Many homeowners find dishwashers simply indispensable, especially if they do a lot of cooking and entertaining and need to have loads of dishes cleaned quickly. Like many other water-dependent appliances, a dishwasher should last at least 10 years. One reason they don’t is that their owners don’t keep up to date with the maintenance. Fortunately, maintaining a dishwasher is easy, and if problems crop up that are too complex for a layperson, our plumbers at Nichols Electric and Plumbing are standing by.

Prolonging Your Dishwasher’s Life

Here are some tips for prolonging your dishwasher’s life:

• Remove large or hard items from the dishes
• Clean the filter every month
• Clean the door seal
• Compensate for hard water
• Don’t overload the dishwasher
• Only wash dishes

Though dishes don’t need to be pre-rinsed in most modern dishwashers, they do need to have hard items such as bones removed. These items can damage the dishwasher. The filter also needs to be cleaned at least once a month and more than once a month if the dishwasher is used a great deal.

You can tell if your filter needs a bit of help if your dishes are not as clean as they usually are. The door seal also accumulates debris and mold that can prevent it from closing as securely as it should. The door seal should be cleaned with some white vinegar and a soft cloth. Avoid harsh chemicals and abrasive pads.

Hard water is murder on appliances dependent on water, and the dishwasher is no exception. Like the rest of New York, Rochester has moderately hard water, which means you need to take steps to mitigate its effects. One good tip is to install a water softener, but if that’s not feasible, you should use a dishwasher cleaner with a citric acid base once a month.

An overloaded dishwasher won’t be able to clean properly, and you’ll just end up putting the dishes back in the appliance again. Washing the same load of dishes over and over shortens the dishwasher’s lifespan. Interestingly, washing partial loads also stresses the dishwasher. The dishwasher should be full, but not jammed packed.

Nothing should be washed in the dishwasher except dishes. Even innocent-looking objects may have substances on them that ordinary dishes don’t pick up, such as candle wax. Eventually, foreign substances can clog the filter and ultimately destroy the pump.

Another thing to do to prolong the life of your dishwasher is to check to see that the spray arms aren’t clogged and the racks are rust-free. Rust can flake off, and damage the pump.

Contact Nichols Electric and Plumbing

If you need tips on how to keep your much-needed dishwasher in good working order for a decade or more, don’t hesitate to call our plumbers at Nichols Electric and Plumbing. We fix dishwashers and provide a range of other plumbing services for residents of Rochester, NY and the surrounding area.