Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes? | College Station Appliance Repair

It turns out drying your dishes may really be harder for your machine than cleaning them. Crockery and cutlery and glasses have lots of nooks and crannies that could trap dishwater stopping it from evaporating, plus as your machine loses heat water condenses from the steam.

Dishwashers also utilize a variety of approaches to dry your crockery and cutlery. Some will use a heating coil to heat up the air in the machine and assist the water to evaporate, some warm the water further near the end of the cycle, some employ a fan, and others make use of a mix of all of these. There are thus a number of explanations why your dishwasher might not be drying crockery and cutlery optimally and a variety of things you can do to improve the situation.

Plastic is more difficult to dry than glass or ceramics 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 doesn’t seem to be drying properly you can enlist the help of a dishwasher repair service or first utilize this troubleshooting guide to help you identify and rectify the problem.

Top Reasons Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Plates

Few things are more irritating than an appliance that doesn’t work as it should, 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 dishes. If you open the dishwasher to wet plates there are a number of troubleshooting tips to help you figure out why.

Not all dishwashers are created equal and you will find that some makes and models do a better job of drying your dishes than others. However, if you notice a change in how effectively your machine is working one of these areas may be the cause.

Check How Your Dishwasher Has Been Loaded

Sometimes there is nothing actually wrong with the appliance. Before assuming the appliance is faulty you should first check that you haven’t overloaded it or accidentally stacked items one inside the other. Also be aware that plastics don’t dry as well as metal, glass or ceramics.

Check The Rinse Aid Dispenser

Rinse aid plays a key role in drying your crockery and cutlery and so if you have run out of rinse aid or your rinse aid dispenser is broken this can result in wet plates at the end of the cycle.

Visually inspect the dispenser for damage and check that it’s full.

Have a Look at The Heating Element

Without enough heat your dishes will not dry so a broken heating coil might be the explanation your machine is not working as it should. If your plates don’t feel hot at the end of the cycle this can indicate that the heating element is faulty.

To check the heating coil first disconnect the appliance, then find the heating element, you might need the owners manual to do this, then use a multimeter to check it’s working.

Check the Thermostat

The thermostat ensures your machine doesn’t get too hot, adjusting the heat of the water and air during drying. However, if it’s faulty this can result in your appliance not reaching a high enough temperature.

If the heating coil seems to be working as it should but there’s still no heat, then the thermostat could be at fault. Once again you can make sure using a multimeter.

Inspect The Fan and Vent

Many appliances will utilize a drying fan and vent to remove the warm moist air from the dishwasher. If the fan isn’t operating as is should or the vent is blocked then the water vapor will remain in the dishwasher preventing the dishes from drying.

You can utilize your user manual to find out if your dishwasher has a fan and locate it. Don’t forget to ensure the appliance is disconnected before trying to access the fan.

You can look at the fan and vent to ascertain if there is anything lodged that might stop it from operating as it should. If there is nothing obvious you can then test for continuity using a multimeter.

Ways to Boost Drying Capability

There are a number of things you can do to improve how well your machine dries your dishes and make sure you need to get the drying up cloth out as infrequently as possible.

Don’t cram the dishwasher. Overloading the machine limits the circulation of both water and air making removing the dirt from and drying your plates more difficult. It may be tempting to cram everything in but your appliance will work better if you leave enough space so that water and air can circulate freely.
Utilize rinse aid. Some dishwasher tablets include a rinse aid but even so, adding a separate rinse aid to the machine will do no harm. Rinse aid works by breaking the bond between water molecules and your plates, helping water run off quickly, speeding up drying time and giving a spot and streak free finish.
Open your machine as soon as the program has finished. Some new models have this as an automatic function, but if yours doesn’t, opening the dishwasher when the program completes can help allow the water to escape and prevent water condensing on the plates as the dishwasher cools down.
Find out if your machine uses a heat feature and use it. The higher the temperature the better the drying and you may be able to add more heat at different points in the cycle.
Think about how you unload your dishwasher. This is simply because cups and glasses that are upside down on the top shelf often have a concave bottom where water can pool. Emptying the bottom rack first stops you spilling this water onto the crockery and cutlery below.

If this trouble shooting guide hasn’t worked it may be a good idea to call in an engineer or perhaps upgrade your machine.