My dishwasher keeps clogging up?

Question

I have cleaned out the drain hose going from the dishwasher to the garbage disposal twice now in a week. I haven't had any problems in 1.5 years what could this be

Answer 1

In my experience, it could be that the filter at the bottom of the dishwasher requires cleaning or grease is building up in the line to the disposer. Try taking out the bottom rack and checking the filter for food deposits and cleaning them out. In some models, you can actaully remove the filter by loosening a few screws to clean the other side. You will be surprised what you may find down there.

You can also run your dishwasher empty on a short cleaning cycle and put baking soda in the soap dispenser and a cup of white vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher. This will not only clean the dishwasher inside, but will break down grease that may be clogging the line to the disposal. Also, try running the disposal, flooding it with hot water right when the dishwasher begins to drain from the wash cycle to clear any debris.

Answer 2

Make sure you'r dw. drain has a loop that is higher than where the hose attaches to disposer. If not gunk from disposer will back into the drain hose. Almost all dishwasher's require that loop.

Answer 3

rAre you just loading without scraping your plates and rinsing? Its not a garbage disposal you know. But for the sake of argument, the dishwasher has a macerater. Its an attachement near the pump that has blades and grinds up particles of food to a size that can be washed through the lines and out the drain hose.

But again....scrape and rinse before loading.

Answer 4

Sometimes gunk gets caught in the bottom of the dishwasher before it gets to the hose.

You may need to take that apart and clean it out.

Answer 5

Rinse off the dishes before loading the DW.