Cleaning your Dishwasher the EASY Way

I had someone tell me the other day that they had been waiting for their husband to clean out and fix their dishwasher and they got tired of waiting as he had been busy with other things. 
 
She said she thought of me and how I fix everything without a husband and don't call the repair man as I don't have funds for that usually so if I can figure it out, I do it myself. 
 
I suggested to her that she watch some youtube videos on the subject specific to her dishwasher. If she can't find one for her model, usually there is one for a brand.

When I have been frustrated with something I need to fix, I usually check on youtube. Many times, what I am fixing may not have an answer on youtube and if that is the case, I will usually make a video myself.  

Here is a link to one such fix for a metal sprinkler pipe, I use a dremel to cut it out and split the pipe so I can get it out.  

She got me thinking that I have never cleaned out my dishwasher. I have had the repair man over for dryer repairs and had him clean out my dryers for lint from time to time as we had a family fire due to a dryer at one point in my life so I am a little OCD with cleaning out the lint from the dryer. 
 
I have also had him clean out a washer I got used. I was really grossed out by the amount of crap in the bowl of the washer that just collects. 

I remember when I was younger, we used to have to pull out a little screen and clean it all the time in our dishwasher but these new one's don't make it so you can get to the mesh net as it is inside the plastic case. 
 
I figured to myself, "How hard could it be?" so I started taking apart the dishwasher using my drill, I was able to get down about four layers before I got nervous and finally called my friend the repair man! 

He told me I could probably get deeper and clean it but that I had to be really careful. He then told me that there were two products her really liked that did about as good of a job as taking the entire thing apart and that he buys them by the case so that he can give them to clients when he fixes their machines if they need cleaning. 
 
I immediately put back the parts in the machine and went to the store to purchase the products he suggested. One is called, "Dishwasher Magic" by Glisten and the other is "Lemi Shine" dishwasher cleaner. 

I was able to purchase both at WalMart and the Magic one was about $4 and the Lemi Shine was about $2. I bought one of each so that I could see how they worked. 

My repair man friend told me how to use them but the instructions are VERY clear on the packages and I show both instructions on this post. 

The "Magic" one, you make sure you have hot water near the machine by turning on your tap as hot as it will go. Then you take off the cap and there is a wax plug inside. DON'T remove the plug. Just turn the entire container upside down and wedge it in the center of the bottom shelf somewhere and run the washer on a long hot cycle, not an energy saving cycle as you need the hot water to melt the wax to get the chemicals out. 

The "Lemi" one actually has citrus in it and you just rip it open and dump the powder in the bottom corner of the machine and then let it run a cycle.

I show in the top picture how much paper and build up I pulled out of the filter around the bottom of my machine. I used "CLR" or the "Totally Awesome CLR" equivalent and sprayed all the parts in the machine and the sides and bottom and then used a scrub brush to clean it some. I also used a toothbrush to scrub around the plastic base as you can see in the pictures, it was quite dirty with lots of buildup. 

I can't say that the products would have gotten it as clean without my hard work before but my friend told me that if you just run the products through two or three times, it does a great job. 

I don't know that I will ever let it get that bad again as I really didn't know I was supposed to clean it but I clean out my water softener and toilet tanks etc, so I probably should have thought to clean the dishwasher.

I had some dishes in the washer when I cleaned it, DON'T do that. I had some weird build up on them and had to wash them with a cleaner to get it off. Not sure what or why that happened but I probably should have removed them BEFORE running the chemicals through. 

I will be buying a few of each and try them separately on a regular basis just to keep the machine clean now that I have it looking good. Wish I had know about this years ago as I think my dishes probably would have come out much cleaner than they have in years.