I have a ten year old dishwasher which has been working alright until recently. Everything comes out covered with a heavy, crusty substance on it. The silverware only cleared up when I used CLR on it and I can't seem to clean some of the pieces. I know we have hard water, but this is ruining my dishes. Has anyone experienced this and if so, what did you do about it?
Get some dishwasher cleaner--you put it on the top rack & run a cycle. Also, are you using liquid? Our appliance guy said powder or gel/powder combo packs are best for a dishwasher. (Odd since liquid is best for a clothes washer.) Then you can run about 2 cups of vinegar through a cycle too.
You need to run a descaler through the washer. It strips all the built up gunk out of the machine.
run a bottle of clr through a cycle by itself. (i mean dump it into the bottom & then run!) we have hard water and have to add that rinse agent to all loads to keep from build up. we have a little hole right next to the soap container that we have to fill every few washes.
You need to get a water conditioner or else a filter to filter the water before it goes into the dish washer. What happens is the crust as you call it is deposits built up in the water line going to the dishwasher. There really isn't much you can do as far as putting something in the dishwasher. I would start by putting a new water line on my dishwasher and then filtering the water going into the dishwasher. That really is the only thing that is worth doing. If you continue using the dish washer you will ruin it.
Do you have a watersoftner? If so, perhaps it needs service.
