Saturday, August 16, 2014
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Life
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Originally I had a much longer article here; but then I realized that I could condense my advice into a much smaller space, so I have rewritten it.
I bought my first dishwasher in 2009, and only a few months later, the dishes started to come out smelling bad, like bad breath. I had cats at the time, and I figured that they were the cause. I always fed my cats on clean dishes, so I washed a lot of dishes that they had eaten out of. (Unlike some people, I don't consider animals to be dirtier than I am, and I never minded sharing dishes with them. If I will let them lick my face -- which I did -- I can eat out of the same dishes that they do.) Eventually I stopped living with cats. After they were gone, the problem mostly subsided; but much to my surprise, the smell would sometimes returned.
I learned during all this that smelly dishes are a fairly common problem. Apparently, bacteria or mildew builds up somewhere in the washer, possibly in the pipes. You would think that the detergent which gets the dishes clean would also clean the pipes inside the washer, but apparently not. I learned that they make a product -- Dishwasher Magic -- which is designed to eliminate the odor (it's main ingredient is citric acid). However, Dishwasher Magic is expensive, especially since you have to run the washer through its cycles empty. What I eventually figured out was this:
The odor is more likely to occur when using powdered dishwasher detergents. However, liquid dishwasher detergents don't do as good a job at removing dirt as powdered detergents do. Thus, the solution is simple: Use a powdered detergent. If your dishes start to come out smelly, switch to a liquid detergent until the smell is gone, and then switch back to the powdered detergent.
In the case of my washer, it never dispensed detergent properly. I would open it up and find undissolved detergent in the dispenser cup. So I started to add a little detergent to each wash cycle. Doing that meant that I had to be near the washer when it was running, which wasn't a problem. Since I was adding detergent to each cycle, I would add powdered detergent to the first three cycles, and then liquid detergent to the final two cycles (my dishwasher has five wash cycles). However, you probably won't want to do that. Switching back and forth between powdered and liquid detergent, from one wash to the next, should solve your problem.
One caveat, however: Not all liquid detergents seem to suppress the odor. I used a supermarket brand which worked, and I also used liquid Cascade, which worked. You'll need to experiment with different brands.
Another thing which might work is doing a wash with the washer empty and putting a cup or two of vinegar into the machine at the start of each cycle.
I bought my first dishwasher in 2009, and only a few months later, the dishes started to come out smelling bad, like bad breath. I had cats at the time, and I figured that they were the cause. I always fed my cats on clean dishes, so I washed a lot of dishes that they had eaten out of. (Unlike some people, I don't consider animals to be dirtier than I am, and I never minded sharing dishes with them. If I will let them lick my face -- which I did -- I can eat out of the same dishes that they do.) Eventually I stopped living with cats. After they were gone, the problem mostly subsided; but much to my surprise, the smell would sometimes returned.
I learned during all this that smelly dishes are a fairly common problem. Apparently, bacteria or mildew builds up somewhere in the washer, possibly in the pipes. You would think that the detergent which gets the dishes clean would also clean the pipes inside the washer, but apparently not. I learned that they make a product -- Dishwasher Magic -- which is designed to eliminate the odor (it's main ingredient is citric acid). However, Dishwasher Magic is expensive, especially since you have to run the washer through its cycles empty. What I eventually figured out was this:
The odor is more likely to occur when using powdered dishwasher detergents. However, liquid dishwasher detergents don't do as good a job at removing dirt as powdered detergents do. Thus, the solution is simple: Use a powdered detergent. If your dishes start to come out smelly, switch to a liquid detergent until the smell is gone, and then switch back to the powdered detergent.
In the case of my washer, it never dispensed detergent properly. I would open it up and find undissolved detergent in the dispenser cup. So I started to add a little detergent to each wash cycle. Doing that meant that I had to be near the washer when it was running, which wasn't a problem. Since I was adding detergent to each cycle, I would add powdered detergent to the first three cycles, and then liquid detergent to the final two cycles (my dishwasher has five wash cycles). However, you probably won't want to do that. Switching back and forth between powdered and liquid detergent, from one wash to the next, should solve your problem.
One caveat, however: Not all liquid detergents seem to suppress the odor. I used a supermarket brand which worked, and I also used liquid Cascade, which worked. You'll need to experiment with different brands.
Another thing which might work is doing a wash with the washer empty and putting a cup or two of vinegar into the machine at the start of each cycle.
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