Kelly's Korner - Dishwasher Disaster

Hey, All,

So it's Valentine's Day and your lovely children decide they are going to "help" mom by loading and running the dishwasher - and they put dish soap in instead of dishwasher detergent and now you have suds ALL OVER the kitchen - what do you do?

Creative Commons license on image.

Put the kids up for adoption?  Tempting, but you know that you'd miss them.  Call a repairman?  You could, but you can save yourself some hard earned $$ by cleaning it up yourself (get the kids to help!).

First - get dishes out.  Just rinse them under COLD water (cold water dissolves suds faster than warm or hot water) and stack on a towel until everything is cleaned up.

Next, get as much water and suds out of the dishwasher as possible.  You can dip/scoop it out and dump in the sink with the cold water running or, if you have a wet rated ShopVac, you can use that.

Once you have as much suds and water out as possible, wipe out the detergent dispenser and tub of any remaining soap, suds and water (be careful as the element may still be hot).  Then pour 1/2 cup of vinegar and a couple of handsful of salt.  Start the dishwasher and let run for a minute - if there are still lotso suds, add some more vinegar.  Repeat this process until all the suds are gone and the hoses are flushed out.  Then you can reload the dishwasher and show the kids the CORRECT detergent to use in the dishwasher.  Get them to wipe up all the water on the floor with some old towels - this can be kinda fun.  Bonus!  Now you don't have to mop the floor!

I have actually had this happen, and while you may think you are in an "I Love Lucy" rerun - don't panic!  It may take some time to clean up, but get the kids involved helping and make it fun and not a catastrophe.  After all, they were trying to help YOU!

Have a great week!