You said it smells like “rotten eggs.” That always means sulfur in your water.
We have a similar problem with one of the bathroom sinks where I work. It’s always bad on Mondays until after lunch, enough so that if I forget and wash my hands at that sink, I’m aware that my hands stink shortly after I sit down and end up going to the coffee area sink and rewashing them. Someone told me it was a problem with bacteria in the pipes to that sink. As there were two sinks in that bathroom, and the other faucet had no issues, it seems to me that the effected pipes could only be a few feet long. But, replacing the pipes didn’t seem to be an option.
At any rate, once there’s been a lot of volume that particular faucet, it gets better. By Wednesday, there’s no smell at all, and it doesn’t come back until after the weekend.
I have suffered the dirty wet dog smell way to long, I have noticed it at my neighbors and other places. I have cleaned my dishwasher numerous times and still the same. So here is what I have finally had success with. After the D/W completes its cycles and has drained and come to a stop. I add 1/4 cup of household bleach to the bottom of it. Start the cycle again (no detergent) let it fill up and start spraying for a minute or two, cancel and drain it, then repeat without bleach. This added procedure takes about 3 mins and my dishes come out perfect everytime
When it happens here, I just dump a few tablespoons of white vinegar in the machine and run it through a rinse cycle.
read your instructions to see if that is a good idea or not.
bleach is powerful stuff and might cause problems with that large amount.
I have had this issue for years, our glasses and plates smell like catfish skins… for lack of a better description… I finally installed a whole house water treatment filter/softner … it has 2 big canisters that look like 4 foot tall scuba tanks… my glasses and plates still smell… we have bought a new dishwasher and tried different soaps… to no avail… now here is the kicker… our plastic /tupperwear cups never have the smell, only the glass glasses and the plates… they are fiestawear… I feel like its something the water treatment plant is putting in the water but have no way of proving it…
Low pressure can bring sulphuric smells up from sewage systems. Yesterday was sunny and bright, but I noticed a rotten-eggs smell when I walked by a sewage grille; today it’s raining as if that was the weather’s only setting.
We did call the water department a while back and they acted all nonplussed like they’d never heard such a thing. I’ve noticed the smell in the glasses of water at a few nearby restaurants on occasion. I find it so odd that it comes and goes. I haven’t noticed the dishes being too bad lately, but now there is a musty/moldy smell coming from the kitchen drains - but not consistently. 'Tis a mystery.
Can anyone speak to whether this is a good idea or not? I don’t have the manual - it’s a rented apartment - but I’d like to give this a try if it’s not going to blow up my home or something.
I bet if you google your dishwasher’s model, you’ll find a manual posted online for it, or one that’s close enough.
We had this problem (wet dog smell on newly cleaned dishes) intermittently in our old house. Assumed it was a problem with the local water. When we had the same problem in our new house in a new town, I looked for other answers. The suggestion that worked was turning up the heat on our water heater. That solved the problem at both houses. Both water heaters had been set at about 120°F.
The recommendation I had seen also suggested turning up the heat all the way for 24 hours then draining the tank before setting them 10° higher than before. We did not have to do that, but I may have turned them up more than necessary. I was just glad to be rid of the smell.
The quantity of posts referring to this phenomenon with these words (wet dog smell) does suggest that it’s a widespread issue. I’d love to see someone tackle it as a science project and explain the exact cause.
Hey, Based on everything you’ve stated, especially that occasionally you get a whiff of the scent from the drain on occasion, and that another poster said that plastic hoses could be breeding the fauna that is causing the smell, I suggest replacing the air gap hose. And if your air gap hose doesn’t have an actual air gap, then that could really be the problem.
My dishwasher “drains” through a hose that goes up to the sink, then there is an “air gap” and then there is a hose from the air gap to the top of the garbage disposal. At one point there was a kink in the hose from the air gap to the garbage disposal. The kink would allow some water to flow, and was mostly blocked off, so the water flowed up that hose and through the air gap and all over the counter.
Anyway, check the air gap, take off the metal outer cover and smell that. If that is funky, then replace or bleach treat the hoses.
If you don’t have an air gap, then maybe the dishwasher drain is not draining all the way, leaving a puddle of water that is breeding the smell?
Good Luck.
I have this issue too (Herts, UK). I get it in our dishwasher. The glasses in the glass cabinet smell and they are all dish-washed. The crockery (also dish-washed) do not smell. To me (and before you read on, if you are easily offended I suggest you skip this next bit) the smell is exactly the same as human sperm. Yuck, I know. Others describe it as ‘fishy’ or ‘wet dog’ but human sperm is the best fit for me and, interestingly, I have read others people’s posts who also describe it thus (well, one other post - and she was a ‘lady’!). I only mention this as it may point to a cause due to the specifity of the smell. Human sperm is mostly protein. So, is the smell protein-based in origin?.
Anyway, firstly I would like to know how many people who get this problem have a water softener. May be completely irrelevant but we have one and I just wondered if it might be relevant. Obviously, our water is relatively hard, hence the need for a water softener. Maybe the hard water is the issue?
Beyond that, I know that our dishwasher was new about 2 years ago and it didn’t cause this issue when new. What I also know is that all our dish-washed glasses have, over the months, developed a ‘bloom’ on them which is another mystery, and this despite using a rinse aid. Is this relevant. Is whatever the bloom consists of related to the pong?
My principle suspicion is that there is some sort of reaction going on with additives the manufacturers put in the glass that makes the glassware and ‘something else’. What? I haven’t got a clue.
The other major possibility is that there is goop building up on the dishwasher heating elements which are not accessible to clean.
The only thing that has help us is to use a specialized dishwasher cleaner, in an empty dishwasher, once a month or so. It is an interesting puzzle!