Mucky dishwasher internals

[Lobster]

We have an integrated Bosch dishwasher which has previously given trouble - contents still dirty at the end of the wash. We had an service guy round to look at it, and he diagnosed it as clogged-up pipework; he showed me before cleaning it (yuk) and that did the job. He advised routine use of those dishwasher-deep-clean detergents to stop the gunk from building up again.

Unfortunately despite using the special cleaner, and being more rigorous about pre-wash plate-scraping, the was has got quite bad again. So - two queries:

1. Are all deep-clean agents equal? Eg, I've been using these things from Sainsbury's, at 26p per clean: I recently saw some special stuff by Hagesan in a local hardware shop at 6 quid a pop: oil, or worth a pop?!

1. I find that the water in the sump at the end of the wash (on both sides if the sump filter) is without fail very dirty. Presumably that's what's just been used in the final rinse cycle isn't it? Shouldn't it be pretty well completely clean?

Thanks David

[Bob Eager]

the last seven years in our Bosch. Every now and then Tesco have it on special offer and we stock up.

I give the whole thing a good clean out every month.

You haven't mentioned FILTERS; you do clean them? Are they damaged?

Depends how often you have to use it!

It's usually clean in ours!

In the seven (maybe eight) years we've replaced one of the filters (it fell apart), the cutlery basket, and the inlet hose. That's all.

[John]

food in it. Sometimes I pour some hot water onto the area of the bottom of door seal as sometimes gunge gets under the seal. Any water remaining in my Hoover Dishwasher is clean.

Might you have a problem with it not pumping out properly? ie - wash water running back?

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Lobster writes

My parents have had several Bosch dishwashers (counter top and integrated) and have had trouble with them all. The pumps seem to be a weak spot.

[Stephen Howard]

I haven't found anything that's truly effective for cleaning a fouled-up dishwasher, save for taking the thing apart and doing it manually ( this involves cleaning out the water matrix and the waste outlet ). Thereafter I use a cup of vinegar on a hot wash every few months or so. I also use small squirt of bleach occasionally ( too much and it will full the dishwasher up with suds ) in place of the vinegar.

If I have problems with debris on washed dishes it's nearly always down to a blockage in one of the spray arms ( sweetcorn seems to be the main culprit, being initially soft enough to find its way past the filter and subsequently hardening when the temperature goes up ).

Regards,