Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes?

It turns out drying your crockery and cutlery may really be harder for your machine than cleaning them. Crockery and cutlery and glasses have multiple nooks and crannies that can trap dishwater stopping it from evaporating, thus as your dishwasher cools water condenses from the steam.

Different machines also utilize a variety of different means to get your dishes dry. Certain models will employ a heating element to heat up the air in the dishwasher and help the water to evaporate, some heat up the water more nearing the end of the cycle, certain models employ a fan, and others have a mix of all of these. There are therefore a variety of explanations why your machine might not be drying crockery and cutlery optimally and a number of options to improve the situation.

Plastic is less likely to dry fully than other materials as it cools down more quickly hindering the drying process, so it’s worth noting whether the items that aren’t drying are predominantly plastic items.

If your dishwasher isn’t drying effectively you can hire a dishwasher repair service or first use this troubleshooting list to figure out what the issue is and with any luck fix it.

Top Explanations Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Plates

Few things are more irritating than a home appliance that doesn’t work as it should, regardless of whether its a smartspeaker, air conditioner or dishwasher we expect them to do the job they were made for. 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 makes and models are built to the same spec and you will find that some dishwashers perform to a better standard compared to others. However, if if your dishwasher has always dried your plates in the past one of these faults might be the problem.

Have a Look at How Your Machine Has Been Loaded

It might be that there is no fault with the appliance. Before assuming the machine is not working you should first check that you haven’t overloaded it or accidentally stacked items one inside the other. It’s also worth noting that plastics are more difficult to dry than metal, glass or ceramics.

Have a Look at The Rinse Aid Dispenser

Your machine needs rinse aid to properly dry your crockery and cutlery therefore, if you have run out of rinse aid or the rinse aid dispenser is broken this can stop your dishes coming out properly dry.

Visually inspect the rinse aid dispenser for cracks and check that there is rinse aid inside.

Inspect The Heating Coil

Heat is essential for drying your crockery and cutlery so a not working heating element could be the reason your machine is not working as it should. If your plates don’t feel hot to touch at the end of the cycle this can indicate that the heating element is broken.

To inspect the heating coil you will need to disconnect the dishwasher, find the heating coil, you may need the instruction manual to do this, then use a multimeter to check it’s working.

Have a Look at the Thermostat

The thermostat prevents your appliance getting too hot, determining the heat of the water and air during drying. Therefore, if it’s faulty this can mean your appliance doesn’t heat up at all.

If you check the heating element and do not uncover an fault but your machine isn’t getting hot, then the thermostat could be at fault. Once again you can make sure with the help of a multimeter.

Have a Look at The Fan and Vent

Many dishwashers will make use of a drying fan and vent to suck moist air out of the machine. If the fan isn’t operating as is should or the vent is blocked then the steam will condense on the crockery and cutlery instead leaving them wet.

You can utilize your instruction manual to find out if your dishwasher uses a fan and locate it. Again you need to double check the machine is disconnected before attempting to make repairs.

You can look at the fan and vent to check if anything is blocking it that could stop it from functioning as it is supposed to. If there is nothing obvious you can then test for continuity using a multimeter.

Ideas to Increase Drying Ability

There are a number of things you can do to increase how well your dishwasher dries your dishes and prevent you needing to dry them by hand as infrequently as possible.

Allow sufficient space between plates. Overfilling the appliance limits the circulation of air and water decreasing the effectiveness of your dishwasher when it comes to both washing and drying your dishes. Although it’s appealing to try and cram everything in, you will get better results if you leave sufficient space so that plates are not touching.
Employ rinse aid. Some dishwasher tablets include a rinse aid but even so, adding a little extra to the machine won’t hurt. Rinse aid works by breaking the bond between water molecules and your dishes, helping water run off quickly, speeding up drying time and giving a spot and streak free finish.
Open your appliance as soon as the cycle has completed. Some new machines have this as an automatic function, but if yours doesn’t, opening the machine at the end of the cycle can help allow the water to evaporate and prevent water droplets forming as the appliance cools down.
Check if your dishwasher employs a heat feature and use it. The higher the temperature the better the drying and you could be able to choose which points in the cycle you increase the temperature.
Think about how you empty your dishwasher. This doesn’t affect how well your dishwasher works, but it stop and water spilling that has collected in the concave bottoms of cups and glasses.

If none of the above solves the problem it might be a good idea to call in the professionals or perhaps replace your dishwasher.