Thank you!
I recall seeing it before, not sure if it was on this machine. I gave what I’d call a cover a tug, but it wasn’t immediately obvious that it was a good idea, so I decided to procrastinate.
Try twisting the cover counter-clockwise. If it doesn’t move, soak it with vinegar and try again.
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I am so slovenly! We had our last dishwasher over 35 years and never did this once. it was working perfectly the day it was hauled away but we knew we were on borrowed time.
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Instead of checking the manual? grin
But seriously, I do appreciate the suggestion.
I’m a big fan of RTFM.
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Somehow I missed this.
I wash the filter every other week, more often if lots of food debris and oily dishes. Run empty machine once every 2 months with a machine wash liquid.
About 6 years ago, I took the seal out and washed it throughly, and when put back, the machine kept leaking. We had to call the service guy to come to fix it. The guy looked at it for at least half an hour, unscrewing, unlocking everything and still couldn’t find any problem with the machine. Eventually he suggested to take out the seal and had a good look at it and put it the other direction and bingo, it was put in reverse! There is a very slight difference in angle between the 2 faces! Shame, that “maintenance” costed us 80 euro and I never ever touch that seal thing again!
The machine is now 10 years old, more noisy than before but works well.
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I have to admit that i’m one of those ditses who prewash, at LEAST thoroughly scrape dishes before putting then in the dishwasher. In truth, I’d be happy to use the dishwasher as a drying rack, a clean out of sight place for clean dishes to drain. 
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Had a friend who used hers that way exclusively @pilgrim. She had a very nice one for back in the 70’s with a SS interior - nearly unheard of then, at least in my world…
Same here. Actually most things we put in the machine are rinced with water.
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Marry me, Auspicious…
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So here is a corollary question. We do not use salt in our dishwasher in the USA. Our dishwasher at our house in France (which is in a very hard water area) was killed by an electric storm. We have replaced it and the new one has a salt reservoir, which is recommended regardless of cleaning product. If we are going to be gone for several months, do we need to empty the salt reservoir? The user guide does not comment, and customer service has been useless and hard to reach.
I am not familiar with salt in a dishwasher, but I’m glad you bumped this up. I never did find a removable filter and the manual didn’t describe one either.
Do you know what the salt is supposed to do?
I don’t think so. The salt won’t do anything but stays there if you don’t use the machine, it will not harm your machine. I live in France and that reservoir is located at the bottom of the machine, to be honest, there is no way to get rid of all the salt in my machine once I pour the salt in that hole.
In France, water is hard in many region and there can be a lime buildup in your machine or on the glasses. Adding salt would soften the water during the wash.
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Thank you! The salt is sodium chloride? I’m going to think about how that helps with hard water. I think we have hard water too.
Yes, they are granulated, crystalline sodium chloride.
I believe you use liquid form of clear rinse additives?
Dishwasher salt is not directly mixed with your dishwashing water.
It is used to regenerate an ion exchanger device. This device binds/replaces the Calcium and Magnesium ions which results in soft water. The replacement are sodium ions, so your water gets a little bit saltier which does not harm the dish washing result.
The capacity of this exchanger is reached eventually and it has to be regenerated. This is done with high concentrated NaCl (salt) water. It is done after a dish washing process, when the internal electronics calculated that it is needed. So when you added salt for the first time, nothing will change - it is user dish washer who has to initialize a regeneration cycle AFTER the next wash. High end dishwashers have a water softness probe which calculates the number of wash cycles the exchanger can withstand, the softer the water, the more wash cycles before regeneration.
I am sure your dishwasher had a red light in the front stating that salt is missing - it tries to regenerate then after every wash cycle.“All in one” tabs do not use salt, they use phosphates (bad for the environment) to soften water or zeoliths.
Water softening by ion exchangers is much better for the environment than phosphates, and you get absolutely clean glasses (with the expense of a higher construction cost of a dish washer, the exchangers are not among the cheapest parts).
In Europe water seems to be much “harder” (containing more Calcium and Magnesium) than in the US, so ion exchangers are in every dishwasher in Europe.
That was perfect; thank you! Right now we use a dishwashing product that is a liquid container in a dissolving bag. I think it’s “Cascade”.
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Thanks. We are down in the Midi Pyrenees, and the water is plenty hard, so salt it is!
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I do all this regularly ever since the repair man came. We were having things smell like fish and I just couldn’t figure it out.
He taught me to clean the filter, the grey flat filter, then to take toothpicks to the sprayer.
What hasn’t been mentioned here is cleaning, really cleaning, the little lip under where the door and machine meet. You wouldn’t believe what cooking for 11 means to the importance of cleaning that area.
We use our appliances so much I am very intimate with them and very familiar with the need to keep them clean.
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