As I put a dish into the dishwasher I thought to myself, “🤔 I haven’t cleaned the filter in a while.” So I took it out and gave it a real good blast with piping hot water from the kitchen sink. I even scraped some of the gunk off with a dish brush to the point where I couldn’t find a single mote of gunk upon careful examination.

Then I proceeded to refill the rinse aid (even though it wasn’t empty) and–as usual–spilled that stuff all over the interior door in the process. Is it even possible to not spill the rinse aid when refilling it? 🤔

My journey didn’t end there, however! I then proceeded to walk the entirety of my home searching for cups and plates that may have been left behind by my children, found several, and it was enough that it nearly filled the dishwasher racks; bottom and top.

The dishwasher has been started; the wait begins.

    • Today@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 days ago

      Home from work on a sick day. Guess I’ll go check this out. If you do yours, report back.

    • Riskable@programming.devOPEnglish
      13·
      3 days ago

      Oh no. No no no no. My friend, you are in for a horrible, terrible, awful surprise. I am so sorry.

      I recommend keeping potential witnesses a good distance away from the entire kitchen and possibly wear a respirator and thick, protective rubber gloves to shield yourself from the horror you are about to extract from the “clean machine”.

      No matter what happens don’t give up! Maybe have a bucket handy in case you need to exfiltrate the contents of your stomach.

    • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      3 days ago

      Maybe. Some dishwashers grind up the food either with a garbage disposal-like macerator or by swirling/smashing the bits against a grate. That kind may not have a filter at all.

      • Riskable@programming.devOPEnglish
        31·
        3 days ago

        They still have the filter because they use it to conserve water. If they just flushed the water with each cycle it’d be very wasteful.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
          1·
          3 days ago

          Depends on the washer.

          Mine doesn’t have a filter, just a macerator. I still have to clean it once a month, filters are even worse. Dishwashers in general are nasty things.

          And mine uses 4 gallons per full wash cycle.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
            1·
            3 days ago

            I’m not sure how filters are worse:

            • I generally hold them under the faucet to get the chunks off
            • if it’s been a while, I might have to rotate under the faucet to get slime off
            • it’s rarely disgusting enough to finish disassembling for actual washing