# Why has my dishwasher stopped washing the top rack?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-my-dishwasher-stopped-washing-the-top-rack/562192>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 28, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-my-dishwasher-stopped-washing-the-top-rack/562192 "2010-11-28T19:02:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-my-dishwasher-stopped-washing-the-top-rack/562192/21 "2010-11-29T19:55:56Z")

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The easiest problem would be if the rotating arm was prevented from rotating. The top rack of dishes is then not washed. You have to actually remove the motor from the bottom to finish the dis-assembly of the whole pump system. I had to do this for a leak in the pump system. This really isn’t that hard to do.

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-has-my-dishwasher-stopped-washing-the-top-rack/562192/22 "2010-11-30T06:17:26Z")

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My dishwasher had a similar problem of low water flow and less than clean glasses on the top rack.

I unscrewed the grate at the bottom, removed years-worth of popcorn shells and plastic wrappers, and ran a cycle with bleach to cut through the slime.

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