What to Do When a Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Dishes

The whole reason for making the investment of a dishwasher for your home is the convenience of using it. You put dishes in, you get clean, dry dishes out. However, if your dishwasher is skipping some steps, in this case not producing dry dishes, then it is important to get it fixed. While a dishwasher not properly drying the dishes at the end of the load can mean an issue has arisen in the function of the machine, that isn’t always the case.

If your dishes are coming out damp, your first step should check the rinse aid reservoir. There are quite a few homeowners that neglect the rinse aid dispenser and end up with wet dishes. What rinse aid does is it helps your dishes and dishwasher effectively shed water. New dishwashers need rinse aid for around 50 washes after the first installation to essentially season the tank. However, whether your dishwasher is new or old, rinse aid makes a big difference if you want dry dishes.

The heating element in the dishwasher not only helps heat up the incoming hot water more but the ambient heat it puts out will also help to dry the dishes. If the dishes aren’t hot enough, the water will not evaporate as quickly, so a malfunctioning heating element not only means less sanitizing power but less drying power as well. You can test the heating element with a multimeter and accessing the heating element terminal located beneath the tank after removing the lower panel.

Dishwashers come equipped with their own thermostat to prevent the dishwasher from getting too hot. If that high limit thermostat starts to malfunction, it will shut off the heating element before the dishes can finish drying. Like with the heating element, the thermostat can be found in the lower panel beneath the tank and can also be tested with a multimeter.

While many of these issues can be easy to diagnose, they can be tricky to fix. If your dishwasher is producing wet dishes even with a full rinse aid reservoir, contact us today. We can help quickly find the problem as well as repair it.