There is water left in the dishwasher and the smell comes up through the drain

Hi

The smell usually comes when the unit is unable to drain water completely, you can run your dishwasher at its hottest temperature setting with 2 cups of vinegar inside the unit. After this take off the lower front panel and clean the drain pump assembly completely, also clean the drain hose, the smell should disappear after doing all this. Hope this helps...please post back for further assistance.

Daniel

Check the main drain, wher you are connecting the drain hose.

Hi,

Here is a tip that I wrote that will help you with your dishwasher not draining problem...

Dishwasher Problems - Water will not drain out

heatman101

The drain is plugged. You will have to pull out the dishwasher and clean out the drain port. A repair person could also do this for the price of a house call. The smell is coming from the dirty water in the tub. You'll have to bail this out before making the repair.

There is a product called " Dishwasher Magic " to clean, deodorize, and disinfect dishwashers. Hardware, appliance parts, and possibly grocery stores should carry it. It comes in a rectangular 12 once bottle.
Also, check to see that the drain hose loops up higher than the outlet into the drain so no water will run back into your dishwasher from the drain or disposer. Plugged up pump inlets and on some models a degraded drain pop up valve will also result in excessive water remaining in your dishwasher. You didn't state you model number in your post so I can't tell if your machine has one of those.

Possibly a water leak underneath or a dead mouse behind the unit.

Check to make sure that the drain hose loops as high as possible before coming back down to the disposer or branch tailpiece drain. If the drain hose just goes straight up to the drain connection, dirty water can seep back into the dishwasher.

smell is not the fault of the dishwasher but your waste disposal unit - they stink!

it may be awkward, but arrange your drain so that there is a water barrier. better still. install a standpipe for the drain, again with a water barrier

Try running citric acid (3 tablespoons) through.
You can get it from a drug store.
Or, run 1/2 cup vinegar through.
Do this in both the dish washer and the disposal.
After doing this try running some water into the disposal and then see if the next time you run the dishwasher if it still smells.
You could be having a problem with water not staying in the drain trap under your sink that is why if you run water and fill the trap, then you will find out if it was the dry trap that caused the smell from sewer gases backing up into the house trough the garbage disposal.

It sounds like your dishwasher does not have an air gap. Newer dishwashers come with an air gap installed, but they can be taken out. A quick fix for this is to:

Check the drain line under the kitchen sink. The drain line is supposed to run from the bottom of the cabinet, and run as high in the cabinet as you can get, (up to the bottom of the counter top) then connect the drain. This is called an air gap, and helps keep a little water in the drain line, which will prevent sewer gases from entering your dishwasher, and garbage disposal.



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