How to clean the dishwasher: all the cleaning secrets of an essential household appliance
With the dishwasher you can save time and effort and not create too much clutter in the house. Everything that is dirty in the kitchen magically disappears in a few minutes inside this precious appliance and excellent results are obtained even with a short cycle.
But to clean it thoroughly it takes a lot of care, skill and a lot of patience. Before delving into the dishwasher cleaning topic, we want to leave you a video: dishwashers and children, find out how to organize the house!
The outside of the dishwasher: how should it be cleaned?
We could start from the outside of this appliance. Skillful and thorough cleaning will prevent the outer surface of the dishwasher from rusting or staining irreversibly. But how? Here are our tips.
It should be rubbed first with a rag soaked in water and lemon or water and vinegar. Stubborn dirt and even limescale will easily go away with water and vinegar or water and baking soda, natural remedies, which you certainly already have at home. Even if the dishwasher is built-in, it will be quite easy to move it from its compartment, as you may have seen some technicians do, to perform a repair. After removing it from the compartment, you can also degrease the side walls and dust the back, thus eliminating all traces of dust and all encrustations.
And now that you know how to clean the dishwasher you can indulge yourself in the kitchen!
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How to clean, grease and sanitize the inside of the dishwasher?
Perhaps you might be interested to know that even for the inside of your beloved dishwasher the best economic and ecological alternative to the descalers and disinfectants on the market, available in supermarkets, are the natural ones, that is vinegar, lemon, sodium bicarbonate, inexpensive and harmless. .
Vinegar proves to be incredibly effective especially for the incrustations caused by limescale (which often also forms an unsightly patina on the dishes) but is also suitable for sanitizing our appliance inside and for completely dissolving the accumulations of grease in the gaskets.
The vinegar can be used every day for a quick cleaning of the dishwasher and also in vacuum washes that can be carried out periodically.
Often our dishwasher breaks down precisely because the filters are too clogged with food residues. In this case, even after a long wash, the dishes remain greasy, almost sticky and opaque, precisely because the rinsing was not carried out in the best way. What can we do then in these situations?
No problem. The solution is always there.First of all you have to remove the filter from the bottom of the dishwasher, then it must be rubbed very well with a cloth soaked in vinegar. In this way the filter is degreased and sanitized and therefore subsequent washes will be much more effective with each program, even at a lower temperature, with great advantages for our health and for that of our appliance. If, after rinsing it, you still notice food residues in the filter holes, you can remove them with a little patience with toothpicks.
Effective solutions for stubborn dirt!
For more resistant limescale deposits, our advice is to try to place a cloth wet with vinegar on the surface to be treated and then leave it on for a while before rinsing and drying well, to ensure that it does not molds are formed. Carefully rub all the gaskets with vinegar and wash all the trolleys and other parts that can be removed from the dishwasher under running water.
In addition, periodically, more or less once a month, if you want to degrease your dishwasher to perfection and also sanitize germs and bacteria, try pouring a good amount of vinegar (about a liter) into the bottom of the machine to which you have added some lemon juice. Then carry out a wash cycle empty at a rather high temperature.
The vinegar can also be placed in a container in the uppermost basket. You can also sprinkle the bottom and even the dishes with baking soda and the baking soda can be sprinkled on the bottom and also on the dishes.
You can also try another technique, that of mixing bicarbonate and vinegar.
By doing so, with this accurate and timely maintenance, it will not even be necessary to add chemical rinse aid to the washes, as dishes, pots, glasses and cutlery will come out of the dishwasher fragrant and shining with their own light with natural remedies.
Therefore, sodium bicarbonate and lemon also have particular qualities that are really very important and effective in cleaning your dishwasher; they are in fact non-polluting products, avoiding the formation of bad smells (although when it comes to dishes with the smell of fish and garlic, vinegar has a much stronger power); they are whitening, they contribute not only to the cleaning of the appliance, but also to that of the dishes and do not favor the proliferation of germs and bacteria thanks to their disinfectant power; they can also be added to the detergent drawer when the dishwasher is loaded and even when empty. The cut lemon can also be placed on the grids of the internal baskets.
Natural products: savings and health.
To clean your dishwasher, first try natural non-harmful ones such as chemical, expensive and often risky and polluting ones: you can do without detergent to clean it!
It should be remembered that in order not to damage the appliance it is important not to load it with dishes with food residues. This is because the pipes can easily become clogged, when dishes, pans, cutlery and glasses and the pans are still dirty with food, especially if they are large pieces. These residues must be eliminated with absorbent paper from the multipurpose roll before loading the dishes in order not to clog filters and pipes, not to create bad smells and not to compromise internal hygiene. Add salt if the appliance requires it and listen to our advice! The drain must be periodically cleaned of any residue; when it is clogged it can damage the dishwasher pump.
With the "natural" method, you will also save maintenance and repair costs and your appliance will have a long and healthy life.
