Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes?

It turns out drying your plates could actually be harder for your machine than getting them clean. Plates and glassware have multiple nooks and crannies that may collect water preventing it from evaporating, plus as your appliance cools water droplets form from the humid air.

Dishwashers also utilize a number of different approaches to dry your crockery and cutlery. Some will have a heating coil to warm the air in the machine and assist the water to evaporate, some heat the water more nearing the final rinse, some make use of a fan, and some make use of a combination of all three. There are therefore a number of reasons why your dishwasher may not be drying dishes fully and a number of things you can do to rectify the situation.

Plastic items are 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 hire a dishwasher repair service or first utilize this troubleshooting guide to help you identify and rectify the problem.

Top Explanations Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Plates

Few things are more annoying than a home appliance that doesn’t work as it should, regardless of whether its a smartspeaker, tumble dryer 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 troubleshooting tips to help you figure out why.

Not all appliances are created equal and some makes and models perform to a superior standard compared to others. But if if your dishwasher has always dried your crockery and cutlery in the past one of these issues could be the cause.

Inspect How Your Dishwasher Has Been Loaded

Sometimes there is nothing actually wrong with the machine. Before assuming the appliance is broken you should look at how it has been loaded, ensuring it isn’t too full. 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 appliance needs rinse aid to properly dry your plates thus, if you have run out of rinse aid or the rinse aid dispenser is broken this can result in wet dishes at the end of the cycle.

The best thing to do is check the rinse aid dispenser for damage and check that there is rinse aid inside.

Have a Look at The Heating Coil

Without enough heat your crockery and cutlery will not dry so a not working heating element may be the explanation your machine is not drying dishes. If your plates don’t feel hot at the end of the cycle this can be a good indicator that the heating element isn’t working as it should.

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

Inspect the Thermostat

The thermostat ensures your appliance doesn’t get too hot, determining the heat of the water and air during drying. However, if it’s not working this can mean your dishwasher doesn’t heat up at all.

If the heating coil appears to be in working order but there’s still no heat, then the thermostat may be the issue. Once again you can test this with the help of a multimeter.

Check The Fan and Vent

Many appliances will make use of a drying fan and vent to suck moist air from the dishwasher. If the fan isn’t operating as is should or the vent is blocked then the hot air will form droplets on the dishes instead leaving them wet.

You can utilize your user manual to find out if your machine has a fan and locate it. Again you need to ensure the machine is unplugged before trying to make repairs.

You can look at the fan and vent to ascertain if there is anything lodged that would stop it from working correctly. And again testing for continuity using a multimeter.

Ideas to Boost Drying Capability

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

Don’t overfill the machine. Overfilling the dishwasher stops the flow of air and water decreasing the effectiveness of your dishwasher when it comes to both washing and drying your dishes. Although it’s tempting to try and stuff everything in, you will get better results if you leave enough space so that water and air can circulate freely.
Make use of rinse aid. Some dishwasher tablets include a rinse aid but even so, adding a little extra to the dishwasher can only improve matters. Rinse aid helps reduce spotting and gives your glasses a streak-free finish but it also breaks the bond between water molecules and your crockery and cutlery helping the water to run off them and thus making them dry more quickly and evenly.
Open the door at the end of the program. Some newer machines have this as an automatic function, but if yours doesn’t, opening the dishwasher when the cycle finishes can help allow the water to evaporate thus stopping water droplets forming as the dishwasher cools down.
Find out if your machine uses a heat feature and make sure it’s turned on. Setting a higher temperature will result in improved drying times and it might be possible to add more heat at different points in the program.
Unload the lower level first. 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 you have checked all the above it could be time to phone an engineer or perhaps buy a new dishwasher.