Who wants to go without a dishwasher? It’s wonderful not to have dirty dishes on the counter and to get everything so clean. You think that a dishwasher will stay clean because it washes almost daily with detergent. However, you should regularly clean both a freestanding and a built-in dishwasher to keep it fresh. Below are some dishwasher cleaning tips.
Dishwasher cleaning
To get rid of limescale, food residue and grease, you need to clean your dishwasher every now and then. If you don’t do this, your filters and drain can become clogged. The result is not only that the dishwasher starts to smell, but also that the dishes no longer get clean. Fortunately, cleaning a dishwasher takes little time and you don’t need much. There are two ways to clean a dishwasher and they both take about 10 minutes of your time, not counting the running time of the dishwasher itself.
What do you need?
The first thing to do when cleaning the dishwasher is to empty the dishwasher, remove the filter at the bottom and wash with a soft (dishwashing) brush and warm soapy water. You can then clean the dishwasher in two ways.
Way 1 for dishwasher cleaning:
The first way is perhaps the easiest: there are special dishwasher cleaning tablets for sale at, among others, the supermarket. When the filter has been cleaned, you put this in the dishwasher according to the instructions on the packaging and let the dishwasher run empty on the hottest setting. When the dishwasher is ready, you can just clean the rubbers on the side and everything will be fresh again.
Way 2 for dishwasher cleaning:
The second way is a little more effort, but much cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Here too you will clean your dishwasher by first emptying your dishwasher and cleaning the filter. To descale the dishwasher, put a generous splash of vinegar in a cup at the top of the dishwasher. To properly remove any fat residue, cut a lemon into quarters and put that in the dishwasher as well. Run the machine on the hottest setting, and finally clean the rubbers on the side. Your dishwasher will shine and smell completely fresh.
Even more dishwasher cleaning tips
Do you notice that your dishes are not getting completely clean? Then the spray arms may be affected by limescale. You can remedy this by loosening them and soaking them in cleaning vinegar.Do you have a lot of fat and did the lemon not help? Then put a teaspoon of soda in the soap dish. This immediately rinses the dishwasher clean. But don’t use too much, because soda is quite aggressive.
Frequency
Cleaning your dishwasher: how often should you do it? That depends a bit on how you use the dishwasher. If you run it often, you will also have to clean your dishwasher more often. If you use the machine less and rinse the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher, you will need to clean your dishwasher less often. On average, cleaning your dishwasher once every two months is sufficient.
Maintenance
For a well-maintained dishwasher, make sure that the salt and rinse aid are always properly topped up.Do not put heavily soiled plates and pans in the machine, but rinse them first.
Do not overload the dishwasher, so that the spray arms can reach everything and the dishes come out nicely.
