Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes? | Vacaville Appliance Repair

It turns out drying your plates could in actual fact be more arduous for your machine than cleaning them. Dishes and glasses have lots of nooks and crannies that may trap water stopping it from evaporating, and as your machine cools down water droplets form out of the humid air.

Different machines also employ a variety of means to dry your plates. Certain models opt for a heating element to warm the air in the machine and help with evaporation, some warm the water to a higher temperature nearing the final rinse, certain models have a fan, and certain models use a mix of all of these. There are thus a variety of explanations why your machine might not be drying crockery and cutlery fully and a variety of options to improve the situation.

Plastic is less likely to dry fully than other materials as it cools down more quickly hindering the drying process, so it’s worth seeing whether the items that aren’t drying are predominantly plastic items.

If your dishwasher isn’t drying effectively you can enlist the help of a dishwasher repair service or first use this troubleshooting list to figure out what the problem is and with any luck fix it.

Top Explanations Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Crockery and Cutlery

Few things are more frustrating than a home appliance that isn’t working properly, whether that’s a smartphone that really isn’t being that smart, a washing machine that’s churning out dirty clothes, or a dishwasher that is either not cleaning or drying your crockery and cutlery. If you open your dishwasher to discover wet plates there are a few places you can look to help you figure out why.

Not all dishwashers are built to the same spec and you will find that some dishwashers do a better job of drying your plates than others. However, if you notice a change in how effectively your dishwasher is working one of these faults may be the problem.

Inspect How Your Machine Has Been Loaded

It might be that there is no fault with the appliance. Before assuming the appliance is faulty you should first check that you haven’t overfilled it or accidentally stacked items one inside the other. It’s also worth noting that plastics don’t dry as well as metal, glass or ceramics.

Check The Rinse Aid Dispenser

Your appliance needs rinse aid to properly dry your dishes thus, if you have run out of rinse aid or the rinse aid dispenser is faulty this can mean wet dishes at the end of the cycle.

The best thing to do is check the rinse aid dispenser for cracks and check that there is rinse aid inside.

Inspect The Heating Element

Heat is essential for drying your dishes so a not working heating coil might be the reason your machine is not working as it should. If your crockery and cutlery aren’t hot to touch when they come out of the machine this can mean that the heating coil isn’t working as it should.

To check the heating coil you will need to unplug the machine, find the heating coil, you might need the owners manual to do this, and use a multimeter to check it’s working.

Check the Thermostat

The thermostat ensures your appliance doesn’t get too hot, determining the heat of the water and air during drying. However, if it’s broken this can mean your appliance doesn’t heat up at all.

If you check the heating coil and do not discover an fault but there’s still no heat, then the thermostat might be at fault. Again you can test this with the help of a multimeter.

Have a Look at The Fan and Vent

Many dishwashers will employ a drying fan and vent to remove the warm moist air from the appliance. If either of these elements are broken then the hot air will remain in the machine preventing the dishes from drying.

You can make use of your instruction manual to check if your appliance uses a fan and find its location. Again you need to make sure the machine is unplugged before trying to make repairs.

First look at the fan and vent to ascertain if there is anything lodged that would prevent it from working as it is supposed to. If there is nothing obvious you can then test for continuity using a multimeter.

Ideas to Boost Drying Ability

There are a variety of methods you can use to boost how well your machine dries your dishes and make sure you have to hand dry as little as possible.

Allow ample space between plates. Overfilling the machine limits the flow of both water and air making removing the dirt from and drying your plates more difficult. Although it’s appealing to try and cram everything in, your machine will be more effective if you leave sufficient space so that dishes are not touching.
Employ rinse aid. Some dishwasher tablets already have this but even if the brand you use says it does, adding a separate rinse aid to the machine won’t hurt. Rinse aid works by breaking the bond between water molecules and your crockery and cutlery, helping water run off quickly, speeding up drying time and giving a spot and streak free finish.
Open the door at the end of the cycle. Some newer models do this automatically, but if yours doesn’t, opening the machine when the program completes can help allow the water to escape and prevent water condensing on the contents as the dishwasher cools down.
Find out if your appliance employs a heat feature and make sure it’s turned on. The higher the heat the better the drying and you might be able to choose which points in the program you increase the temperature.
Unload the lower level before the top. This doesn’t affect how effective your dishwasher is, but it prevent and water spilling that has collected in the concave bottoms of cups and glasses.

If none of the above solves the problem it could be a good idea to phone the professionals or perhaps buy a new dishwasher.