Hi Ladies-
I get this gravel-like substance on the bottom of all my glasses when we clean out our dishwasher. We rinse well before the dishes go in and I make sure to not overfill, but still, it looks like beach sand in the bottom of all our glasses and mugs. It sticks and dries there and is actually fairly difficult to get out before we use them if we don't rinse right out of the washer. I have tried several detergents to no avail. I ran a empty cycle last week and it actually helped for a couple of days, but yesterday I could have filled the kids sand box! Ok, maybe not, but it was a lot. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much for all the responses! I guess I need to have the water tested for hard minerals but in the meantime will start with vinegar and citrus acid!
Run a couple of cycles with nothing but white vinegar int eh dishwasher. Or use a copmmercial dishwasher cleaner. If you use a water softener it really helps too, my old dishwasher got to the point where it just wouldn't come clean anymore and then we bought a water softener, the soft water helped all the hard water deposits come off and then my dishwasher was like new!
Try running empty with a full cup/glass of white vinegar in the dishwasher (set in the top rack). The vinegar will rinse and get rid of hard water build up. The sand issue sounds like something more may need to be cleaned however...
Our dishwasher would do this too. It wouldn't collect in the glasses. The gritty sand you described would stick to all of our dishes.You can run an empty cycle and fill your detergent dispenser with lime away. I would use the gel lime away. It is safe to use in your dishwasher. You can also throw a handful of citric acid in the bottom too. I would use both together. You can buy citric acid at a health food store or you can use Tang. I would run this cycle whenever I noticed the grit coming back.
You might also want to check the flap on the hose leaving your dishwasher. If it is old and doesn't close the particles with flush back into your dishwasher.
Good luck! Our small town repairman told me I needed a new dishwasher or at least a new motor and I used the dishwasher for 5 more years. We really have hard water here. When I bought my new dishwasher last year, the sales lady told me to place a bowl of vinegar in the bottom of my dishwasher once a month to keep the dishwasher clean from the hard water.
I think you should ask a plumber, or the best floor rep at Sears or Home Depot, as this does not sound like a detergent issue. No right or wrong kind of detergent will create sand in your dishwasher. Sounds like there some strange hard water and calcium problems in your area.
Do you have a whole house water filter? You might consider one if you don't have one. It makes a huge difference. The other thing I do is I make sure the filter at the bottom of the dishwasher is clean. Sometimes there is stuff in there that floats around and gets stuck in the glasses.
If you make chili or tomato sauce - that seems to create grit. I rinse those dishes well before I put them in the dishwasher.
Good luck!
LBC
Updated
Do you have a whole house water filter? You might consider one if you don't have one. It makes a huge difference. The other thing I do is I make sure the filter at the bottom of the dishwasher is clean. Sometimes there is stuff in there that floats around and gets stuck in the glasses.
If you make chili or tomato sauce - that seems to create grit. I rinse those dishes well before I put them in the dishwasher.
Good luck!
LBC
How is your water pressure? I'm not sure if there is a tool where you can test this yourself, or you may want to call a plumber to look at it. If you still have a warranty on it you may want to call on that first. It could also be the temperature of the water going into the washer and/or the heating element within the washer. If it's not hot enough it may not fully dissolve the detergent and thus the granules will not rinse away well.
We have had the same thing. We had a dishwasher repairman come out and he said they have been flooded with calls for the same problem. It is because they took out the phosphates from the detergents in the fall of 2010. You have to use lemi shine or vinegar like others have suggested and keep your rinse aid dispenser full and adequately working. Our problem still didn't fix, (we also have hard water) but we started using Finish Powerball tabs like many people suggested and that is what has worked the best so far. Try all of the above and hopefully you will find success!!
Sounds like you have hard water. Ours does that too. We bought a liquid that goes in the dishwasher at walmart or lowes and it really helps but getting a water softener machine will help the most.
An alternate suggestion, we would always get these on our glasses because we put them on the top rack and we had an older/cheap dishwasher that didn't have the top rack rinse arms so all the particles, no matter how much we rinsed dishes, would gather at the bottom of the glasses. (and between you and me, I have a dishwasher for a reason, I don't want to scrub and rinse every piece of dirt off, otherwise, just wash in the sink - right?! LOL)
to test this theory put some glasses on the bottom rack and see if the same thing happens to them.
If so - then go with the other suggestions of jet dry or hard water:)
If that's "hard water" I'd be really surprised.
Sounds like you need the dishwasher cleaned out down below the spinney thing.
And don't use liquid or gel detergents. Only powder.
You may need to clean the filter inside your dishwasher. Google the model number and brand along with "filter cleaning" and you can get the directions on how to access it and the best way to clean it.
it sounds like hard water granules or something. Have you tried using the Jet Dry or Lemony Shine? I'm pretty sure the Lemony Shine helps break down the hard water...you can buy it at the grocery store or walmart, its in the same section as the dishwashing soaps. One more thing that the dishwasher repairman told me was that if you put a cup of vinegar right side up on the top basket during your load, it will help with hard water. Make sure you put it on the top basket right side up then it works all through the cycle.
put some lemon juice in with the detergent
A lot of powered detergents have taken some kind of phosphate that keeps that grime out, out of of the detergent b/c of some kind of safety scare. I switched to the cascade complete caplet things and it has helped a TON!! Worth the extra $$.
I found something that might help- scroll down to the 3rd question- sounds a lot like what you are saying
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/dishwasherqna
do you use Jet Dry? You might need something like that. Be sure your water is getting hot enough to the DW too. If your DW has a "anti-bacterial" setting that is hotter I'd suggest using it.
Automatic dishwashing detergent can be very dangerous if ingested so please be sure to rinse by hand if you have to until you solve this problem. If you would like a non-toxic cleaner email me privately and I'll recommend a link.
