It’s almost time for a gardening thread.
Questions about my dishwasher (KitchenAid):
Every six months or so, the inside of my DW gets a coating of black gunk. I remove and wash the filter and all the inside parts that come out, and then wipe the inside down with vinegar. Life is good for another six months or so.
What is this black gunk? Is it mold?
Why doesn’t my DW wash away the black gunk? It’s a dishwasher, for Pete’s sake.
Is the inside plastic? If so, I think it’s mold. Stainless steel doesn’t promote bacterial/fungal growth, so if you have a stainless tub, you’re probably growing an alien life form…
Then I’m growing an alien life form. It’s stainless. Well, some parts inside are plastic, but in general it’s stainless.
Should I be leaving the DW door open overnight or something? I’ve never had to do that with any DW.
Eww, eww, eww. I googled black gunk in dishwasher.
You can apparently run a cycle with some bleach. It seems to be a weird yeast, not toxic except to some very ill folks. The advice is pretty much to do what you do. But I think bleach once/month (?) might prevent.
It’s the perfect storm of the moisture, heat and a heat tolerant fungus. Any more explanation probably needs BunsenBurner.
I usually run my dishwasher on the sanitize cycle (because who doesn’t want sanitary dishes?) and it’s stainless on the inside. Plus I use a detergent that has bleach in it. Black gunk would freak me out.
Nuke 'em, Dan-o.
We have had an odd slightly fishy smell from our stainless steel Kitchenmaid.
We have taken the entire machine apart and cleaned it–yes, there was black gunk on some pieces
on the door. We even replaces a piece (the plastic piece at the bottom of the door when it is
opened. We now run it on sanitize and things are mostly ok.
We could not see anything–it was just an odor.
Hmmm. I’ve not tried the “Sanitize” cycle. I use “Power Wash” or whatever it’s called, plus the super duper heating thing. And the Heat Dry.
I’ll try Sanitize.
I hesitate to use bleach because it might mess up the plastic parts, of which there are a few. Plus the rubber (???) gasket around the door. Bleach is kinda harsh.
@VeryHappy Have you tried any of the products made specifically for cleaning dishwashers? You run them through an empty cycle to clean out the gunk.
Where in your dishwasher is the black gunk?
Our black gunk is only under the place where the bottom door hinge is. That is, the place that doesn’t get cleaned when the dishwasher runs because the door is closed.
@Ynotgo, that’s not the case for me. Yes, there is black gunk under the bottom door hinge, but it’s also on the bottom of the dishwasher itself. (Much less than around the bottom of the door.) It’s also kind of up the sides as well as a bit on the filter.
I did once try one of the cleaner things – ran it through a cycle – and I had forgotten about it. I’ll get some and see if using it every month or so helps.
If you are afraid of bleach you can probably safely use vinegar.
New question. Why is my FB feed suddenly showing stuff from a week or more ago?
On each one it doesn’t look as though there are new comments or likes/reactions.
^^because Mark Zuckerberg is Satan.
question: I just learned my kids’ colleges both have for grade points for an A- = 3.67; and B+ = 3.33. Our High schools didn’t do that - just 4.0; and 3.0 and such. (perhaps that’s why our kids grade points were so high in HS!) Is that standard for colleges to have that type of grading scale?
Yes, pretty much all the colleges I know have grading scales that include plusses and minuses.
Or maybe it means an “A” encompasses A- to A+ level work? (Not that only 3.67 is included in GPA calculations, going forward.) So, a “low A” is still an A.
At our large state U, the grades range from 0 to 4.0 in 0.1 increments. There are no letter grades. For example, one can get a 3.8 or a 2.2 in a course based on where their score falls on the curve… No letter grades or +/- are used, and the GPAs are not converted into letters. A few public HS use the same system.
One local private college uses the letter system… They give top 10% As, next 10% A-, etc. then the letters are converted into numerical grades.