Is Your Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes?

It may not be the primary function but getting your dishes dry could in actual fact be more difficult for your machine than cleaning them. Crockery and cutlery and glasses have lots of nooks and crannies that could pool water making it more difficult for it to evaporate, thus as your dishwasher cools down water droplets form out of the steam.

Dishwashers also make use of a variety of approaches to dry your plates. Some will use a heating element to heat up the inside of the machine and assist the water to evaporate, some heat the water to a higher temperature nearing the end of the cycle, others make use of a fan, and certain models employ a mix of all of these. There are consequently a variety of explanations why your machine could not be drying dishes optimally and a number of options to improve the situation.

Plastic is 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 drying issue is related to the material rather than the machine.

If your dishwasher isn’t drying properly you can hire a dishwasher repair service or first employ this troubleshooting guide to figure out what the problem is and with any luck fix it.

Top Explanations Your Dishwasher Isn’t Drying Plates

There is nothing more irritating than a home appliance that isn’t working properly, regardless of whether its a smartspeaker, air conditioner or dishwasher we expect them to do the job they were made for. If you open the dishwasher to wet plates here are a few troubleshooting tips to help you figure out the problem.

Not all dishwashers are created equal and you will find that some appliances perform to a better standard compared to others. However, if if your dishwasher has always dried your plates in the past one of these areas could be the cause.

Inspect How Your Machine Has Been Loaded

It might be that there is no fault with the dishwasher. Before assuming the dishwasher is broken you should first check that you haven’t overfilled it or accidentally stacked items one inside the other. Also be aware that plastics don’t dry as well as metal, glass or ceramics.

Check The Rinse Aid Dispenser

Your dishwasher needs rinse aid to properly dry your plates therefore, if you’ve forgotten to top up or the rinse aid dispenser is faulty this can mean wet dishes at the end of the cycle.

The best thing to do is inspect the dispenser for damage and ensure that it’s full.

Check The Heating Element

Heat is essential for drying your dishes so a not working heating coil could be the explanation your dishwasher is not drying crockery and cutlery. If your crockery and cutlery aren’t hot when they come out of the machine this can indicate that the heating element isn’t working as it should.

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

Check the Thermostat

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

If you check the heating element and do not uncover an fault but your appliance isn’t getting hot, then the thermostat could be at fault. Once again you can make sure with the help of a multimeter.

Have a Look at The Drying Fan and Vent

Many machines will make use of a drying fan and vent to suck moist air from the appliance. If the fan isn’t operating as is should or the vent is blocked then the steam will condense on the dishes instead leaving them wet.

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

First visually inspect the fan and vent to check if there is anything lodged that would stop it from working correctly. If there is nothing obvious you can then test for continuity using a multimeter.

Tips to Increase Drying Ability

There are a number of things you can do to increase how well your dishwasher dries your dishes and prevent you needing to dry them by hand as little as possible.

Don’t overfill the machine. Overcrowding the appliance limits the flow of air and water making cleaning and drying your crockery and cutlery more difficult. It might be appealing to stuff everything in but you will get better results if you leave enough space so that dishes are not touching.
Use rinse aid. Some detergents already have this but even so, adding a separate rinse aid to the appliance can only improve matters. Rinse aid helps reduce marks and gives your glassware in particular a streak-free shine but it also breaks the bond between water molecules and your plates helping the water to run off them and consequently allowing them to dry faster.
Open your dishwasher as soon as the cycle has ended. Some new models have this as an automatic function, but many do not, thus, opening the machine at the end of the program can help allow the water to evaporate thus stopping water condensing on the contents as the machine cools down.
Have a look to see if your appliance has a heat feature and make sure it’s turned on. The higher the heat the better the drying and you might be able to add more heat at different points in the program.
Unload the bottom rack first. This doesn’t affect how well your dishwasher works, but it stop and water spilling that has collected in the concave bottoms of cups and glasses.

If this trouble shooting guide hasn’t worked it might be necessary to call in the professionals or perhaps upgrade your machine.