Anyone know Maytag dishwashers inside and out (mostly inside)
 

Our 3-4 year old Maytag dishwasher has been great. Several month ago it stopped cleaning the dishes. It still ran through the cycles, but the water flow just wasn't there.

I took it apart and found that there's a large screen around the pump impeller. This screen was completely blocked by food and goo. I cleaned it up and everything was great. Now 3-4 months later I've got the same problem. After the first episode we started rinsing the dishes better. Our water is very hot and I'm using powdered detergent. I'm going to clean it up again, but am at a loss for why this is happening.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165339052.gif

Change detergents. Something is reacting with the detergent and your water, or elsewhere and doing this. I had the same thing and made a switch and it stopped.

There may be a filter inside the compartment that is missing. Look around inside the unit and see if anything looks out of place. That much debris should not be getting to that impeller, we have pre-filters on our big machines here.

that pic grossed me out more than the dead chick in a carrera pics

It's not getting to the impeller. That screen catches the goo before it gets there. It just seems like it should be backwashing the stuff to the drain.

I can send you a high res close up if you like.:D

That's the pressurized fine filter in the unit, and what you see if typical for that particular design. I had our lead engineer (who used to work for Maytag) look at the picture and he said "yep, we saw that back in '92". Not much you can do about it other than scrape your plates off more before you put them in the unit.

That is what I love about the OT board. If someone doesn't know the answer, they know someone that does!

We are from Corporate, and we're here to help.....

Thanks John. When we bought this unit it was advertised has having a "soft food disposal" built in. The instructions actually warn you to not pre-clean the dishes. I think we'll start with a different detergent as Joe suggested.

At least I can have it apart in 5 minutes now. Guess I'll just clean it when the dishes start to come out dirty.

Lee, you actually need some dirt in the machine, otherwise the detergent will be too strong and start to etch your plates and glasses. I'll do a little more digging around see if there is a fix.

Hum, so if I clean my dishes completely before I put them in the Bosch dishwasher, should I reduce the amount of detergent?

No, you should dry them and put them back on the shelf.

Thanks, but having lived in a group house I know that I need to sanitize dishes, before stacking them: either by dipping in a chlorine wash and or using the dishwasher to sanitize by heat.

So if I am just basically using the dishwasher to sanitize, it seems I should reduce the amount of detergent.

Yes, if you just use the sanitize setting, use less detergent, or none at all. Do make sure you use a rinse aide though, makes the water sheet and run off the dishes.

Putting a cup or two of white distilled vinegar at the bottom of the washer before starting will do away with deposits left behind.

I found that somehow debris was getting up into the holes of the wash bars. after an hour of picking it all out the machine worked much better.

For some reason I think the garbage disposal has something to do with it. Perhaps backwashing into the washer somehow.