Give your dishwasher some tender loving care with a thorough cleaning. Go the extra mile and perform the maintenance steps needed to keep the dishwasher in top shape and running smoothly.
Cleaning and maintenance will help prevent unexpected breakdowns during the year and your dishwasher will last longer when it’s properly maintained.
Cleaning the dishwasher
How to clean the front panel and control panel
Follow the instructions in your owner’s manual for cleaning the control panel and front panel of the dishwasher. Most of the time, you can clean these surfaces using a cloth moistened with soapy water. Wipe the control panel and front panel with plain water to rinse off soap residue then dry the surfaces with a towel.
If you have a stainless steel dishwasher, follow the steps in our How to clean stainless steel appliances video/article to clean the front panel.
Clean out the dishwasher filters
Dishwashers typically have filters in the sump at the bottom of the dishwasher tub. Remove the bottom dishrack to access the filters.
Clear food and debris from the dishwasher filters by following the directions in the owner’s manual. If necessary, soak the filters in distilled white vinegar to remove hard water deposits. Use a soft-bristled brush to clean the deposits off the filters after soaking.
Warning: Use caution when cleaning dishwasher filters because broken glass can wind up in some filters.
After cleaning the filters, rinse them off and reinstall them in your dishwasher.
Unclog spray arm holes
Clean the spray arm holes at the same time that you clean the filters. If spray arm holes are clogged with heavy hard water deposits, you can soak the spray arms in distilled white vinegar along with the dishwasher filters.
Use bamboo skewers to clear deposits and debris fully from spray arm holes.
Repair rusted dishracks
Ugly rust spots on dishracks can be scary for your family and houseguests to see. You’ll want to fix this problem quickly so you can confidently use the dishwasher to clean dishes.
Replacing rusted dishracks is one option. It’s the easy way to fix the problem but replacing dishracks can be expensive. Check the price of new dishracks for your model before you choose this option.
The least expensive option for fixing rusty dishracks is to sand off the rust and paint the bare spots with vinyl touch-up paint. You can also cover the tops of rusted tines with plastic tine tips. The Dishwasher Tine Tip Repair Kit has the vinyl touch-up paint and the plastic tine tips to repair a white dishrack. Other colors of the repair kit are available if your rack isn't white.
Here’s our YouTube DIY video that shows how to use that kit to refurbish dishracks: