- sprinkling baking soda in the bottom of the dishwasher, along with adding a scoop to each wash load
- cleaning out the dishwasher by running it through an empty-of-dishes cycle with 1 cup of bleach, not letting it go through the drying cycle, and immediately running it through another washing cycle with 1 cup of vinegar (thanks to the expert advice of "The Queen of Clean")
- buying a cleaning product specifically made for cleaning out dishwashers
I have also noticed some n@sty-looking stuff building up in the corners of the bottom of the dishwasher, near the door, and have tried to (gag!) scrape it out to see if that would help.
WARNING: I thought the "How to Take Apart and Clean a Toilet Seat" post was disgusting; I WAS SO WRONG! Having to deal with pee all the time anyway, I expected what I saw there, so I would classify that as "yucky". When thinking about an appliance that has the word "CLEANER" in its name, I would NEVER have guessed the level of disgusting I was about to encounter!! So, if you are lucky and your dishwasher doesn't smell funny, and/or you do not like gr*phic, disgusting pictures, you should DEFINITELY skip this post! (And if you have a sensitive gag reflex, you cannot stand to clean n@sty, N@STY things, and you have tried EVERYTHING you can think of, besides taking the dishwasher door apart to clean it, and your dishwasher STILL smells bad, I suggest you BUY A NEW ONE!)
ALSO: I am not any sort of official mechanic or dishwasher-fixer, so you may not want to try this at your house unless you are happy with the idea of buying a new dishwasher should your cleaning attempts go awry and render your current dishwasher
I didn't take any pictures of the dishwasher before I took the door off because I didn't realize that this was going to end up being one of those things I was going to write a blog post about
I recommend doing this job BEFORE you bathe for the day because you are likely going to want
For this job, the supplies I initially gathered were:
- a regular screwdriver
- paper towels
- disinfecting wipes
- garbage can close by for tossing the MANY, MANY dirty paper towels and disinfecting wipes
Once I started the cleaning job, I realized that I was going to need:
- an old toothbrush for cleaning small areas
- toothpicks and cotton swabs for the places the toothbrush wasn't getting
- baking soda and dish soap for getting the disgusting gunk to come off
Here come the pictures! Avert your eyes now if you
This is what the door looks like with the plastic part removed. You can see a hint of the n@stiness to come at the bottom of the door. |
Closer inspection.... |
This is the plastic part I took off; looks pretty harmless, doesn't it? |
Before: on the left side (the right side was much the same).... |
NOTE: this stuff looks SO DISGUSTING, and I
The very bottom of the door |
After MANY hours of cleaning with toothbrush, cotton swabs, and toothpicks:(Rest easy: the worst is over!) I HAD NO IDEA that a dishwasher could look like this when all you do is WASH DISHES in it! And our dishwasher runs once or twice a day, so it isn't like things are sitting in there for days on end! At least THIS part of the dishwasher comes into direct contact with the dirty water; next, I looked at the VENT, which, *I* thought, was just for letting steam escape.....
I became suspicious when I carefully removed a piece of Styrofoam near the vent and saw this. |
This is what it looked like BEHIND the vent cover, on the door. |
This part wasn't too hard to clean. |
This part was VERY easy to clean since it conveniently fit in the sink. |
Honestly? I just don't know if I will ever be able to make myself do that again, so I should probably start saving money for a new dishwasher RIGHT NOW!
20 comments:
Oh my gosh, that is so gross! (Though to be fair, you warned us!) The dishwasher in the house we rent is a piece of crap (even if you scrub the dishes before putting them in the washer, if you don't leave huge spaces around everything, they end up dirtier than when they went in!) and it does stink sometimes (though mostly it's just always a mess). I really want to take it apart, now, and see if things get cleaner afterwards! Did you notice anything like that when you got everything assembled?
ACK! I had to enlarge your pictures, because I am an absolute glutton for that sort of thing. I would assume there is some black mildew growing in there, just because it's wet all the time, but I don't even UNDERSTAND what some of that other stuff was. I am very much in awe of you right now. Also kinda glad I don't have a dishwasher.
I have to be honest and say I skipped through this. I thought I'd try to read but my fast glances at the pics made me fear I'd never go near my kitchen again. I'm such a wussy. You, however, are either really really brave or incredibly stupid.
Carolyn--Our dishwasher is the basic, cheap model that was put in when the house was built. I *think* the dishes are coming out cleaner; I'm not the person who puts away the clean dishes, and I haven't had time to examine them, but I haven't noticed as many glasses with stuff stuck to them. Also, I know that dishwashers have some sort of filter(s) that can be checked/cleaned, but I can't figure out how to get the filter on ours out to clean it; you might check if your filter comes out. And if you have a garbage disposal in your sink, if you make sure it has been run/cleaned out, that can help too. Or just MOVE; it might be easier ;-).
josefinalouise--I'm still torn between being APPALLED at what was in the dishwasher and GRATEFUL that we have one because I might never cook again if I had to wash all of the dishes by hand (or make someone else do it).
Mrs. Irritation--I'm afraid it's a toss-up at this point; I blame it on the children either way ;-).
You weren't lying. That was disgusting. Our dishwasher is something like 17 years old, and I'm sure it's never been deep cleaned. I feel like I need to do that now, but I'm also terrified of what I'll find.
Holy. Moly.
Emily--I would be curious to know what yours looks like, if you end up taking it apart. I'm trying not to think of what our first dishwasher (located in 50-year-old housing) would have looked like if I had thought to deep clean it!
Cleaned my dishwasher today .. it was disgusting. Using bleach solution. Used an old toothbrush .. did as much scrubbing as possible. It is so much better ... But wow the filth was extreme.
Anonymous--I am curious to see what mine would look like if I took it apart again, but I'm also VERY RELUCTANT to do that because it was so nasty, and it's discouraging to think that it might look like that again already. I wonder if it is a design flaw or something that is mostly a problem with the cheap/basic models that come with most houses? It's too bad I can't buy a really nice dishwasher for research purposes ;-)!
I have used lemonade cool aid to clean my dishwasher and I worked so well that I won’t let my kids drink it!!
THANK YOU for the detailed instructions on how to clean the innerds of the door! I just got done cleaning the little grate that filters the big chunks of food from the drain and OH MY! Your comments about wanting to throw out all your dishes because you can never think of them as clean again are spot on! Mold galore. Black mold, grey mold, fuzzy mold. It was coming off in 1 inch chunks! I'm pretty sure I cleaned off about 3x that thing's weight in mold. It was heavy when I pulled it out of the dishwasher and put it in the sink but it's fairly light now!
Your dishwasher looks a lot like mine so I'm excited to do the door!
You think that's gross, and it's just the door. Try taking the pump/impeller assembly apart (the thing that all your "clean" water is piped through), and you just might never use a dishwasher again!
This is our exact dishwasher! Luckily we got to it before it was quite so stanked up. We have a hand-held bidet sprayer in the shower that we use for diapers, and I used that to delouse the door panel.
I just noticed all the crud around the edges of my DW and looked at all of the info on the web. Your information is the ONLY site I found that dug (pun intended) that deep and gave all the gross details.
Anonymous 7-12-14: Well, it started as a stress-cleaning job but quickly turned into an "if I don't turn this into a blog post, I don't think I'll be able to make myself finish because this is NASTY" job, so it's nice to know that blogging about it was helpful for others =)!
Thanks for the fantastic article - Truly interesting and informative :)
So, did it get rid of the smell?
Anonymous 7-28-15: Yes, it did!
So glad I saw your blog post about this. I just moved into an apartment for the first time. When I got here the dishwasher just filled with water, didn't drain, leaked from the sides, and had suds coming out of the front. Somehow maintenance fixed it within 25 which didn't make any sense to me. My roommate scrubbed the inside where the water had been sitting for a while but I was suspicious that a more thorough clean was in order. I found this article and got scared. I was pleasantly surprised that we have the same washer and could compare. It was gross. Certainly not as bad as yours. But gross. I think I dertermined that most of the buildup--which was either gray or spots of black--was from hard water and lots and lots of soap scum. It was still a 2.5-3 hour job after all said and done. It was a foul job but I have to echo the satisfaction of the job, so glad it got done. I'll feel better trusting my plates and dishes to it! Thanks for the inspiration!!
I found this while trying to research what this peice I just pulled out was, which was also filled with a disgusting gunk. We just purchased this 20 year old home that was a rental for some time. I am scared to death now. But if my husband wont boy a new one, I am afraid tomorrow I ahave to GO IN. Yall pray for me!!
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