There’s nothing worse than opening the dishwasher door to be greeted by a rancid and pungent smell. You’ll know the one we mean. There might be no dishes in there, but still an eggy, musty scent persists – one that leaves you questioning if the dishwasher is even fit for purpose.
A smelly dishwasher is nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, with everyday use, every dishwasher will eventually smell as such. But what can you do about this eau-de-egg? Thankfully, one setting can come to the rescue and one household item can back it up. Here’s what you need to do.
Why does my dishwasher smell?
Let’s start with the problem before we get to the solution. With every cycle, your dishwasher is rinsing residual food, drink and sauces away from the load. That gets flushed through the filter, which catches any remnants, and is then drained via the drain hose.
It sounds simple enough, but with each cycle, bits will likely be left behind. First, there’s the food that’s trapped in the filter. If that’s not disposed of and rinsed after each cycle, there’s the chance for it to decompose and start to smell. What’s worse, the food could end up ricocheting around the next cycle, breaking up in the process. If you have an eggy smell, it’s likely coming from rogue food particles left behind.
Then, there’s residual soap scum in the internal pipes. If that’s not fully washed away, and the dishwasher door is left closed, you have a damp, humid environment that lacks ventilation – the perfect place to grow mould. That’s what the musty part of the smell is.
If the smell is really bad, it could also be that the pipe is kinked behind the dishwasher, causing the wastewater to ineffectively drain, with remnants left behind at the end of the cycle (pulling the dishwasher out and rearranging can fix this but a replacement may be needed). If your dishwasher is especially old, the plastic parts may also have absorbed odours over time as they’ve sat among the dirty plates. It’s worth giving these a sniff independently to see if they need to be replaced.
Most dishwashers will automatically open the door once the cycle has finished. But if you have an older model that needs to be manually opened, that can easily contribute to smells because it’s not drying efficiently and the humid environment gives bacteria a chance to grow.
Odds are your dishwasher smells due to lingering food particles and mould, but there is a quick fix for this.
Which cycle will make my dishwasher stop smelling
It’s a cycle designed exclusively for this purpose, but many don’t realise their dishwasher even has it – the maintenance wash. It usually looks like a dishwasher symbol with a shine illustration on the control panel but check the manual for guidance. This setting runs at a high temperature of 65 to 70 degrees to kill any bacteria and effectively flush through the system. You should be running it every six months or so; follow your brand’s advice for best practice.
You should also ideally run a dishwasher cleaner and descaler alongside (while the dishwasher is otherwise empty). Look for one that removes grease, as well as limescale, such as Finish Dishwasher Deep Cleaner. A bowl of 500ml distilled white vinegar is an effective alternative, with the bowl upright on the upper rack. For a deep clean, a proprietary dishwasher cleaner is best.
If your dishwasher has no obvious maintenance wash, use the hottest cycle possible (this tends to be the intensive wash) for a similar effect.
What household item helps to deodorise?
If you find smells still linger in your dishwasher, another effective solution you can try is bicarbonate of soda. This effectively deodorises the space by neutralising any acidic and alkali odour molecules in the air. As Dri-Pak’s Bicarb is currently priced at £2 for 500g, and you only need about 50g, that’s 20p per go!
Just measure out 50g and sprinkle it across the bottom of your dishwasher while empty and dry (a sieve helps to break it up). Then leave overnight to get to work and run a normal, empty cycle to flush away the next day. And that’s it, your dishwasher should be smelling as new again! Remember to scrape your plates thoroughly, check the filter between washes and run regular maintenance cycles to keep it so.
Dishwasher cleaning kit
