In our dishwasher, there is a combination of two systems that work together:
1: The bottom twirly thing that sprays upward. Don’t overload the lower rack, or this will not be able to spray up to the second rack.
2: The center of the lower rack often telescopes upwards under water pressure to get the plates and bowls in the upper rack, as well as the lower. Check to see if this is rising freely, just by lifting it with your finders. It is possible to get stuck on occasion in ours.
It might be a good idea to take the lower sprayer apart and make sure none of the holes are jammed with any foreign material, such as a wayward piece of plastic. This often is a simple procedure, requiring just one screwdriver.
Next, check the support stump beneath the bottom sprayer to ensure that the large screw-down sealing ring is not loose or broken. This ring will have bumps for better gripping. This provides the tight seal that allows water pressure to operate the sprayer.
Now, check at the back of the unit at the bottom, and remove the plastic filter piece. There might be something blocking it preventing proper filtration.
Replace it when you are confident it is clean.
Tip: If when taking apart the lower spraying unit you lose a part down the hole into the water, simply close the door, turn on the unit for a second and open it back up. Your lost part will have been forced out with the water, and should be resting down near the drain at the back.
Lastly, I can’t stress this enough: Fill both detergent cups. It makes a difference. Oh, and put your silverware in business end down, rather than handle down.
Another factor on “gritty” dishes is water temperture. The grittiness is undesolved soap. Due to safety and liability concerns, water heaters come from the factory set woefully low. Bumping up you water temp may help. I also agree that budget and or old soap won’t breakdown good either. If you have soft water I’d be carefull not to use too much soap. That will cause a different problem call etching, a cloudy rainbow effect.
good luck
You guys all have really good suggestions, and all should be tried, if nothing else, in the interest of economy. However, my experiences with dishwashers have been bad, up until our last one. I’ve had the same gritty crap inside glasses on the top rack, food stuck (and this is regardless of how the dishwasher was loaded or the water temperature – ours is somewhere in the range of 130-135 degrees, 120 being recommended). I had one dishwasher that decided it was happiest just humming along, sloshing all that water around until I finally noticed. I went out to the kitchen, and – lo and behold – there was a bubble bath going on! Woo hoo! Water everywhere. Then it decided it wanted nothing to do with the wash cycle. It would run for 30 seconds. The advantage was, short washing time; the disadvantage obvious. My husband finally got sick of listening to me and went and ordered the highest end model the store had which was a Jenn-Air Quiet Series II. It’s expensive, but it’s also very quiet, efficient, and – ta da!!! – gets the dishes clean. Anyway, my advice is not to go with a low end model if you can spare the money up front; it’s false economy. Good luck.
P.S. You guys have such good suggestions. Where were you two years ago?
If you do decide to replace your dishwasher, may I make a small recommendation? I recently replaced my entire kitchen (to give you an idea of how old it was - the appliances were avocado), so I’ve been through it and then some. Before spending much time shopping around, get yourself a subscription to the online version of Consumer Reports (www.consumerreports.org). (Note that it requires a separate subscription from Consumer Reports on dead tree, which is annoying.) It’s about $25 bucks, gives you access to several years’ worth of archives, and can save you a lot of money in the long run by steering you away from bad models. I found their repair records especially helpful. IIRC, there was some correspondance between price and qualiity - but only some, so there’s a chance to get some good values, too.
I’ll also chime in. If you do replace your DW, I strongly recomend you stay away from GE. Their home appliances for the past few years are a shadow of their former quality.
IMHO, Whirlpool makes excellent Dishwashers. Frigidaires were “so-so” but Electrolux bought them last year (or was it 2?) and did a re-vamp of many of their lines. Their DWs are supposidly greatly improved. So much so I bought a new one and I am installing it in our new house next week.
Maytag makes OK washers and dryers, but mediocre to bad kitchen appliances.
Bosch makes some really good DWs too, but you pay dearly for them… as do Miele and most other Euro makers.