frigidaire dishwasher won't clean dishes

[rasputins fingerbone]

i have a frigidaire gallery dishwasher model # PLDB999AC0 about 7 years old .

the dishes aren't getting washed properly . the soap dispenser always has residue in it and the dishes just below the soap dispenser always have a ton of white residue on them when wash cycle is finished . alot of times the glasses in the top are also dirty

water level in mid cycle appears to be ok as does the water temp .

every couple of washes i run water over the dispenser and scrub it as it seems to be sluggish opening sometimes . i have also tried different soaps and it doesn't change .

[viking351]

try cleaning the sump in the bottom of the dwasher. if there's pits, pieces of glass etc then you won't get a good pumpout and you wind up washing your dishes with dirty water.

try running the tap water into the sink until it comes out hot. then start the dwasher. this insures the first wash gets a full charge of hot water and not diluted by what was in the line.

[rasputins fingerbone]

i'll give that a shot ( although i cleaned out down there awhile ago ) and see how it goes , thanks for the reply !

[viking351]

also clean your sink drain with drano. if its clogged you'll have a problem with the pump out

[BrntToast]

never suggest draino for a dishwasher or washer drain
alot of soaps contain chlorine bleach
chlorine mixed with draino makes chlorine gas  MUSTARD GAS
dead customers are not repeat customers

[rasputins fingerbone]

cleaned it out and ran sink water before running washer but still had the same turnout . it's like the soap just falls out of the dispenser onto the dishes below it
and leaves a white stain that's nearly impossible to remove .
i see the washer blinks "ho" code which i believe means not enough hot water .
nothing else was running at the time so there should have been plenty . plus it was blinking that code towards the beginning of the cycle . ( my wife says she told me it was giving that code a year ago , which i vaguely remember , so maybe it has been shooting out that code all along ?)

[BrntToast]

make sure your drain hose is not routed through the floor, if it is the machine will siphon the water out and run empty

[rasputins fingerbone]

finally got a chance to really mess with it . took the entire bottom apart and cleaned it out , there were some nasties in there that were plugging up the operation ! seems to be working fine now , maybe that's all i needed .
thanks for the replies !

[elite]

white residue below dispenor on cabinet is due to low water temp which make the detergent door dispensor open at the end of cycle instead of the begining .. adjust water heater and switch to cascade poder packets and just put in bottom of dishwasher  will disolve faster and actually get rinsed of the dishes.... hince white residue on dishes  dried soap not rinsed off...... just switch to powder packets and raise water temp to atleast 132 f to dishwasher   may need to run clean cycle to remove  affresh dishwasher cleaner works great....

[BrntToast]

never use soap packets or bricks!!!!
that brick/pack has no idea is you selected light wash or heavy, how could it know when to disolve properly
the only good thing about those products is the heavy advertising campaign that made people buy them
they do NOT work properly
use powder soap, liquid if you wash fine glassware
i do warranty work for several manufacturers, when i get cleaning complaints on machines i can find nothing wrong with i look under the sink and find those products
i tell the customers to throw them away and use real soap
90% of the time i never hear back from them, so i know its a crappy product

also, all newer dishwasher require the use of jet dry, most jet dry dispensors are adjustable(all made by the same company) remove the cap and point the arrow to #4 and always keep it full

the one product i will endorse is jet dry "turbo dry" its concentrated and does make a difference in rinse/dry

[Repair-man]

UM, that is not good advice Brnt...in light of the fact that  the EPA outlawed the use of phosphates in dishwasher detergent as of July 2010, the manufacturers recommend only using Cascade 2-n-1  tablets to get the best results. It was the phosphates that actally  made the wash come out clear.  Additionally, the customer should look into using a wash booster, such as Glass Magic or Lemi-Shine to enhance rinsing.

Never use gels at all, especially in hard water conditions anyway. Bad ju-ju.

Proctor and Gamble is struggling to come up with a new ingredient that worked as well as phosphates, since this situation has affected millions of users.