repairman recommends jet dry and cascade. what do i do?

[wasatchmom]

My BRAND NEW dishwasher is totally crummy. I even bought it based on the fact it is Consumer Reports 'best buy' for dishwashers. So I had the repairman here today since nothing is coming out clean and he said everything is working fine and its my non-phosphorus 7th Generation detergent and the fact I don't use Jet-Dry.

So what do I do? My dishwasher before I moved worked okay with the 7th Generation stuff (I did do an occasional wash with Cascade to remove build up) and the dishwasher was 6 years old and not any better quality than my current one. We plan to install a water softener, which will help the dishes I think, but I don't think thats the whole problem. The dishes are gross!

Any ideas?

[momto l&a]

I think Consumer reports is hogwash :

It really sounds to me like the dishwasher just isnt doing a good job IMO. I'd have them take it back and pick another one out.

Have you tried just baking soda and borax?

[Gunter]

I use Ecover in my dishwasher. But, if it's new and not working properly maybe the problem is not the cleaning product, KWIM?

[aniT]

I use bi-o-kleen in my 6th month old GE dishwasher. Everything is comming out clean for us.

In my old house/dishwasher this was not true. I had a 2 year old maytag. When I switched to bi-o-kleen my dishes started comming out looking terrible. They were getting stuff "etched" into them and I would rinse and it wouldn't come off. We also had very hard water so maybe when you get a water softener it will make a difference. Oh yea, and I never use jet dry. I have read you can use vinagar in it's place however.

In my opinion repairmen like to recommend the name brands. The repairman for my washer was getting pissy because I didn't use HE detergent with it. When I picked up the box of my bi-0-kleen powder and showed him it said for front loaders he just raised and eyebrow but shutup.

[Leilalu]

Originally Posted by wasatchmom

My BRAND NEW dishwasher is totally crummy. I even bought it based on the fact it is Consumer Reports 'best buy' for dishwashers. So I had the repairman here today since nothing is coming out clean and he said everything is working fine and its my non-phosphorus 7th Generation detergent and the fact I don't use Jet-Dry.

So what do I do? My dishwasher before I moved worked okay with the 7th Generation stuff (I did do an occasional wash with Cascade to remove build up) and the dishwasher was 6 years old and not any better quality than my current one. We plan to install a water softener, which will help the dishes I think, but I don't think thats the whole problem. The dishes are gross!

Any ideas?

I have been going through the same EXACT scenario you are posting about!
I have been using powder from TJ's, but I did add jet dry when the guy installed it"Just a bit.I never used it before. My dishes need some help.I too need some help with this.

[Satori]

I would just try what he suggests and see what happens. If the dishes are suddenally coming out clean then you know you need to find another cleaner, if there still dirty you'll know you need a different washer.

[celestialdreamer]

You might try using vinegar instead of a rinse aid, I found this does a great job. We have a 4 month old dishwasher and we use Biokleen. I do think that Cascade makes it work good, but I'm not willing to use it. Maybe try using a different natural detergent?

[RubySweet]

I agree, I wouldn't have a problem just testing it out to see what the problem is. I actually do use the powdered cascade : but I put white vinegar in the jet dry dispenser. We have pretty hard water so my dishes get gross spots all over them without the vinegar.

[momto l&a]

I would be careful about using vinegar, I etched my brandnew dishwasher with the stuff

[chel]

OP
it sounds like you just moved. In my area the hardness of the water is very different from one side of town to the other. I'm in the supper hard area and nothing seems to get my dishes clean. I've tried everything. I now just hand wash all the dishes and use the dishwasher as a large drying rack. I'm in an apartment so I can't add a water softner.

[MelMel]

we have a new fridgadair dishwasher. it was the lower end model (under $200) we just got it about 3 months ago. it has all the features we needed (filter, 2/3 sets of jets) and it is working super. we have only used 7th generation soap in it (in fact, we are still on the same box, i only pour in like 1/2 the amount it says)

we have very icky well water too. its loaded with minerals and is actually lightly yellow/orange when we fill the bathtub....so i was worried about how the dishwasher would perform. my aunt has a fancy dishwasher and uses cascade and jet dry (which you seem to NEED to use togther for some odd reason) and her dishes are ALWAYS dirty and etched soooo bad. we housesit for her, so I know i load both dishwashers the same, and i do pre-rinse)

I wouls try what the guy said, and if that does indeed work, I would try out different 'natural' brands of dishsoap. if none of them worked, i would try to take it back (but it would probably be too late by then)

[wasatchmom]

aniT - what made the bio-kleen start working? was it not until you got your GE dishwasher?

why is consumer reports hogwash? is there something i don't know??

are you all putting your dishes in your dishwasher truly dirty or are you 'pre-washing'?

[RubySweet]

Mine are always pre-washed. What happens if your dishwasher is etched?

[momto l&a]

The etching in my dishwasher just makes it stained inside. It didnt stain no matter how much tomato stuff I washed till after I started using vingar. Now it just always looks yucky.

I never prewash, the dishwashers job is to wash. If I am going to rinse every dish I might as well wash them by hand. Besides its a huge waste of water IMO.

IMO consumer reports is biased. Many people seem to trust them so each to their own.

[*~Danielle~*]

I had the same problem...had the repairman out 3 times....and then I finally broke down and bought the powdered Cascade Complete. I also put some Jet Dry in there and my dishes were spotless. : No spots, no food, just clean dishes.

Now, I think you should try this just to see if the dishwasher works. If the cascade gets the dishes clean, then maybe you can experiment with other "more natural" dish detergent.

[RubySweet]

I guess it would be more accurate to say that mine are really pre-rinsed. I don't actually use soap, I just rinse all the food off of them. I only run the dishwasher once/day so if I just leave all the junk on there it gets dried on & I'm not confident my washer would be able to adequately scrub it off. Plus, some junk has to be physically scrubbed anyway. But I've never tried just leaving them in there dirty so I don't know for sure.

[MelMel]

[QUOTE=momto l&a]
I never prewash, the dishwashers job is to wash. If I am going to rinse every dish I might as well wash them by hand. Besides its a huge waste of water IMO.

IMO consumer reports is biased. QUOTE]

i agree with everything you said
i DO 'pre-rinse' the dishes, though....but all I do is dip them in a few inches of sink water that I always have in one side of the sink (all day). gets the big chunkies off (I dont want that in the dishwasher). when dinner is done, we just throw the dishes in the sink anyway until someone feels like loading the dishwasher.....so they just go into a little bit of water. kills 2 birds with 1 stone (what a terrible saying)

btw: we only run it every once few days.

[aniT]

Originally Posted by wasatchmom

aniT - what made the bio-kleen start working? was it not until you got your GE dishwasher?

why is consumer reports hogwash? is there something i don't know??

are you all putting your dishes in your dishwasher truly dirty or are you 'pre-washing'?

I moved from Cali to Oregon, from VERY hardwater to softwater and from my Maytag to a GE. The only thing I didn't change was the bi-o-kleen.

One other thing, I was a dork and thought I was supposed to use a teaspoon of the bi-o-kleen. It is a tablespoon. That may have also had something to do with it. But, I think the #1 problem was the hard water.

[Silliest]

We were living in an apartment where *nothing* worked in the dishwasher, so we hand-washed and used it for a drying rack (careful with this, though, they can get really gross with mold and mildew if you don't run them occasionally to get the gunk out.)

We moved to a house recently, and believe it or not, *hand* washing isn't working out! There's always a film on the dishes.

I've recently begun running the dishwasher with about 1 tbsp washing soda in the open pre-rinse cup, about 1 tbsp borax in the closed wash cup, and nothing in the rinse-dispenser.

So far, so good, (everything is getting *clean* no spots, and no harmful effects on the washer) but it's only been about 2 weeks.

[wasatchmom]

what is consumer reports biased towards??