Most dishwashers are built to last at least ten to fifteen years. However, some habits may actually be shortening the lifespan of your dishwasher and costing you more in repairs. To avoid an untimely replacement and recurring breakages, here are some bad dishwasher habits that you should avoid:
- Overloading
Just as an overstuffed refrigerator can lead to a call for refrigerator repair services, constantly overloading your dishwasher can easily decrease its efficiency and cause it to break more often. That said, put only the appropriate amount of kitchenware in the dishwasher for each load. If you have too many dishes to wash, divide them into two loads instead of forcing everything into one wash.
- Washing excessively dirty dishes
Yes, a dishwasher is designed to clean dishes. However, that doesn’t mean it can handle excessively soiled dishes with lots of food residue, grease, and debris. In fact, washing very dirty dishes in the dishwasher can eventually clog the dishwasher as well as increase bacterial growth inside it. So if you don’t want a gross, leaking dishwasher, rinse soiled dishes in the sink before loading it.
- Putting inappropriate things
There are several things that you should never put in your dishwasher–lest you want it to break unexpectedly. Examples of non-dishwasher safe items are sharp knives, nonstick pots and pans, cast iron cookware, crystal, pressure cooker lids, aluminum cookware, and wooden wares, among many others. If you’ve been washing one or more of these items in your dishwasher, wash them by hand from now on.
- Not maintaining your dishwasher
Every appliance needs preventive maintenance to reach its full potential lifespan, especially for the ones we use most every day. Maintain your dishwasher regularly by inspecting it once in a while, removing debris before each load, and running a clean cycle periodically. Moreover, make it a habit to address issues as they arise. For example, if one of the dishwasher sprays already has a tiny leak, have it checked out immediately before the issue gets worse.
- Using non-dishwasher soap
It’s a bit of a no-brainer that you have to use dishwasher soap for a dishwasher, but many homeowners still think that it’s okay to use any kind of soap. Using inappropriate soaps can cause a sudsy mess, or worse, break your dishwasher beyond repair. This bad habit can also cause soap sediments to build up and damage internal components, thus reducing the efficiency of the dishwasher over time.
- Running your dishwasher too much
To both save money on water and electricity as well as avoid wearing out your dishwasher prematurely, try to run your dishwasher only once a day. Using your dishwasher multiple times a day can cause it to lose efficiency much faster, not to mention use up more water and electricity than necessary.
Many people take their dishwasher for granted, thinking that it can handle every dirty dish and still be efficient even without proper maintenance. But in fact, abusing your dishwasher can take years off of its expected service life. If you want your dishwasher to keep running smoothly for as long as possible, start breaking these bad habits today.