Your dishwasher is gross—here’s how to clean it

Has your dishwasher maybe not been cleaning as well as it used to recently? Have you noticed standing water at the bottom of the tub after a wash cycle? Maybe your dishwasher smells bad.

If you’ve run into any of these issues, guess what: It’s time to give your dishwasher a deep cleaning. Don’t worry if you’ve never done it before—there’s no elbow grease or expensive dishwasher cleaners needed. Here’s our guide to cleaning a dishwasher.

What you’ll need

• Baking soda
• White vinegar
• Measuring cup
  
• Dish soap
• Screwdriver set or basic toolkit (optional, depending on dishwasher)
• Toothbrush or other small, softer-bristled scrubbing implement (optional)

How to clean your dishwasher

Step 1: Clean your filter

Your filter is built to accumulate gunk and bits of food, so that’s the place to start when cleaning your dishwasher. We have a whole separate article about how to clean your dishwasher’s filter if you want full details, but we’ll give you the short version.

Every dishwasher is different, but most have a filter at the bottom of the tub, often near where the washing arms attach. If you have an older dishwasher model, you may need a screwdriver or ratchet, possibly with a particularly long or short neck.

If you have a newer model—congratulations!—your filter is likely significantly easier to access and work with.

Once the filter is removed, soak it in warm, soapy water for 10 minutes, then rinse or gently scrub off any debris and food particles with a soft-bristle brush—the filter mesh can be incredibly fragile, so treat it with care.

When you’re satisfied, put the filter back into the dishwasher.

Step 2: Sanitize with vinegar

Vinegar is one of the more popular DIY cleaners out there (don’t use it on your granite countertops). We’re going to leverage its acidic properties here to kill any lingering germs that might be producing odorous compounds.

Pour a cup of white vinegar into a small bowl and place it on the top rack of the empty dishwasher. Run your dishwasher’s heavy-duty, hot-water cycle (it may have a name like “Pots and Pans” on your model—use whichever cycle sounds the most heavy-duty).

Step 3: Deodorize with baking soda

This step is when we attack those aforementioned odorous compounds that might still be lingering.

Sprinkle 1 cup of baking soda across the bottom of your dishwasher and any surface where you sniff something funky. If the powder won’t stick, mix the baking soda into a paste with a bit of water, then apply it.

Allow all of the baking soda to sit overnight to absorb everything. In the morning, run an empty cycle. Your dishwasher should be looking fresh and sparkly clean!

Step 4: Scrub away any remaining grime

If your dishwasher is as clean as can be, then there’s no need for extra scrubbing.

However, if you still see grime caught under the washing arms, or in any other nooks and crannies—especially on or around its rubber gasket—it’s worth going the extra mile.

The toothbrush could work for this step, but you may want something with slightly harder bristles, since the interior of your dishwasher isn’t as fragile as its filter.

Just take note: You do not want to use wire brushes or anything that might scratch a surface, as gunk can more easily collect on a surface with abrasions—don’t make future cleaning sessions harder for yourself!

Scrub gently with a little soapy water, or by using a baking soda and water paste. This should get things clean without scuffing the interior.

Keep your dishwasher clean to keep it functional

Learning how to clean your dishwasher, and actually doing it, wasn’t so hard, right?

It’s a good idea to clean out your dishwasher and its filter every 6 months to 1 year, depending on how much you use it. We recommend lumping it in with all the other “once a year” appliance cleaning chores.

In your dishwasher, if the filter is clogged, the motor has to work much harder to do the same job, which wears it out faster. Routine cleaning and basic maintenance can keep your appliances working better, for much longer than they would otherwise.

Your dishwasher should last you over a decade.