Most of us treat the dishwasher like the refrigerator. It sits there doing its job, and we don’t give it a thought until the day it quits.
That day comes sooner than it should. Consumer Reports surveyed members about more than 66,700 dishwashers. About 21% either broke or stopped working as well as they should have within five years, according to Consumer Reports.
Manufacturers expect a dishwasher to last about 10 years. So one in five owners is getting half the life they paid for.
That gets expensive. Consumer Reports puts the median dishwasher repair at about $142, and says the numbers usually favor replacing a broken dishwasher rather than fixing it, according to its repair-or-replace guide.
And replacing it isn’t cheap. Consumer Reports members spent a median of $855 on a new dishwasher from 2023 to 2025, according to Consumer Reports. If yours dies at five years instead of 10, you’ve thrown away roughly $425.
The good news: Most of what kills a dishwasher early is preventable, and the fixes cost next to nothing. Here are seven habits that keep yours running.
1. Stop rinsing your dishes
This is the one nearly everybody gets wrong. Rinsing dishes before you load them doesn’t help. It just uses more water and energy, according to Energy Star, which says modern machines and detergents are built to do the cleaning.
What you should do is scrape. Get bones, toothpicks and other hard bits off the plates before they go in. Those are what cause trouble inside the machine.
While we’re at it: Running the dishwasher beats washing by hand. An Energy Star model saves about 8,400 gallons of water and about $220 in utility bills a year compared with hand-washing.
2. Clean the filter once a month
Most newer dishwashers have a filter at the bottom, usually a plastic cylinder under the lower rack. Food collects there, and when it clogs, your dishes come out gritty and the machine works harder.
Consumer Reports says to clean it by hand every month or so. Whirlpool’s care instructions say to do that monthly, or every two weeks if you have a big family or run the machine daily.
Here’s how: Pull out the bottom rack, twist out the filter, and wash it in warm, soapy water with a soft sponge. Skip the wire brush and steel wool. If you see holes, replace it.
It takes about two minutes. It’s also one of the filters in “7 Filters That You Probably Forgot to Clean or Replace.”
3. Unclog the spray arms
The spinning arms that spray water have small holes that clog with food and minerals. When they clog, parts of the load don’t get clean.
Check them every few months, Consumer Reports says, and clear the holes with a toothpick or pipe cleaner. Go gently, because you don’t want to stretch the holes out of shape.
4. Wipe the door seal, but go easy on the vinegar
The rubber gasket around the door keeps water where it belongs. Wipe it down with a rag and a little white vinegar when it looks grimy, Consumer Reports says.
But don’t turn vinegar into a habit. Consumer Reports warns that using it regularly can wear down rubber seals. That’s one of the traps in “9 Costly Mistakes You Can Make While Cleaning With Vinegar.”
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5. Fight hard water the right way
If you have hard water, minerals build up inside the machine. Consumer Reports suggests running a citric-acid-based dishwasher cleaner once a month.
Some dishwashers have a built-in water softener that uses special dishwasher salt. If yours does, never substitute ordinary table salt, Consumer Reports warns.
Bosch says to run a cleaner and descaler a few times a year on the hottest, longest cycle with the machine empty.
One more trick from GE Appliances: The water coming in should be at least 120 degrees, so run the kitchen tap until it’s hot before you start a cycle.
6. Run it full, but don’t cram it
Overloading blocks the spray, so dishes come out dirty and you end up running them again. Half-empty loads aren’t great either.
“Mechanical parts wear out the more they are used,” says Larry Ciufo, who runs Consumer Reports’ dishwasher testing. Energy Star adds that a dishwasher uses about the same water and energy no matter how full it is, so wait for a full load.
And only put dishes in it. Consumer Reports says no car parts and no candleholders caked with wax. For more, see “16 Things You Should Never Put in a Dishwasher.”
7. Fix rusty racks before they wreck the pump
When the coating on a rack wears through, rust sets in. Flakes of that rust can get into the pump and damage it, according to Consumer Reports.
The fix is cheap. Patch the worn spots with vinyl touch-up paint made for dishwasher racks, or pop on replacement tine tips. Cheaper than a pump, and a lot cheaper than a new dishwasher.
When it’s time to replace it anyway
Eventually, every dishwasher dies. When yours does, check the brands owners rate highest in “The Best-Rated Brand for Every Type of Major Appliance — and the Best Retailer to Buy Them From.”
Until then, scrape your plates, clean that filter, and let the machine do what you paid for it to do. Ten years is a lot better than five.
For more ways people shorten their dishwasher’s life, see “9 Common Dishwasher Mistakes You May Be Making.”
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