Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes?

It may not be the primary function but drying your dishes may in actual fact be more arduous for your machine than removing the dirt. Crockery and cutlery and glassware have multiple crevices that may collect water making it more difficult for it to dry out, thus as your dishwasher loses heat water condenses out of the humid air.

Dishwashers also utilize a number of approaches to dry your dishes. Some opt for a heating element to heat up the inside of the dishwasher and assist the water to evaporate, some warm the water further approaching the end of the cycle, others employ a fan, and certain models have a mix of all of these. There are thus a number of reasons why your machine might not be drying dishes optimally and a variety of things you can do to improve the situation.

Plastic is more difficult to dry than other materials as it doesn’t retain heat in the same way which helps with the drying process, so it’s worth taking note whether the drying issue is related to the material rather than the machine.

If your dishwasher isn’t drying properly you can enlist the help of a dishwasher repair service or first make use of this troubleshooting guide to help you identify and rectify the issue.

Top Reasons Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Dishes

Few things are more annoying than a home appliance that doesn’t work as it’s meant to, regardless of whether its a smartphone, tumble dryer or dishwasher we expect them to do the job they were designed for. If you open your dishwasher to discover wet plates here are a few places you can look to help you figure out the issue.

Not all appliances are built to the same spec and you will find that some makes and models do a better job of drying your crockery and cutlery than others. But if if your dishwasher has always dried your crockery and cutlery in the past one of these areas could be the cause.

Have a Look at the Placement of Your Dishes

Sometimes there is nothing actually wrong with the appliance. Before assuming the dishwasher 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 don’t dry as well as metal, glass or ceramics.

Inspect The Rinse Aid Dispenser

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

Visually check the rinse aid dispenser for cracks and ensure that it’s full.

Inspect The Heating Coil

Heat is essential for drying your plates so a faulty heating element might be the explanation your dishwasher is not working as it should. If your dishes don’t feel hot to touch at the end of the cycle this can mean that the heating coil isn’t working as it should.

To check the heating element you will need to unplug the dishwasher, find the heating element, you could need the instruction manual for this, and use a multimeter to check it’s working.

Inspect the Thermostat

The thermostat prevents your machine getting too hot, determining the heat of the water and air during drying. However, if it’s not working this can result in your dishwasher not heating up at all.

If you check the heating element and do not find an issue but your machine isn’t getting hot, then the thermostat might be the problem. Again you can make sure using a multimeter.

Inspect The Drying Fan and Vent

Many appliances will utilize a fan and vent to remove the warm moist air out of the machine. If the fan isn’t operating as is should or the vent is blocked then the hot air will condense on the dishes instead preventing them from drying.

You can make use of your instruction manual to check if your appliance uses a fan and find its location. Don’t forget to ensure the dishwasher is disconnected before attempting to access the fan.

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

Tips to Boost Drying Ability

There are a variety of methods you can use to improve how well your dishwasher dries your dishes and make sureyou have to hand dry as little as possible.

Allow ample space between crockery and cutlery. Overcrowding the machine limits the circulation of both water and air making removing the dirt from and drying your crockery and cutlery more difficult. It may be appealing to stuff everything in but you will get better results if you leave sufficient space so that dishes are not touching.
Make use of rinse aid. Some dishwasher tablets include a rinse aid but even so, adding a separate rinse aid to the appliance will do no harm. Rinse aid works by breaking the bond between water molecules and your plates, helping water run off quickly, speeding up drying time and giving a spot and streak free finish.
Open your appliance as soon as the program has completed. Some newer machines do this automatically, but if yours doesn’t, opening the machine at the end of the program can help allow the water to evaporate thus stopping water condensing on the plates as the dishwasher cools down.
Find out if your dishwasher employs a heat feature and make sure it’s turned on. Setting a higher temperature will result in better drying times and you might be able to choose which points in the cycle you add more heat.
Think about how you empty your machine. This doesn’t affect how effective your dishwasher is, but it does stop water from cups and glasses falling on dishes below.

If this trouble shooting guide hasn’t worked it could be necessary to phone an engineer or perhaps upgrade your machine.