Yes, a little like closing up an unplugged refrigerator…
The mystery for me is that the trash can is essentially the same thing. But it doesn’t smell bad after the same period of time.
There is, and it does not. That was one of our first thoughts. It’s also why we have a new dishwasher in the first place - the old one’s pump died.
I’ll expect you here every evening at 8:30 to wash the dinner dishes.
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Happy to do it.
I do the dishes at my household. By hand. Each and every one.
Bonus: We have a really handsome dish drainer. And you can see the East River from the kitchen sink.
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My dishwasher has a “rinse” cycle - takes about 10 minutes or so. If your machine has anything like that, you could just run it before going to bed even if it’s not full enough to do a whole wash load.
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This is a good idea, and thanks for it. I think ours does have this cycle.
One last idea… can you inspect the gasket around the door. Push on it while putting your nose next to it, do you smell anything??
Again, it’s the dishes. It’s not the dishwasher itself.
I’m just trying to rule everything (possible) out…
So if there are no dishes in the dishwasher (whatsoever) then there is no smell??
Correct.
We have the same problem. When the Spawns were still living at home, we did not. We have concluded that with just the two of us, it can easily take eight or nine days until the dishwasher is full enough to run, by which time it starts to get a little funky. When it gets too much for me to stand (I’m the one who tends to fill, run, and empty the dishwasher), I’ll cruise the house looking for things to add to the dishwasher to fill it up so I can run it. It’s definitely a rotten food smell, not mold or fungus. As for the comparison with your kitchen trash, seal your garbage completely and only open it once or twice a day, and I bet it’ll smell like your dishwasher, or worse.
Here’s my solution: When the dishwasher starts to get ripe - typically around the time it’s two-thirds full - I’ll plan a meal that is very plate/cup/bowl-intensive to fill the racks. Either that, or I’ll use prep bowls and other cooking vessels (eg Corningware) that I don’t mind putting in the dishwasher.
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This kind of sounds like my solution to “I have half a jalapeno pepper, and now I need to build an entire meal around it before it goes bad.”
I need to cook more complicated things!
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Have you been spying on me in my kitchen? Or are you Mrs. ricepad in disguise?? 
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How much longer?
Because we had the same problem of running the machine every 2 or 3 days, the unwashed dishes in the machine stank due it was left too long, bacteria developed even we rinsed the dishes before putting in machine. And now, we run the machine everyday, even if it is half full (with less cleaning product). Problem solved.
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Probably every three days? Depending on how often we eat at home. With the previous dishwasher, it was mostly every other day.
I have a horror of wasting food, which somehow leads to me buying more food.
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I no longer think you’re a spy, nor are you Mrs. ricepad. I now think I AM you!
(Strategies to avoid food waste is probably worthy of a separate thread all by itself!)
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Then you need to stop cruising around online and finish folding the laundry!
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