Cleaning your frigidaire dishwasher is very important in the maintenance of the unit. You are probably wondering why you need to clean your dishwasher since it is literally a cleaner and it is supposed to clean itself. You will have to clean your dishwasher if it has a bad smell or if it has a clog somewhere in the dishwasher.
Problems from not cleaning your filter
The smell
If you have been neglecting the chore of cleaning your dishwasher’s filter, chances are high that you have run into the following problems.
Your dishwasher must be having a bad smell right now.
The smell comes from the food particles that collect in your dishwasher and increase the number of bacteria in the machine.
This usually happens when the dishwasher has a clogged filter and you have refused to clean it.
The bad smell could also come from situations where you leave the dirty dishes in the unit for a long time before running in the wash cycle.
Frigidaire Dishwasher draining and clogging
If you are not cleaning your Frigidaire dishwasher’s filter regularly, you are going to end up with a clogged filter and a dishwasher that is not draining at the end of the wash cycle.
Food particles and grease can build up on the filters and prevent water from leaving the dishwasher after a wash cycle.
And when your dishwasher is not draining you automatically are going to be faced with the problem of a smelly dishwasher.
This solution here is to clean your dishwasher filter regularly depending on how often you use the dishwasher.
How to clean your Frigidaire dishwasher
cleaning the exterior
You need to clean your Frigidaire dishwasher’s exterior surface. To clean it to look shiny, you have to make sure you remove all the dirt and dust that has collected on the surface of the dishwasher. Over time, fingerprints also accumulate on the surface of the dishwasher.
To clean the exterior, you need a damp warm cloth and a good surface cleaner. You could even use a glass cleaner. Just spray it on the surface of the dishwasher and wipe off the dirt using the warm cloth.
You could also use dish soap if you do not have a surface or glass cleaner.
cleaning the interior
To clean the interior of your Frigidaire dishwasher, open the door of the dishwasher and unload the dishes. Remove the dishwasher’s top and bottom racks.
You can clean the surface of the interior with a warm damp cloth.
Make sure to clean any visible area of the dishwasher. To clean effectively, you can even remove the spray arms and the filters so that you clean the inside very well.
Make sure you also unclog the water outlets of the spray arms.
When you are done cleaning the interior surface with a warm damp cloth, put back the upper rack and place a bowl of white distilled vinegar. Using hot water, run a wash cycle.
This will ensure the inside of the dishwasher is really clean and it will also eliminate any bad smell.
cleaning the filter
You can locate the filter using your user manual.
To remove the filter you have to first remove the lower rack. Twist and turn the upper filter in an anti-clockwise manner. If you hear something clicking, pull the filter out.
Clean out any visible food particles or any foreign objects that were stuck in the filter.
Wash the filter under hot running water with some soap and a soft brush.
If there is any stubborn grease that has refused to come off, you can soak the filter in a bowl of vinegar overnight.
After cleaning the filter, put it back in the dishwasher.
Safety consideration
There are a few safety cautions that you should take while cleaning your Frigidaire dishwasher.
Doing a wash cycle, it is possible that a glass or plate can break and the broken pieces are trapped in your dishwasher.
These sharp parts collect in the glass trap.
Remove the trap very carefully and dispose of broken glasses somewhere that won’t injure you or anyone in your house. You can’t even label the box containing the broken pieces with a ‘Dangerous sharp objects’ note.
Keep this away from children.
To be safe, make sure you wear safety gloves while removing the broken glasses to avoid any accidents.
wrong chemicals
While cleaning your dishwasher, there are some chemicals that you should never use. These chemicals are capable of spoiling your appliance and even becoming a danger to your health.
Stuff like Drano does not belong in a dishwasher. Drano can spoil your dishwasher’s plastic parts and also damage your plumbing system.
Do not use detergents that contain ingredients that cannot be specified. An example of such ingredients includes color and fragrance.
Sometimes these undisclosed ingredients will damage your dishwasher. A vague ingredient like ‘fragrance’ would have dangerous substances that could hurt the dishwasher.
These dangerous chemicals could also cause cancer to you if you inhaled them.
Avoid common usage and cleaning mistakes
There are a couple of cleaning mistakes that people do while cleaning the dishwasher.
The first mistake is trying to rinse the dishes before placing them in your Frigidaire dishwasher.
You could think you are doing a good thing since you are reducing the work of your machine. However, the dishwasher detergent is designed to stick onto the food particles on the dishes and then get washed off during the wash and rinse cycle. If the detergent has nowhere to stick, the dishes are going to come out when they look unclean.
The second mistake that some people make is to use dish soap in the dishwasher. This mistake will cause a lot of flooding on your floor. This is because the foam or suds will keep on flowing out of the dishwasher and onto your floor.
This could damage your wooden floor.
Seeking professional help
What do you do if you have cleaned your Frigidaire dishwasher but the dishes are still coming out dirty or the dishwasher is still smelly?
Make sure you have cleaned all the parts of the dishwasher as suggested in this article.
However, if you are not having any luck, you need to seek the help of a qualified technician.
If you have also used the wrong type of detergent in your dishwasher, switch off the dishwasher and immediately call a qualified technician to stop any further damage.
Conclusion
You need to clean your Frigidaire dishwasher quite often. If you do not clean it you might face problems regarding draining and a bad smell in your dishwasher.
Avoid using non-recommended detergent in the dishwasher.
Lastly, when you’re cleaning the inside of your dishwasher, do not forget to clean the exterior surface of the dishwasher and have it look brand new.
