Dishwasher Help Forum

Hi, I'm new to this forum so apologies if this has been covered before - I did a quick search but couldn't find anything directly relevant.

We've got a five year old De Dietrich VZ9996U1 fully integrated dishwasher which has recently stopped rinsing properly. This is especially noticeable on glasses which are left with a slightly opaque finish which will then rinse off easily under cold water. I've tried several different types of tablet (both branded and supermarket's own) but with no improvement.

I don't think the problem is with the water softener as we live in a soft water area and I always top up the salt when the 'low salt' indicator comes on. Instead, I think that the rinse aid dispenser may no longer be working properly. The dispenser has three settings and I've tried them all but with the same result. I haven't had to top-up the rinse aid dispenser for a long time which reinforces the belief that rinse aid is not being added to the final rinse.

Please could I have some advice on possible solutions to this problem? Is there an easy fix or should I get a service engineer out to look at it? If the latter, please could you let me know what sort of cost I might be looking at to rectify the problem. As the dishwasher is over five years old, I don't want to be spending a lot of money on fixing it - I'd rather just bite the bullet and buy a new one.

Thanks in anticipation - Bob

It's possible that the rinse aid isn't being dispensed but it's quite a rare fault to be honest.

Have you changed detergent recently as it sounds more like a poor wash result due to low quality powder/tablet etc to me

Dave.

Hi Dave and thanks for your quick reply.

I've been using the same Morrison's own brand tablets for ages and the rinse problem has only started in the last few weeks. I tried switching to Glist but it's not made any difference.

Bob

BobBoulby wrote:I haven't had to top-up the rinse aid dispenser for a long time

Maybe the rinse aid lid gasket isn't sealing properly and the rinse aid chamber is filling with wash water?

Is this something I can check myself?

Bob

BobBoulby wrote:Is this something I can check myself?

The rinse aid lid gasket, of course, a simple visual inspection should show whether the gasket is perished or not seating properly!

If this is the gasket on the lid you remove to top-up the rinse dispenser, then it's in good condition.

Bob

If the deposit on the glassware is a fairly uniform coating then another possibility is the softener is at fault....if it's valve isn't shutting off correctly then it will deposit salt on the crockery giving a cloudy deposit. This is easy to check by tasting it (!)

If that's the case then the cheap answer is not to refill it with salt (you say you live in a soft water area) but use the 3 in 1 tablets instead just in case youe water supply isn't completely soft.

Thanks Clive.

The coating is fairly uniform but I have already done as you suggest and let the salt run out and not re-filled it. Unfortunately this hasn't make any difference. The Glist tablets I'm using at the moment are 3-in-1 but I'm still getting the deposit (although maybe not quite as bad).

Bob

Hi Bob,

How hard is the water in your area and do you know what the hardness level is? Is the film you're getting white in appearance and are anything other than glasses affected?

There are a few things that can cause the symptoms you describe, nost of which point towards rinse aid, salt and/or detergent usage. Just as an aside, Glist is the worst of the "name" brands that I've tested.

K.

We live in West Yorkshire and according to the Yorkshire Water web site the average total hardness in our area is 35 mg Ca/l (max 45mg Ca/l). The film is opaque rather than white.

I'll take on board what you said about Glist. The problem started when I was using Morrison's own brand tablets (and own brand rinse aid), but I'd been using these without problem for several years.

Bob

At that level you have what is classed as moderately hard water, i.e. over 30mg, so you will probably have to turn up the salt dosage a bit as it does sound like calcium carbonate (limescale) filming and all the reference material points that way as well. That said, there are areas in West Yorks that are hard to extremely hard water so you may be best to check with a hardness strip, you can get them for pennies from fishing tackle shops and the likes.

It is also possible that the softener unit is faulty.

Personally I'd recommend seperate powder and rinse aid or Fairy tabs (they actually work) which are really powder in a bag, but also a little rinse aid to get decent results. If the water is hard you will find that many of the all-in-one types won't work without perhaps using two tabs per wash

K.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I'll try upping the salt dosage slightly (I'm pretty sure that we are not in one of the hard water areas of Yorkshire) and I'll also give Fairy Tabs a try.

I still have a doubt at the back of my mind though around the fact that the rinse aid doesn't seem to be getting used up. Still if there is a rinse aid dispenser problem presumably the Fairy Tabs will compensate for this.

Thanks again - Bob