Dishwasher: Dishes Don’t Get Clean – That’s the Reason

Dishes not clean: Dirty dishwasher as the cause

A frequently underestimated reason for dirty dishes lies in the dishwasher itself. If it is heavily soiled, it can no longer clean properly. You should also regularly refill the salt in your machine.

• Clean the dishwasher regularly. We’ll show you how to do it in another article.
• A lack of salt can also mean that the dishes are not properly cleaned. You can usually see whether this is the case by a corresponding lamp on your machine.
• We have summarized for you how to refill salt in your dishwasher.

Load and set the dishwasher correctly

You should load and set the dishwasher properly if you want the dishes to get clean. There are a few things to consider:

• Place dishes with stubborn dirt on the bottom, sensitive dishes such as glasses on the top. So that the water jet can reach all corners, you should align the dishes here. For this reason, you must place cutlery, for example, with the handle down in the baskets provided for this purpose.
• Rinse off particularly stubborn dirt and remove leftovers before rinsing.
• Always use a hot rinse and do not set the temperature too low. This helps in particular in combating bad odours. The temperatures of the standard program of 60 degrees Celsius are ideal here.
• Also select the Auto program for heavily soiled dishes. Temperatures of 40 to 70 degrees Celsius are usually reached here, which adapt to the contents of your machine. So if you are unsure, choose this program.
• In the case of heavy soiling, never opt for the short program, because otherwise it won’t get really clean at around 45 degrees Celsius. A low setting can usually be the cause here.
• If you want to be on the safe side, you should select the pre-wash program before the normal program. The dishes are first soaked and loosen deep-seated dirt.

Lime and wrong tabs as the cause

In some cases, after the wash cycle is before the wash cycle, because the dishes come out dirty when you open them? This can also be due to the hard water or the wrongly dosed tabs.

• If particularly hard water flows through your pipes, you should use regeneration salt and rinse aid for the dishwasher.
• Also check that you have the right tabs for your dishwasher. In the case of heavy soiling, use tabs that are intended for this purpose, such as the Somat Tabs Gold. You can always recognize such tabs by their fat-dissolving power or by their added strength.
• If you don’t have the right tabs, you can simply put two tabs in the dishwasher. Conversely, you can simply omit the tab if it is lightly soiled.

Glasses not properly cleaned in the dishwasher

A common problem is glasses that lose their shine through the rinse cycles in the machine. Here are a few tips:

• Glasses should not be washed too hot. It is best to use two different rinse cycles for this: one for the glasses and one for the dirty dishes.
• If this is not possible, you should use gloss protection to protect your glasses from residues in the dishwasher. Keep in mind that glasses that have been washed frequently are usually no longer completely shiny.
• Ideally, you should wash glasses by hand, especially if they are expensive glasses. Glasses automatically become dull over time.

Mechanical problems: Your dishwasher is defective

If your dishwasher no longer cleans the dishes properly, this can be caused by mechanical reasons. We will show you what you should consider here.

• Your machine’s filter can become dirty over time, so you should clean it regularly. To do this, pull the lower basket forward and remove it. You will then see the filter combination on the floor. You should clean these. Large leftovers often get stuck. You can avoid this by briefly rinsing the dishes beforehand.
• It’s also possible that your dishwasher’s spray arms are sticking. This is the case, for example, if you have cleared the machine so full that it can no longer rotate freely. In this case, the dishes cannot be cleaned. Therefore, before each wash cycle, check whether the upper and lower spray arms have freedom of movement. To do this, turn it on briefly. If they get stuck, you should check this again. By the way: it can happen that the dishes break if, for example, the spray arm repeatedly hits the edge of a plate.
• Sometimes the cleaning agent container does not open either, so that the tab cannot dissolve. You should also test here before each wash cycle whether the flap can open at all and is not blocked by anything.
• If your machine still does not wash clean despite following all the tips, you should contact the manufacturer. There may be another mechanical problem or your dishwasher may be defective. You should have this looked at by a specialist who can repair the machine again.