F&P Dishdrawer not cleaning well any more . . .

6 years ago

Model: DD24DCX7 FP US CA purchased 06/2012. House has soft water, so zero calcium/mineral buildup. I have checked spray arms, cleaned filters, and made sure small holes in stainless steel plate were not blocked. It fills with water, you can hear spray arm spraying water and it drains.

Suggestions as what else to try are welcome. Dadoes?

Featured Answer

dadoes

6 years ago

Do you use detergent pacs or pods? Those can be an overdose, especially with softened water. Excess sudsing can result which impedes spray pressure and arm rotation speed.

The mentioned tube in the housing is the drain route. A blockage would impede draining, which you say isn't presenting as a symptom.

Failure to heat the water causes poor cleaning but that should trigger a fault code (and the machine may run for up to 4 hours until triggering the code, so you'd probably notice the increased cycle time).

Low fill level would compromise spray pressure but fill level is sensed via current draw on the motor. A fault code should trigger if the proper level isn't achieved within a (sufficient) allotted time.

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Comments (9)

dgsg
Original Author
6 years ago
Update: pulled the pumps; vanes look in good condition and the tube between the pump and filter depression is clear.
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dgsg
Original Author
6 years ago
Using Finish Pac that has the red rinse ball. The ball does not dissolve 100% and is still there after the wash. Everything is the same as the last 8 years.
dadoes
6 years ago
The red ball has never fully dissolved for the duration that you've used the product?

Pause the cycle during the wash period (toward the end before it drains if you can catch it that way), check how much sudsing is present. Ideally there should be none, dishwasher detergents are not supposed to generate suds. Too much rinse aid can cause foaming. Do you use rinse aid with the Finish detergent?
dgsg
Original Author
6 years ago
No rinse aid and ball always dissolved until now.
Cal
6 years ago
Surprised it hasn't thrown a fault code, they are usually really good about that.

If you have a double dishdrawer, are both units having the same issue? I usually swap the propeller between both units to see if the part is starting to go bad and it's not circulating water strong enough.
dgsg
Original Author
6 years ago
Both drawers acting the same and no codes.
dadoes
6 years ago
That was my next question ... are both drawer exhibiting the same problem?
dadoes
6 years ago
The problem then may be something external to the machine. A change in water quality? Is the whole-house softener working properly? Household water heater shouldn't be a factor being that the DD always internally heats the water to specific temps per the selected cycle. I'd conjecture a low fill level, maybe due to a problem with the inlet valve but the DD should compensate (to a point) for reduced incoming flow rate by increasing the fill time (and it should throw a fault if the obstruction passes the allowance of compensation).

You might try a different detergent. Manufacturers sometimes change the formula so Finish tabs or pacs that worked nicely in the past may not so much today.

What cycle(s) do you typically run?