grease, dissolves hard water deposits, and kills bacteria. When the cycle finished, I opened my dishwasher and the difference was visible. The interior looked brighter. The smell was gone. But I wasn't done yet!

𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒓: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒐𝒅𝒂 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈.💐

Sprinkle one cup of baking soda across the bottom of the dishwasher. Run a short, hot cycle. This removes any remaining odors and gives a final deep clean. The combination of vinegar and baking soda, done in separate cycles, tackles everything. Grease, hard water, bacteria, mold, and odors. All gone!

𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝑭𝒊𝒗𝒆: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒃𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒃🪥.

The rubber door seal is where mold loves to grow. Use an old toothbrush dipped in vinegar to scrub around the entire seal, getting into all the folds. I found black mold I hadn't even noticed before. This area needs regular attention because it's always damp and rarely gets direct water flow during cycles.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.🫢

After this complete deep clean, I ran a normal load of dishes. The difference was stunning. The dishes came out actually clean. Sparkling. Smelling fresh. No weird residue. No musty smell. 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑠. And the dishwasher itself looked and smelled like it was brand new. I'd spent maybe thirty minutes total on this cleaning process, and I'd transformed an appliance that was essentially coating my dishes with bacteria into something that actually cleaned them properly.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆.🗓️

Now I follow a simple routine. Filter cleaning: monthly. Vinegar cycle: monthly. Baking soda cycle: monthly, right after vinegar. Spray arm check: every three months. Rubber seal scrub: weekly quick wipe. This maintenance takes minimal time but ensures my dishwasher actually does its job instead of just pretending to while spreading filth on the dishes.

There you have it. How to clean your dishwasher the RIGHT way: filter deep clean, spray arm unclogging, vinegar cycle, baking soda cycle, and rubber seal scrubbing. If you enjoyed this article, you may also like How to Load Your Dishwasher, or How to Clean a Top-Loading Washer

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𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔,

𝑲𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑴.

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