--- title: "Dishes are coming out dirty" description: "KitchenAid dishes are coming out dirty — three different complaints hide under one sentence: food still on the plates, grit deposited on them, and a white…" url: "https://kitchenaidmiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-cleaning-dishes/" date_modified: "2026-08-23" Appliance type: "Dishwashers" --- # KitchenAid dishes are coming out dirty ### The fastest diagnosis is the code Pull the tub filter and rinse it, then spin both spray arms by hand and check the holes are clear. If the problem is a cloudy film on glassware rather than soil, that is hard water and not a breakdown — the manufacturer's own answer is to raise the rinse-aid setting, switch to tablets, and run a dishwasher cleaner through it. ### Soil and film are not the same complaint Food left on the plates is a wash problem: filter, spray arms, water temperature, detergent. A white haze on glassware is minerals coming out of the water as it dries, and no amount of repair work removes it — it is answered with rinse aid, tablets and a periodic cleaner. Telling the two apart at the sink saves a visit that would only have confirmed your water is hard. ### What hard water does to the machine itself Beyond the glassware, scale builds on the heater and inside the water path. It is slow, it is preventable, and it is the reason a machine in its eighth year here can wash noticeably worse than the same machine somewhere else. Running a dishwasher cleaner through it a few times a year is genuinely the cheapest maintenance on the appliance. A loaded filter The commonest cause by a distance. Once it is loaded the machine washes with the water it just took the soil out of, and grit lands back on the plates. Spray arms blocked or fouled Spin each one by hand. A tall item in the lower rack that stops the arm turning is free to fix and will ruin every load until somebody notices. Hard water film, not soil A cloudy haze on glassware that will not wipe off is mineral, not dirt. It is a water question with a rinse-aid answer rather than a repair. Water not hot enough, or not enough of it A heater circuit or sensor problem, or a slow fill. Either way the machine washes at the wrong temperature or with too little water and nothing gets clean. The wash pump or the diverter When one rack is clean and the other is not, the machine may not be sending water where it thinks it is. That is a real repair and a named service part. Rinse the filter and look at it Under the lower rack. What comes off it tells you how long this has been building, and cleaning it fixes a good share of these on its own. Spin both spray arms by hand They should turn freely. Hold each one up to the light and check the holes are open — scale closes them slowly in this water. Decide whether it is soil or film Soil is food and it is uneven. Film is a haze on everything, worst on glass, and it does not wipe off. They are different problems and only one of them is the machine. Then book the visit Tell us which rack is worse, whether the water is hot at the kitchen tap, and whether it is grit, film or actual food left behind. Gritty, filmed or still soiled What it usually means Grit on plates that went in clean-ish A white film on glasses that will not wipe off The top rack fine and the bottom rack dirty The fastest diagnosis is the code Pull the tub filter and rinse it, then spin both spray arms by hand and check the holes are clear. If the problem is a cloudy film on glassware rather than soil, that is hard water and not a breakdown — the manufacturer's own answer is to raise the rinse-aid setting, switch to tablets, and run a dishwasher cleaner through it. Soil and film are not the same complaint Food left on the plates is a wash problem: filter, spray arms, water temperature, detergent. A white haze on glassware is minerals coming out of the water as it dries, and no amount of repair work removes it — it is answered with rinse aid, tablets and a periodic cleaner. Telling the two apart at the sink saves a visit that would only have confirmed your water is hard. What hard water does to the machine itself Beyond the glassware, scale builds on the heater and inside the water path. It is slow, it is preventable, and it is the reason a machine in its eighth year here can wash noticeably worse than the same machine somewhere else. Running a dishwasher cleaner through it a few times a year is genuinely the cheapest maintenance on the appliance. ### Should I rinse the dishes first? Scrape them, do not rinse them. Modern detergent needs some soil to work on, and a machine fed nothing but clean plates washes worse rather than better. What you must keep out of it are bones, seeds and labels, because those are what load the filter. ### Is the white film on my glasses permanent? Often it can be improved. The manufacturer's own remedies are raising the rinse-aid dispenser setting, using tablets or packs rather than gel, and running a dishwasher cleaner or a white vinegar rinse periodically. Etching that has already happened to glass is not reversible, which is why it is worth acting on early. ### Is South Florida water hard enough to cause this? It is hard enough that Miami-Dade and Broward both soften it at the treatment plant before it reaches you, because the Biscayne Aquifer groundwater underneath is hard. KitchenAid recommends a softener at 15 grains or more. Your own utility publishes your number — that is the one to check rather than any figure on the internet. --- **[Read full article: Dishes are coming out dirty](https://kitchenaidmiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-not-cleaning-dishes/)**