Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes?

It turns out drying your crockery and cutlery could actually be more arduous for your dishwasher than removing the dirt. Plates and glasses have multiple nooks and crannies that may pool dishwater stopping it from drying out, and as your machine cools down water droplets form from the humid air.

Dishwashers also utilize a number of methods to get your plates dry. Some opt for a heating element to warm the air in the machine and help the water to evaporate, some heat the water to a higher temperature near the final rinse, certain models employ a fan, and certain models have a combination of all three. There are therefore a number of reasons why your dishwasher might not be drying dishes optimally and a number of options to improve the situation.

Plastic is less likely to dry fully than glass or ceramics as it cools down more quickly hindering the drying process, so it’s worth seeing whether the drying issue is related to the material rather than the machine.

If dishes are coming out wet you can call a dishwasher repair service or first make use of this troubleshooting list to figure out what the problem is and with any luck fix it.

Top Reasons Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Dishes

Few things are more annoying than a home appliance that doesn’t work as it’s meant to, 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 plates. If you open your dishwasher to discover wet plates here are a number of places you can look to help you figure out the issue.

Not all dishwashers are created equal and you will find that some appliances perform to a higher standard compared to others. However, if if your dishwasher has always dried your dishes in the past one of these issues could be the problem.

Inspect the Placement of Your Plates

Sometimes there is nothing actually wrong with the dishwasher. Before assuming the dishwasher is faulty you should first check that you haven’t overloaded it or accidentally stacked items one inside the other. It’s also worth noting that plastic items don’t dry as well as metal, glass or ceramics.

Inspect The Rinse Aid Dispenser

Rinse aid plays a key role in drying your crockery and cutlery and so if you’ve forgotten to top up or the rinse aid dispenser is broken this can stop your dishes coming out properly dry.

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

Inspect The Heating Coil

Heat is essential for drying your dishes so a faulty heating element might be the reason your appliance is not drying dishes. If your plates don’t feel hot to touch when they come out of the machine this can be a good indicator that the heating element isn’t working as it should.

To check the heating coil you will need to disconnect the dishwasher, locate the heating element, you might need the instruction manual for this, and use a multimeter to check it’s working.

Have a Look at the Thermostat

The thermostat ensures your machine doesn’t get too hot, adjusting the temperature of the water and the drying part of the cycle. However, if it’s not working this can result in your appliance not heating up at all.

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

Check The Fan and Vent

Many machines will make use of a drying fan and vent to suck moist air out of the appliance. If either of these elements are broken then the hot air will form droplets on the dishes instead leaving them wet.

You can make use of your manual to ascertain if your dishwasher has a fan and locate it. Again you need to make sure the appliance is disconnected before attempting to access the fan.

You can look at the fan and vent to ascertain if there is anything lodged that would stop it from functioning as it should. And again testing for continuity using a multimeter.

Ideas to Boost Drying Capability

There are a number of methods you can use to boost how well your dishwasher dries your dishes and ensure you need to get the drying up cloth out as little as possible.

Don’t overload the machine. Overloading the dishwasher limits the circulation of both water and air making removing the dirt from and drying your dishes more difficult. Although it’s appealing to try and stuff everything in, your appliance will work better if you leave sufficient space so that plates are not touching.
Utilize rinse aid. Some detergents include a rinse aid but even so, adding a separate rinse aid to the machine won’t hurt. Rinse aid helps reduce marks and gives your glasses a streak-free shine but it also breaks the bond between water molecules and your dishes helping the water to run off them and consequently allowing them to dry faster.
Open the door at the end of the program. Some new machines do this automatically, but many do not, thus, opening the dishwasher at the end of the cycle can help allow the water to escape and prevent water condensing on the contents as the dishwasher cools down.
Find out if your dishwasher has 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 cycle you add more heat.
Think about how you unload your dishwasher. This doesn’t affect how well your dishwasher works, but it does stop water from cups and glasses falling on dishes below.

If you have checked all the above it might be necessary to call in the professionals or even buy a new dishwasher.