How to Get Rid of Gross Dishwasher Odors

You wouldn’t think that an appliance used to keep the dishes clean could end up smelling gross itself, would you? But unfortunately that’s the case, and it’s usually due to trapped leftover food particles or to the mineral and scale build up from hard water. No matter the reason for the smells, today’s post will teach you some cleaning hacks to help you get rid of gross dishwasher odors, for good!

One way that gross dishwasher odors occur is if you aren’t using its cleaning power on a daily basis. Naturally, running the dishwasher on a regular basis helps keep the dishwasher itself clean. When you do use your dishwasher, follow these cleaning tips to avoid gross odors:

1. Load the dishwasher the right way. For more on this, refer to our post on dishwasher tips that everyone should know.
2. No matter what anyone says, one of the best ways to avoid dishwasher odors is to thoroughly rinse the dishes before loading the dishwasher. Leftover food particles have to go someplace, and that place usually finds them trapped inside the filter or worse, in the drain hose, where they decompose and emit gross odors. {Ask me how I know!}.
3. Regularly check the filter for trapped food particles and remove any you find before they start to stink.

If in spite of your efforts you find that your dishwasher starts to smell, there are a couple of great ways to get rid of those gross odors. Try one of these methods:

1. Cut two lemons in half and place the cut halves in a bowl with one cup of water. Set this bowl securely on the bottom rack of your dishwasher. Now run a regular wash cycle with only the bowl of cut lemons inside. The lemons will emit their citrusy scent as they heat up and safely deodorize your dishwasher.
2. Sometimes mineral scale and hard water build up are the culprits behind a smelly dishwasher. You can fix it by setting one cup of white vinegar on the top rack of the dishwasher. Run it empty, with only the cup of vinegar in place. The vinegar will effectively remove the scale and hard water deposits. You’ll find that your dishwasher will smell better and clean better afterwards!