Cleaning nozzles of dishwasher rotor arm?

[Lobster]

The rotor arms of our dishwashwer strike me as the epitome of bad design. The spray nozzles at the tips continually getting clogged with tiny bits of crap which are almost impossible to dislodge.

If you try to poke the blockage out with a cocktail stick or pin, it won't fit through the nozzle from where it's wedged, and falls back inside the rotor arm.

If the obstruction ends up within the rotor arm it's very hard to get it out, as the only route is the hole in the axis of the arm where the water enters; if you try to flush the arm through this axial hole (which is at 90 deg to the direction of flow), tipping it to and fro, water just tends to run up and down inside the arm bypassing the axial hole (IYSWIM) and the offending bits of s**te invariably end up jamming a nozzle again.

Any top tips? I was thinking about standing the rotor arm in a jar of caustic soda solution overnight to dissolve the obstructions; but seems like major overkill, especially for a regularly-recurring problem.

[JimK]

Aren't there supposed to be filters to avoid this issue?

Jim K

[Brian Gaff]

The ex Epson Print head designer obviously decided to go into designing dishwashers instead then. Brian

[Andrew Gabriel]

Check the filters for holes, or for not being seated properly. They should be filtering out debris which is too large to fit through the jets. (Large opening in the bottom of the filter is used to back- flush the filter as the water is pumped away at the end of the wash cycles.)

In one of the ones I look after, the heating element is after the filter, and any scale which forms and breaks away from that can get stuck in the jets. (It's not hard water scale in this case because it's insoluable in descaler. It's something formed by the detergent getting hot.)

[GB]

I've had this on a Bosch d/w. We replaced the filter on it, so it may indeed have been something to do with holes in the filter. I can't remember whether the two events coincided, but I do remember that the arm is made in two parts that clip together so it was easy to get inside and empty out the bits trapped there.

[Graham.]

I must be lucky, I have never had that happen on my Tricity Bendix DH100 in over 20 years of service. In fact it's probably been the most reliable domestic appliance I have ever owned, the only failures being the door counterbalance springs snapping and the timer knob being a bit skewed due to the mounting bosses breaking.

Soft water area incidentally.