GE Profile Dishwasher issues.

About 3-4 months ago, I began to notice that tiny bits of dried on food were stick to the interior sides or bottom, or exterior sides of our glasses and somtimes a speck or unclean area on a plate that was pre-rinsed. Then we began to get spots on the glasses.
This shouldn't happen, as we usually do not block items, and we have bottom and top spinners and side jets.

We looked at the DW and the jets are clear, as well as the trap. We've run the sink to bring up the really hot water before starting it.. these are what GE reccomends.

We don't know when VA swtiched to phospate-free soap, so are wondering if that is the issue. But, I spoke with my sister yesterday in Charlotte, and she uses Trader Jo's DW soap, whish is also phosphate-free- and everything comes out nice and clean with no spots. I know she has a very upscale DW. Ours is 3 yrs old.

So does anyone have ideas? Prior to this, it worked fine. We've used all types of Cascade, the finishing rinse stuff, and other brands. nothing makes a difference.

 

I think it's recommended that you run your garbage disposal just prior to running the dishwasher to make sure everything is clear. I don't know if that is the problem or if you're already doing that but that's something anyway.

 

I use Trader joes, too. Works great. that said, we replaced our GE last year with a Kenmore.

 

Have you tried using CLR?

I think we have the same model GE profile, it's stainless on the inside, right?

I pour 1/2 cup of CLR into (an empty) dishwasher and run the Anti-bacterial cycle. CLR helps with any calcium/lime deposits in the sprayers. Also there is a "drain" in the bottom have you unscrewed it and dumped out any debris.

I'm not sure about the phosphate free detergent, I use Williams Sonoma (I like the smell of Myers Lemon) and haven't had any issues with our dishwasher.

I'd give CLR a try and see if that helps.

 

Have you checked the temperature at the faucet and then the temp inside the dishwater right after it fills?

We had a similar problem and the temp at the faucet was about 125 but inside the dishwasher it was about 85; it was only about 6 feet of hose to the dishwasher. The service guy couldn't figure out why there was such a difference, but he said that 85 was too low for the dishwasher to work right.

He also said that if you use the dishwasher tablet with the jet dry ball in it (we did) and if there was jet dry in the dispenser in the door, it wouldn't work right.

And he mentioned that the new phosphate free detergents cause some people problems.

For completely different reasons, I changed the valve in the kitchen faucet. For some reason I can't figure out, this cured the water temp problem. We were using the dishwasher tablet with the jet dry ball, so we let the jet dry dispenser run out. At this point, everything is working GREAT.

(Note: we don't have the GE profile, but hopefully this will help.)

 

Brassy,

Did you ever solve your dishwasher problems? We seem to be having the same issues with our GE Profile. We've cleaned all the strainers and drains, tested the water temperature, and ran a batch of citric acid through it to get rid of any build up. I use powdered detergent and use white vinegar in the rinse agent slot.

But everything still looks filmy and there are bits left behind.

 

Nothing has changed, in fact it's now not cleaning the untensils and making the glasses cloudy - even though I pre-scrub everything going into it.
I need to look to see if we still have a warranty. Nothing I've done to it has made one bit of difference!

 

Give CLR a few try. But, you have to wash those glasses by hand to get the film off before you put them in the dishwasher if you rinse the machine with CLR. I had to do it few times before I see the improvement.

Good luck.

 

That's why I used straight citric acid. It's food safe. I did think the glasses were less cloudy but they weren't completley clear. Maye I'll try running the dishwasher with added citric acid to each load once I hand clean the glasses and see how that works.

 

I've had two GE dishwashers installed by builders in two different homes. I hated them. The first we replaced because we wanted to (with Kenmore). The second in our current home was a profile and it just died last year so we replaced it with a Kenmore. Some GE's were recalled last year due to fire hazards and I think ours was one that would have been (it died before the recall) which makes me think ours shorted out and fortunately didn't catch fire.

Neither GE ever really cleaned very well.

 

One other thing occurred to me. If the house was new when the dishwasher was installed there may have been little bits of stuff in the plumbing line. This is easy to check by removing the aerator on a faucet and seeing how clogged the screen is; if one is clogged the rest in the house probably are (and it's a good idea to clean them out). A dishwasher has a similar screen on the input valve and this can clog which reduces water flow. When I checked ours a couple of years ago, it was mostly clogged so I replace the valve. It helped some. (Note: if you're lucky you can remove the valve and clean the screen. Didn't work in my case so I ended up replacing the valve.) Since then we've replaced the dishwasher with a Maytag which I like a lot better.

Good luck.

 

How did you get to it, from inside the washing area or did you have to pull the unit out and access it from underneath or the back?

 

The valve was underneath, just look for where the water hose connects. I didn't have to remove the dishwasher, it was pretty easy to get to after you remove the panel under the the door. Turn off the power to the dishwasher before you start and be sure to turn off the water to the dishwasher before you loosen anything or it can get exciting.

Good luck.

 

I will add my $.02, but I'll apologize in advance as when there is a problem to be fixed, someone else's experience that does not include the problem is of no help.

We moved in about 6 months ago and the first thing we did was replace all of the appliances with GE Profiles including the dishwasher. I purchased a GE GDWT260RSS specifically. I will say it is the most quiet dishwasher I've ever owned and washes the dishes pretty well. One thing I have noticed though is that there has been a slight buildup of white on some of the glassware. This can be attributed to the water or the soap we are using. We are in the process of changing up soap to tackle the potentially easier issue first. Otherwise, and we do rinse dishes beforehand, it continues to clean great.

From a logical perspective, this tells me that this dishwasher is capable of doing the job correctly and confirms that there is some mitigating factor in your case that is causing it not to. I think folks can get overwhelmed by the state of things sometimes and miss that "there is a reason for everything"...and I mean this in the physical sense. There is a reason that you're seeing the results you seeing it can be fixed, once it is known. Sometimes it's just a matter of putting the right person in front of the problem to say "oh, this is what it is" after all the ideas you have are exhausted. Anyway, that's my unhelpful comment. I did warn you. Good luck.

 

I think what's going on is we're in the dark ages of dishwashers. They have historically been designed assuming lots of hot water was available, some even had heaters built in to heat the water. With Energy Star ratings being important, the heaters were removed, the amount of water used was reduced, and cycles were lengthened. Recently phosphates were removed from dishwasher detergents to protect the environment. All good and reasonable things to do, but they have yielded a situation where dishwashers don't do as good a job as they used to. Old dishwashers would complete a cycle in about 45 minutes, the water in the pipes would stay mostly warm during the cycle, and dishes got clean. Our new dishwasher takes up to 3 hours to finish, water gets cold, dishes usually get clean, but it isn't as good as our older dishwashers were. In another 10 years of so it will get all figured out and dishwashers will work again.

(Note: the same thing happened with toilets. They used to flush great but used a lot of water. Regulations limiting water use led to manufacturers using their old designs with less water and the toilets clogged with little provocation. Toilet manufacturers hired PhD fluid dynamicists to figure out how to make a toilet work with little water and, 10 years later, new toilets work fine again.)

just my thoughts.

 

Here's a concept! Wash the dishes manually and use the dishwasher as a drying rack. :rolleyes3:

 

My wife's family often does that and I wonder if this approach REALLY does save water or not??? Any truth to that?

Thanks!!!

 

Question for those that have updated their dishwashers. Our dishwasher unit is on the fritz and we currently have a GE from when we moved in. We'd like a quieter unit and our current unit has a built in disposal. The trade off for getting a quieter unit is having a filter instead of the disposal. The thought of cleaning out that filter though makes we wonder if I'm going to hate that. Anyone out there have the filter you have to take out of your dishwasher and clean periodically? Recommend/not recommend? We're looking at the Kenmore models. Thanks!

 

UGH...I wouldn't want to clean out the filter on a reg. basis...Id rather go the other route. Anything to avoid it. Pain in the ar%e. :rolleyes3:

 

Wait you mean to tell me if I replaced the toilets in this home we purchased (10 year old Van Metre) that I REALLY would be able to stop plunging! I thought they all were like that for the water savings. It drives me mad! Are the new ones really working!?????