How to Clean a Dishwasher And Why You Should Be Cleaning It Regularly

If you’re just discovering that you have to clean your dishwasher, you’ve come to the right place.

Your dishwasher doesn’t clean itself every time you do a load of dishes. Each wash accrues grease, food crumbs, water minerals, detergent, and more, dirtying your dishwasher’s filter and interior.

The dirtier your dishwasher gets, the dirtier your serve ware becomes. Here are a few tips on how to clean a dishwasher and how often…

What Do You Need?

Luckily, the cleaning products you need come cheap, and you probably have most of them already. According to Architectural Digest, here’s what you need:

●     Rubber gloves

●     Toothbrush

●     Toothpick

●     Baking soda

●     Microfiber cloth

●     Distilled white vinegar

●     Warm water

Step 1: Remove Your Dishwasher’s Contents

Remove your dishwasher racks, utensil holder, and filter. Let them soak in a mixture of warm water and 1 cup of distilled white vinegar. You can find the filter in a back corner of the tub bottom or near the bottom spray arm of your dishwasher. Many filters are twist offs, but you may need to unscrew it.

Step 2: Clean Your Dishwasher’s Interior

Now that you can reach everything, give your dishwasher a good scrub. Wipe down the interior walls, the spray arms, and use a toothpick to get those hard to reach corners. Check the dispenser and filter to see if any food particles are lodged in any of the holes water sprays out from. If there’s leftover food or debris elsewhere in your dishwasher, remove those particles.

Step 3: Use Hot Water and Vinegar

Place a dishwasher-safe cup of distilled white vinegar in the bottom of your now empty, slightly cleaner dishwasher. Run on a hot water cycle.

Distilled white vinegar is awesome because it doesn’t contain a coloring agent, and therefore doesn’t stain the surfaces it cleans. It’ll also break up and soap scum, residue, grease, and food particles that you missed in step 2.

Step 4: Repeat Step 2

If you did a good job in step 2, step 4 will be quick. You may just have to run a microfiber cloth along your dishwasher’s interior to collect whatever the vinegar broke up.

Step 5: Use Baking Soda

Replace your cup of distilled white vinegar with a cup of baking soda. This time, run your dishwasher on a short cycle. Baking soda is great for removing any remaining stains and giving your dishwasher a fresh look and smell.

Now that your dishwasher is clean, it can run optimally, ensuring your cookware and serve ware will be clean.

How Often Should You Clean Your Dishwasher?

The answer depends on how often you use it. We recommend spot cleaning bits of food when you see them. Give your plates a little more attention in the sink before moving them into your dishwasher. The more rinsed off they are, the less you’ll have to pick out of your dishwasher later.

Wipe down your dishwasher door and gasket, and remove and rinse off your filter on a weekly basis. If you only use your dishwasher once or twice a week, you can clean it off biweekly or monthly instead.

Follow steps 1-5 on a monthly basis if you use your dishwasher regularly.

By following these tips on how to clean a dishwasher, your cookware and serveware will always have a nice sparkle and shine.

For more information on dishwashers or about our modern kitchen appliances, check out our catalog.