Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes?

It turns out drying your dishes could actually be more difficult for your dishwasher than getting them clean. Plates and glassware have lots of crevices that could trap dishwater preventing it from evaporating, thus as your appliance loses heat water condenses out of the humid air.

Dishwashers also employ a variety of approaches to get your dishes dry. Some opt for a heating element to warm the air in the machine and assist the water to evaporate, some heat the water more near the final rinse, some use a fan, and some make use of a mix of all three. There are thus a variety of explanations why your dishwasher could not be drying crockery and cutlery optimally and a variety of options to improve the situation.

Plastic items are less likely to dry fully than glass or ceramics 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 doesn’t seem to be drying effectively you can enlist the help of a dishwasher repair service or first employ this troubleshooting guide to help you identify and rectify the problem.

Top Explanations Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Dishes

There is nothing more annoying than an appliance that doesn’t work as it’s meant to, whether that’s a smartphone that really isn’t being that smart, a washing machine that’s churning out dirty clothes, or a dishwasher that is either not removing the dirt from or drying your crockery and cutlery. If you open the dishwasher to wet plates here are a number of places you can look to help you figure out why.

Not all appliances are built to the same spec and you will find that some appliances do a better job of drying your dishes than others. But if if your dishwasher has always dried your plates in the past one of these faults might be the problem.

Have a Look at the Placement of Your Dishes

Sometimes there is nothing actually wrong with the machine. Before assuming the machine is faulty you should look at how it has been stacked, ensuring it isn’t too full. It’s also worth noting that plastic items are more difficult to dry than metal, glass or ceramics.

Have a Look at The Rinse Aid Dispenser

Rinse aid plays a key role in drying your plates therefore, if you’ve forgotten to top up or your rinse aid dispenser is not working this can result in wet dishes at the end of the cycle.

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

Have a Look at The Heating Element

Heat is essential for drying your crockery and cutlery so a broken heating element may be the explanation your dishwasher is not drying dishes. If your crockery and cutlery don’t feel hot when they come out of the machine this can indicate that the heating coil is broken.

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

Inspect the Thermostat

The thermostat ensures your appliance doesn’t overheat, adjusting the temperature of the water and the drying part of the cycle. Therefore, if it’s not working this can result in your appliance not heating up at all.

If the heating coil seems to be in working order but your appliance isn’t getting hot, then the thermostat could be the problem. Again you can test this with the help of a multimeter.

Have a Look at The Drying Fan and Vent

Many dishwashers will make use of a drying fan and vent to suck moist air out of the dishwasher. If either of these elements are faulty then the steam will condense on the crockery and cutlery instead preventing them from drying.

You can use your manual to find out if your machine uses a fan and find its location. Don’t forget to double check the machine is disconnected before trying to make repairs.

First look at the fan and vent to check if there is anything lodged that could prevent it from operating correctly. If there is nothing obvious you can then test for continuity using a multimeter.

Tips to Boost Drying Power

There are a variety of things you can do to increase your appliances effectiveness at drying and prevent you needing to dry them by hand as little as possible.

Allow sufficient space between plates. Overfilling the machine inhibits the flow of both water and air making removing the dirt from and drying your crockery and cutlery harder. Although it’s appealing to try and cram everything in, you will get better results if you leave enough space so that water and air can circulate freely.
Use rinse aid. Some dishwasher tablets include a rinse aid but even if the brand you use says it does, adding a separate rinse aid to the appliance will do no harm. Rinse aid helps reduce marks and gives your glassware in particular 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 consequently speeding up drying times.
Open your appliance as soon as the cycle has ended. Some new machines have this as an automatic function, but if yours doesn’t, opening the machine at the end of the cycle allows warm air to escape and prevent water droplets forming as the appliance cools down.
Find out if your appliance has a heat feature and make sure it’s turned on. Setting a higher temperature will result in better drying times and it might be possible to add more heat at different points in the program.
Think about how you empty your machine. 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 dishes below.

If none of the above solves the problem it may be necessary to phone the professionals or perhaps buy a new machine.