Anytime you hear that someone’s dishwasher is smelling like garbage or sewer or stinks fishy you’ll have understood that there’s some presence of food particles routine away or deteriorating in the hidden corners of your dishwasher you didn’t even know were there. You might see there’s not a lot of places within the dishwasher to catch the rotting particles inside.
So you might be thinking why does my dishwasher smell like sewage and will look for some professional assistance. That isn’t a bad thing either. But if you know where to look for the rooting foods inside your dishwasher it might save you some money and time because then you can do the cleaning by yourself. So let’s find out where those nasty food particles might be stuck in your dishwasher.
Check valve
There is a place down below your dishwasher where some food particles might be rotting away or deteriorating. So this part stays hidden that you can’t see. When you run your dishwasher water and food particles drop down into the sump; it’s like a reservoir and below it, is a grinder. It acts as garbage disposal; grinding up food and sending it out to the sink or to the drain.
Now on the side, you’ll notice there’s a pump. On the pump discharge, there is normally installed a check valve. This check valve is designed to make the pump water go in the outer direction and not come inside the valve. When things go sideways the odorous issue starts happening.
Discharge hose
The discharge hose is attached to the check valve which carries the particles into the drain. On the other end of the discharge hose, there is the dishwasher and the water comes into a dishwasher T with the Brach right underneath your kitchen sink. If you look at the hose pipe you’ll see food particles stuck inside the pipe which might also cause the smelling to happen.
Installation error
Sometimes if the installation of the hose pipe is not installed properly it might cause problems like stuck rotting food. The way it’s installed is the water leaves the dishwasher pump and it comes directly into the dishwasher T. now when this pipe is not installed properly the water might not have a lot of weight of water to sit in here and hold that check valve shut.
Any dishwasher manufacturer will insist on one thing, a high loop. That means when you run your hose to as high as you can get it, right underneath your kitchen countertop height. Here two things can happen.
When the pump shuts off you now have a column of water strong enough to force its weight down and hold that check valve shut. It also solves your problem than the side. No more can you get food particles to go the wrong way up the short leg?
Nasty filter
When your dishes smell bad after it comes out of the dishwasher then there must be something happening into the filter down below. This is the most common problem. This filter is very easy to remove. Just pull it out from inside. Now if you check it you’ll see your nasty old food particles are stuck inside the filter which needs to get cleaned. Because if you don’t it might be rotting down below and you’ll get that awful sewage-like smell.
Hard water buildup
Now your dishwasher may seem fresh after completing a cycle. But if it starts to smell a bit stale or just generally unpleasant it’s a sign of a build-up of bacteria. Over time, undissolved detergent, large food particles, and lime scale can build up in your machine causing bad odors.
Lime scale deposits are particularly harmful if you live in a hard water area. As they can build up on the element which is the part that heats the water in your machine. This can cause a bigger problem over time as the lime scale-covered element is more likely to fail. The ideal way to get rid of both lime scale and smells in one go is to use a two-in-one cleaner that both descales and sanitizes your dishwasher.
So these are the most common places that need to be cleaned if you are facing the same problem of why does my dishwasher smell like Sewage? But there are some other parts that can also hide germs inside. Like the mesh underneath your dishwasher, the sides of the dishwasher door, etc. so find out what’s going inside your dishwasher now before it stinks up your whole kitchen.
