How to clean a dishwasher at home: mechanical and chemical methods for cleaning a dishwasher. Cleaning the dishwasher with home remedies How to rinse the dishwasher with citric acid

Many people assume that since the dishwasher washes the dishes, it also washes itself, which is fundamentally wrong. From lack of care, this dish cleaner itself becomes a collection of dirt and bad smell, and the dishes washed by him are no longer as clean as we would like. We will tell you how to return the dishwasher original view, get rid of an unpleasant smell, how to clean it from scale and continue to prevent such troubles.

Manual cleaning of the dishwasher

Despite automated processes, most effective way dishwasher cleaning is manual cleaning. This is due to the inaccessibility of some seals that are not washed when the machine is started, as well as our laziness. Agree, many do not follow the manufacturer's recommendations and do not clean off food residues in the trash before loading dishes into dishwasher. This entails clogging of the filters installed in the machine. Dirt, grease and food residues that have settled on them begin to rot and exude unpleasant odors.

To clean the dishwasher at home from accumulated food debris, you can follow the following algorithm of actions:

1. Power off. Even if you just want to wipe the unit from the inside with a damp cloth, you should not neglect safety precautions.
2. Removing all removable baskets for dishes and cutlery. Wash them by hand in the sink.
3. Dismantling and cleaning mesh filter . As a rule, such a filter is mounted on a thread in the lowest part of the machine - its drain. It needs to be unscrewed running case- soak in soapy water for 30 minutes, then wash thoroughly with a stiff brush. This filter is recommended to be cleaned at least once a week as it clogs quickly.
4. Blade cleaning. Their task is to create powerful jets of water, which, with their pressure, clean the dishes from dirt. Blockage of the blade holes will lead to a decrease in the pressure of the jet or its complete absence. Therefore, at least once every 2-3 months, the openings of the blades must be cleaned with a toothpick.
5. Removing clean but poorly rotating blades. Remove them and clean the axle they are attached to.
6. bottom flushing. At the bottom of the dishwasher, under the door, there is a “dead zone” - an area where water does not enter, but debris and food residues accumulate - the causes of an unpleasant odor.
7. Cleaning the seals. gaps rubber seals- a paradise for bacteria and small debris. They can be most effectively cleaned of accumulated dirt with a toothbrush. Caution: you should not use citric acid for these purposes - after it, the rubber loses its elasticity, and the dishwasher loses its tightness.

If you did everything right, the bad smell should go away. To complete the cleaning, you can turn on the rinse cycle by adding regular detergents to the tray.

Homemade cleaning products

Except conventional means dishwashing and cleaning kitchen surfaces, dishwasher can be washed homemade means which are absolutely harmless to humans.

Method 1. Bura- she is sodium tetraborate, natural mineral. To clean the dishwasher, use the following:

1. For pre-cleaned and wet surfaces borax is generously applied inside the dishwasher.
2. The wash cycle starts.
3. Borax residues are washed off by hand.
4. The rinse cycle starts.

As a result, stains on the dishwasher brighten, grease stains are easily washed off and unpleasant odors disappear.

Method 2. Homemade soda tablets. 3 tablespoons of peroxide and 20 drops are added to 2 cups of soda essential oil. It turns out the consistency of wet sand, from which you need any accessible way– with a spoon, ice cube trays or food film form homemade "tablets", which should then be dried.

To wash the dishwasher with this product, you must first clean the filter and the dead zone, then put home-made tablets in the empty unit on the lower shelf, and put a plate with a small amount of vinegar and detergent in a 2: 1 ratio on the top. Now it remains only to start the washing cycle. Additional rinsing after such washing is not required: all components are harmless to the human body.

Automatic dishwasher cleaning

If you know how to clean the dishwasher at home, and do it in a timely manner, but the smell still appears, you can arrange a quick self-cleaning of the dishwasher. This is achieved by adding special agents to the tray and into the internal cavity of the unit, after which the normal or rinsing mode is started. The most effective detergents:

• vinegar. Housewives have long appreciated beneficial features this sour water with a specific smell. The most valuable properties of vinegar - the fight against foreign odors and disinfection, including mold. Place a small container of table vinegar on the top shelf of an empty dishwasher, then turn on the maximum temperature;
• soda. Spread about 200 grams of this substance evenly on the bottom of an empty dishwasher, leave for 10 minutes, and then turn on the mode with the maximum washing temperature;
• special means for dishwashers. Such funds are usually expensive, but they work with a bang.

Descaling the dishwasher

Another scourge of both dishwashers and almost all household appliances- scale. White bloom calcium and magnesium salts harmless to the human body, but not to appliances: scale clogs moving parts, increases water heating time and the amount of electricity consumed. Therefore, prevention and global removal of accumulated scale - necessary procedures so that the dishwasher serves you long years. You can clean the dishwasher citric acid or other available means.

200-300 grams of citric acid is poured into the detergent tray, the mode with the maximum heating temperature is selected, after which the empty machine starts. In the middle of the cycle, the dishwasher should be stopped for at least half an hour. Also, the technique can be left in this position for the whole night. After a while, the unit starts up again, and at the end of the program it is worth starting an additional rinse. Citric acid in heated water perfectly removes scale, you just have to take precautions.

Citric acid can be successfully replaced with vinegar or vinegar essence: the latter should be diluted and used only with gloves. A sufficient amount is two glasses. The algorithm of the process does not change.

To prevent the appearance of scale in the dishwasher, it is necessary to periodically use specialized means- Antinakipin or others sold in stores. Please note: modern models of dishwashers are equipped with anti-scale protection and a water hardness regulator. In this case, you will not need preventive measures to remove scale.

In order for the equipment to serve you for a long time and properly, in addition to cleaning from grease, dirt and scale, you should constantly pay attention to it. Often, in addition to the above problems, mold appears in the dishwasher: this is facilitated by high humidity and leftover food.

To prevent the absence of mold, the dishwasher should be ventilated periodically. However, if that doesn't work, you can rinse your empty car with regular clothes bleach: sodium hydrochloride is an excellent disinfectant.

Important! it cannot be used in dishwashers with stainless steel interiors.

If you do not use special tablets for washing dishes, then you need to load additional funds- rinse aid and salt. The task of the rinse aid is to wash off the remnants of chemical cleaning agents and give the dishes a shine and pleasant aroma. The task of salt is to soften water and prevent scale formation. Most dishwashers are equipped with indicators that light up when there is a shortage of one or another product.

Timely filling of all compartments with salt and rinse aid, scheduled cleaning and preventive maintenance will allow your dishwasher to do routine work for you for many years, freeing up time for more interesting activities than washing dishes.

It occurs to many people to clean the dishwasher with vinegar and soda, because this is cheap household chemicals that are always at hand. In addition, vinegar and soda are well known to us, this is not some newfangled proprietary composition that may well cause allergies in households. However, you need to understand that vinegar is not as safe for dishwasher parts as it might seem at first glance. Read our publication to the end, and you will understand what we mean.

What are the dangers of using vinegar?

Sodium bicarbonate or ordinary soda is a completely safe chemistry, but it is not suitable for cleaning the dishwasher from the inside, in any case, it is not suitable alone. For these purposes, vinegar essence is much better suited, which leaves no chance for dirt or scale. But it can also easily destroy the dishwasher.

Acetic essence can adversely affect some parts of the dishwasher, such as the heating element. After repeated exposure acetic acid on the coating of the heating element, the latter failed.

Masters with extensive experience have found a direct connection between dishwasher failures and the systematic use of vinegar essence in them, and this is no joke. From our point of view, if you already decide to use vinegar to clean the dishwasher, then do it extremely rarely, no more than 1 time per year. In addition, the concentration of vinegar must be reduced, since the use of a 70% solution is extremely dangerous.

Deep vinegar cleaning

A complete internal cleaning of the dishwasher with vinegar consists of three steps. We will not describe the first stage for the time being, since its essence is manual cleaning of the machine. We will return to it later. The second stage involves the use of diluted vinegar essence. The third stage: getting rid of the smell of vinegar. Let's start with the description of the second and third stages.

1. We remove the baskets and the cutlery tray from the dishwasher.
2. We take a shallow glass or ceramic bowl and pour 8 tablespoons of vinegar essence and 8 tablespoons of water into it.
3. We put the bowl on the bottom of the dishwasher so that the lower spray arm does not touch it.
4. We include the longest washing program at a high temperature.
5. We wait until the program ends. For now, let's prepare a pack of soda so that it is at hand.
6. As soon as the program ends, quickly open the door of the machine and generously fill the bottom of the washing chamber with soda. Try to do it quickly so that the smell of vinegar does not have time to fill the kitchen.
7. Quickly close the dishwasher door and start a short washing program.

When the short program is over, the baking soda will almost completely eliminate the smell of vinegar. Only slight smell, which can be reconciled, especially if you carefully ventilate the kitchen.

Cleaning with baking soda

Returning to the first stage of cleaning the dishwasher, we need to use the soda remaining in the pack. Cleaning the dishwasher by hand at home is not difficult at all. First, we wash the garbage filter and the mesh in hot water. These parts are easy to find at the bottom of the washing chamber or any other.

Now we take a small bowl with clean and warm water, sponge and pack of soda. Sprinkle baking soda on a wet sponge. Soda is saturated with water and soda slurry is obtained. With this gruel, we begin to clean the internal surfaces of the washing chamber of the dishwasher and all the details that we can reach. Pay special attention to sprinklers. Their small holes can be cleaned with a toothpick. With soda gruel, you can clean the dishwasher from the outside, but be careful not to use brushes so as not to scratch the body.

So, you can completely clean the dishwasher with baking soda and vinegar in three steps. First, manual cleaning with a sponge and soda, then dry cleaning viscera with vinegar and odor removal with soda. Carry out the procedure with extreme caution, but rather use more gentle chemicals instead of vinegar. Good luck!

Cleaning the dishwasher is a sore point for many housewives, especially when descaling is required. Such cleaning is required quite often, especially when you consider that in many cities of our "immense" country, hard water. You can buy special products for these purposes, but the fact is that the basis of many such products is ordinary citric acid. A logical question arises: why overpay if you can clean the dishwasher with citric acid. Moreover, this household chemicals worth every penny. Let's see how to do it and whether it is possible to do it at all.

Manual care

Some housewives ask: is it possible to use citric acid when washing a dishwasher by hand? From our point of view, it is not only possible, but should also be used instead of powders with abrasive particles and other aggressive chemicals. We take a soft cloth and a sponge, as well as a small basin of water.

1. Open the washing chamber of the dishwasher and take out the baskets with the tray.
2. We pour a little lemon on a sponge soaked in water and wash the trays with baskets.

It is better to wash the tray and baskets in the bathroom, it is more convenient.

1. We generously fill the bottom of the washing chamber with a lemon and a sponge clean the surface from dirt and scale.
2. Using a sponge and lemon gruel, we clean the sprinklers: upper and lower.
3. We wipe the washing chamber inside completely. Lemon can not be spared, in addition, it can not be thoroughly washed off, during the next dishwashing it will be washed into the system.

To wash the dishwasher with a lemon means to clean the internal surfaces of the washing chamber from scale and dirt. Also, lemongrass is merciless to microorganisms, while it does not harm the human or animal body - solid pluses. It is necessary to repeat such cleaning 1 time in 1.5-2 months.

Cleaning the system

"External" use of citric acid is safe for PMM and their owners. But you can also use it to remove scale inside the dishwasher system. If your plumbing has hard water, we can assure you that the "lion's share" of scale, and this 97% will be concentrated in heating element, hoses and fittings. You can’t remove them manually from there, unless of course you are going to disassemble the dishwasher. There is only one option left - automatic cleaning of the system at home, and you can do it with an ordinary lemon.

We take citric acid, pour it into the powder or tablet compartment. We do not load dishes into baskets. We close the PMM door, select an intensive washing program and start the unit. When the program completes, the PMM system will be well cleaned of scale inside. You need to do this procedure about 1 time in 2 months.

Where to pour lemon is understandable, but how much to pour it into the powder compartment? Empirically, we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to rely not even on the size of the PMM, but on the volume of water pumped into the system by it. Check the instructions for your dishwasher.

1. If she consumes less than 10 liters of water per cycle, then pour no more than 40 g of lemon.
2. If the car consumes about 12 liters, you need to pour 50 g of lemon.
3. Consumes 14 or more liters? Pour 60 g.

Why is it important to monitor the dosage so precisely? We will talk about this in the next paragraph.

When Not to Use Lemongrass

The use of citric acid and other cleaners can damage the dishwasher real harm. Imagine that you have hard water, but you have not taken any measures to clean the PMM for several years. Of course, large lime deposits formed inside the machine. And finally, with a delay of several years, you decided to clean the dishwasher with a lemon. Citric acid will destroy fragile lime deposits, and all at once.

Overnight in the PMM system will be great amount large debris, which is sure to make a powerful blockage. If such a blockage occurs, it will be problematic to clean it. But blockage is half the trouble. Scale from the internal surfaces of the flow heater can fall off so that the heating element itself is damaged. As a result of cleaning with a lemon, you can "get" on a rather expensive repair. The conclusion is simple: if you have not cleaned the dishwasher inside from scale before, you should not start, this is fraught with consequences!

So, with the help of an ordinary lemon? We think we have answered this question. If you need clarification or disagree with our point of view, please leave a comment or participate in the discussions on our forum. Good luck!

Modern expensive Appliances make life much easier for a person, for example, a dishwasher. But they, in turn, require not only careful handling, but also regular brushing. No need to think that in the process of washing dishes, food residues and excess fat do not get inside the appliance, which negatively affect the performance of the dishwasher. Each user can clean the dishwasher at home on their own using improvised means or using professional expensive chemicals.

How to rid the car of leftover food

Owners of dishwashers probably use the appliance regularly, so the first rule is to remove food residues, if they get there, immediately. After each use, it is recommended to visually inspect all possible openings that may be clogged. First of all, it is a water sprinkler.

If, however, the remains of the products got into the sprayer, you need to remove them immediately. To do this, turn off the device from electrical network. Then, with a toothpick, tweezers or a thin hook, hook the dirt and pull it out.

Those places where water does not enter must be regularly treated with detergents. These are doors and gaskets - a lot of dirt and grease always accumulate in them. To clean them, a regular cleaning vice will do. For hard-to-reach places, you can use a brush with soft bristles. The attachment points of the doors also need to be cleaned periodically. This is also where debris accumulates and grease settles.

Filters

Filters are the most susceptible to contamination. They should be cleaned at least once a week. Before cleaning the dishwasher filter, you need to remove it. This should be done immediately after the next washing cycle - at this time it is easiest to rid the part of fat.

Different dishwashers have different filters, so you should read the instruction manual before disassembling the appliance. In the photo, the Bosch dishwasher filter is clogged with grease.

Any grease remover will do, such as baking soda or dishwashing liquid. Use a small toothbrush to gently remove the dirt. Rinse the filter after running water, you can put the part in place.

How to clean the heating element

Hard water builds up on the dishwasher heating element. limescale. If you do not periodically get rid of scale, the machine can quickly break down. The sign of the formed plaque is specific musty smell inside the device. But you can carry out the cleaning procedure yourself, at home in a simple and affordable way, for which you need citric acid.

How to clean the dishwasher with citric acid from scale:

• The entire cleaning process takes place without loading the appliance with dishes.
• Pour a packet of citric acid (at least 100 g) into the detergent compartment.
• Set the longest washing cycle, with the highest possible temperature.
• Wait for the wash to finish. At this time, it is better not to leave the device, because if especially large pieces of limescale fall off, you should stop the cycle and remove it from the drain.

After cleaning the heating element with citric acid, it is necessary to clean the drain hole not only from scale, but also from grease.

Cleaning the drain hole

The drain hole is a place where food debris accumulates. How to clean it up:

• Disconnect the appliance from the mains.
• It is better to watch the video instruction before starting disassembly, especially if it is modern model Bosch, the device of which may differ from older ones.
• First you need to remove large pieces of dirt on the surface drain hole under the carousel.
• Then, guided by the instruction manual, you must remove all parts. The hole from which the filter was removed must be sealed with adhesive tape so that debris does not get there during the cleaning process.
• Wipe all parts with a damp cloth or sponge. Vinegar, soda, citric acid, cleaning powder are suitable as a detergent.
• When the processing of parts is completed, you can put the parts in place. For the first time, you can see the photo of the process.

After such procedures, it is advisable to turn on the device for a short time to see how it will work.

Daily Care

In order to avoid questions about how to clean the dishwasher, it is necessary, as far as possible, to “clean” the inside of the appliance after each use. Simple Tips:

1. If you use the appliance every day, and not on holidays, you can avoid the drying of grease and food residues.
2. Before washing dishes in the dishwasher, they must be rinsed with hot running water to wash off food residues and some of the fat.
3. Be sure to wipe the door and gaskets with a damp cloth and detergent after each use. If dirt gets into them, an unpleasant smell of rot can develop over time.
4. Periodically clean the appliance with vinegar. To do this, pour two glasses of liquid into the bottom of the dishwasher and turn on a quick wash without dishes.
5. To combat the smell, you can fill the bottom of the device with a glass baking soda and use the machine as usual.
6. After each use, leave the machine door open to dry inside.

Modern models of household appliances from famous brand Bosch are more advanced. For example, ventilation after the next cycle is carried out by built-in fans, due to which inner surface always stays dry. But the question is how to clean the dishwasher Bosch machine, still remains relevant, because limescale also accumulates on the heating element, and the filters also need to be cleaned regularly.

In this article, we will learn how to clean the dishwasher at home from grease and scale.

If the unit itself is unkempt, dirty, the dishes will not shine. Cleaning the dishwasher (PMM) is easy. The main thing is not to forget to do it regularly.

Easy to clean dishwasher

We clean from fat

How often to wash the PMM depends on how carefully you remove food debris from the dishes, how much fat remains on it, and also on the quality of the water. Therefore, there are no specific recommendations regarding how many cycles the unit should be washed. In one family, PMM needs one or another cleaning after 5 washes, in another - after 15. Looking into the car, each housewife will immediately determine whether it is time to wash it or not. If the surface inside is dull, there are signs of plaque, dirt has accumulated below, or an unpleasant smell is felt, it's time. Sometimes it is enough to take out the lower mesh and wipe it with a cloth dipped in detergent, walls, the bottom, which is always more polluted, and the area around the drain hole.

During operation, the edges of the door and the area under it are not washed, so the dirt stagnates there. Treat these places with a solution or 5% vinegar. The corners can be reached with a small brush.

How often to wash the PMM depends on how carefully you remove food debris from the dishes, how much fat remains on it, and also on the quality of the water.

For a more thorough cleaning of fat, you must do the following:

• disconnect the machine from the mains;
• pull out both nets and cutlery basket;
• remove the filter, wipe it;
• wipe the blades, axle;
• clean the holes through which water is supplied.