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How Often You Should Clean Your Dishwasher
Reviewed by Zac Kieffer
Updated: September 10, 2025
Learn how often to clean your dishwasher for optimal performance and hygiene. Keep your appliance fresh and efficient easily!
How Often You Should Clean Your Dishwasher
How Often You Should Clean Your Dishwasher
Monthly Cleaning: For most households, a monthly deep clean is ideal. This frequency helps prevent the buildup of food particles, detergent residues, and mineral deposits that can combine to reduce efficiency and cause unpleasant odors. By keeping your dishwasher clear of these residues, you ensure that its spray arms, filters, and interior surfaces remain in top working condition.
Heavy Daily Usage: In homes where the dishwasher runs daily—especially with loads that include starchy or greasy foods—the monthly clean becomes even more critical. Frequent use encourages the accumulation of biofilms and grime that, if left unchecked, decrease the machine’s performance and may lead to operational issues over time.
Sporadic Use Isn’t a Free Pass: Even if your dishwasher doesn’t run frequently, moisture remains behind after cycles. This damp environment can invite mold or bacterial growth. A monthly cleaning cycle, or at least running a cleaning routine once a month, helps address these potential microbial dangers while keeping the components free from blockages.
Preventive Maintenance: Think of a monthly cleaning as a form of preventive maintenance. Just as you wouldn’t wait for an engine to sputter before changing its oil, regular upkeep of your dishwasher prevents minor issues from snowballing into major repairs, thereby extending the lifespan of the appliance.
Consequences of Skipping Dishwasher Cleaning
Funky Smells That Won’t Quit: If you skip cleaning your dishwasher, you’re basically inviting a party for old food bits, grease, and soap scum. Over time, these leftovers break down and create a stubborn, musty odor that can make your whole kitchen smell like a science experiment gone wrong.
Cloudy Dishes and Glasses: A dirty dishwasher can’t rinse properly. That means you’ll start noticing white spots, streaks, or a filmy residue on your dishes and glasses. It’s not just unsightly—it’s a sign that your machine isn’t doing its job.
Clogged Spray Arms and Filters: Food particles and mineral deposits can build up in the spray arms and filters. When these parts get blocked, water can’t reach every corner of your dishwasher, leaving you with half-clean plates and bowls.
Shorter Appliance Lifespan: All that gunk and buildup forces your dishwasher to work harder. Over time, this extra strain can wear out the motor and other key parts faster, meaning you might be shopping for a new dishwasher sooner than you’d like.
Unwanted Guests (Mold and Mildew): Dishwashers are warm and damp—basically, a five-star resort for mold and mildew if you don’t keep things clean. These can show up as black spots or slimy patches around the door seal or inside the tub.
Drainage Problems: When filters and drains get clogged with debris, water can back up inside the machine. This can lead to standing water at the bottom of your dishwasher and, in some cases, leaks onto your kitchen floor.
Wasted Time and Money: If your dishwasher isn’t clean, you’ll probably end up re-washing dishes by hand or running extra cycles. That means more water, more energy, and more of your precious time down the drain.
Sprinkle baking soda on the bottom of the empty dishwasher. Pour a cup of white vinegar into a dishwasher-safe bowl and place it on the top rack. Run a hot water cycle. This natural method helps remove odors, dissolve buildup, and leave your dishwasher fresh and clean.
Incomplete Residue Removal
White vinegar and baking soda may not fully dissolve or remove stubborn food particles and grease, leading to incomplete residue removal and lingering buildup inside the dishwasher after cleaning.
Lemon Juice and Hot Water
Pour one cup of lemon juice into the bottom of your empty dishwasher. Run a hot water cycle to let the natural acidity break down grease, remove odors, and leave your dishwasher fresh and clean.
Hidden Bacterial Growth
Lemon juice and hot water may not effectively kill all bacteria in your dishwasher, allowing hidden bacterial growth to persist and cause odors or hygiene issues despite the cleaning attempt.
Citric Acid Powder and Hot Water
Dissolve 2 tablespoons of citric acid powder in 1 cup of hot water. Pour the solution into the bottom of the empty dishwasher and run a hot wash cycle. This method removes limescale, odors, and buildup, leaving your dishwasher fresh and clean.
Potential Seal Damage
Using citric acid powder and hot water can damage the dishwasher’s rubber seals, causing them to degrade, crack, or lose flexibility, which may lead to leaks and reduced appliance lifespan.
Dissolve ¼ cup of borax powder in 1 quart of hot water. Pour the solution into the bottom of the empty dishwasher. Run a normal wash cycle to help remove odors, mineral buildup, and grime, leaving your dishwasher fresh and clean.
Ineffective Grease Dissolution
Borax powder and hot water may not effectively dissolve or break down tough grease in dishwashers, leading to residue buildup and poor cleaning results. This method lacks the strong degreasing agents needed for stubborn grease removal.
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