Filter (External)

Water being the main source for this appliance there are many filters both inside and outside of the dishwasher to filter dirt and food particles. In this post I'm going to cover one important filter that is present outside the dishwasher.

The filter I'm talking is present in the extreme end of the water inlet hose. The basic use of it is to filter out any sand/dust/rust particles coming from the over head tank.

If you find your dishwasher is not working or taking long time to complete then you may want to check this filter. Regular check once in 2 weeks and whenever your over-head tank is cleaned would avoid problem.

So far I've come across two type of filters and I'm posting pictures related to both of them here.

First Type of Filter - Inlet Hose

Filter and Washer all-in-one

Just place this filter under running tap and put back

Second Type of Filter - Inlet Hose

 (see some dust stuck at the centre of the filter)

Filter and Washer are not one single unit here

 Clean the Filter by placing it under running water and put back

Pre-Installation Work

Before your Dishwasher arrives you could keep certain things in place. I'm going to talk about Water Source and Water Outlet that needs to be ready apart from the Power Point.

Water Outlet
Any regular drain hole could be used provided it is on the floor, don't use drain hole fitted to the side wall.

Water Source
Go for Sink Valve instead of a regular tap as it would be a perfect fit and would avoid plumber making some ugly modifications. I am posting some pictures along with some reducers that are available in the market.

Use Sink Valve instead of Regular Tap

You would get this reducer in Plumbing Shop 

Valve with Reducer connected

Entire setup mounted to the wall

Just need to connet the inlet hose of the Dishwasher to this setup

Power Point


Ensure that you have a 16A Power Point of Good Quality / Branded Company and ensure that the electrical wire and wiring material used is suitable for running Heavy Duty appliances as Dishwasher is expected to take over 2000 Watts during it running cycle. Additionally have 16A MCB. Don't ever think if using Extension box, 5A to 15A convertors or poor quality materials. When you are investing so much money on Dishwasher, you are not at a loss to spend an extra Rs 1000 for your familie's safety. See my latest post about Safety. Try to get a copy of the Installation Manual / User Manual online, if not, visit the show room and ask them for the copy and read it completely.

Consumer has more options now

In recent times, I have seen following companies entering the Dishwasher market in India

Bosch
http://www.bosch-home.com/in


Kaff
http://kaff.in

Arranging Vessels in a Dish Washer

Arranging vessels is not a rocket science however would need some bit of understanding.

• The vessels are getting cleaned by the force of water along with heat and detergent, that would mean you should arrange vessels in such a way that water from the spray falls on all the vessels. 
• Some simple DOs would be, place your vessels bottom up always.
• Big vessels on Bottom Tray with vessels evenly spread out
• Smaller vessels on Top Tray with Glass in appropriate compartment
• I personally feel that the cutlery basket is not needed as we can find about 20-25 small places (in the Top Tray) where we can place the spoons and forks

A typical placement of vessels would be

Top Tray

Bottom Tray

• Most important thing - After arranging the vessels and before you start the machine, try to rotate (both) the spray arms to ensure that they are rotating freely without any obstruction otherwise you may end up with uncleaned vessels.

Maintaining Dishwasher

Following are the things you may want to keep in mind.

1) Once in a week or every fortnight you could do some preventive maintenance run that would include, removing the sprayer arms and filters and inspect for any blockages caused by food particles. You clean them by using a old tooth brush. Fix the sprayer arms and filter back.

2)  After completing Step 1 above, set the program to minimum level and try run the dishwasher empty without any vessels loaded. When you start hearing the sound of sprayer arm moving, switch of the power, open the door and add two small cups of Vinegar - This would help in cleaning the interiors and switch on the power and allow it to complete.

4) Inspect the outlet hose to see if they are properly aligned, sometimes the outlet hose might have come out of the pit hole on the floor and water might be spreading all over the floor before it eventually drys. Look for any blockages.

5) Check the inlet hose, you might see a small filter that is used for filtering any sand or rust particles that come from the over head tank -- this happens typically when your overhead tank is cleaned. Remove them by keeping the filter under tap water and put them back.

6) If you are in a Flat, then keep an eye on what kind of water is being supplied to you. It might vary from Bore water (hard water) to Govt/Municipality supplied water (generally soft water) to the one supplied by Private Water Tankers (these are generally very hard (water), depending on the source). You may want to adjust the water softener level accordingly for getting good result.

7) Whenever your Salt indicator is Red, try to refill the Salt at the earliest, while you could still run with out the salt, this might result in poor cleaning (depending on the water you use, if you are using soft water you may not see any difference) however the softening system helps in preventing scale formation on heating filament and other internal parts that are invisible. (Don't add salt that contains Iodine, go for Non-Iodized salt or the one that vendor supplies, see my earlier post)

8) Inspect the rubber beading around the door for hardness and dirt, you may want to replace or clean them accordingly.

9) Keep an eye on the Warranty and renew or take necessary steps, the machine has to run at least for about 6-8 years (depending on Maid rates in your area) to get back the money you have invested.


See Post: Pre-Installation Work