Dishwashers are 2,012 of our completed jobs. Two complaints dominate: dishes that come out cloudy, and dishes that come out wet. They have different causes and different fixes.
Cloudy glassware is usually not a fault
A white or grey film on glasses is mineral deposit from hard water, not a broken machine. Municipal water across much of the Houston metro and North Texas carries a heavy mineral load, and it leaves that film on everything it dries on.
Try this before calling anyone: use a rinse aid, run a descaling cycle, and check that you are not overdosing detergent. Excess detergent in hard water leaves more residue, not less. If the film persists after that, we check spray pressure and the heating element.
Etching is different and permanent
If the cloudiness does not come off with vinegar, it is etching rather than film — microscopic damage to the glass from very soft water plus too much detergent. It cannot be reversed, but it can be stopped by cutting the dose.
Wet dishes point at heat
The final rinse is supposed to come out hot enough that water evaporates off the load. When the heating element scales over or the thermostat drifts, that rinse never reaches temperature and every load finishes wet.
Plastics staying wet while glass and china dry is normal — plastic holds less heat. Everything staying wet is not.
Standing water in the bottom
This is a drain problem, and there are only three common causes:
- Blocked filter. At the base of the tub, removable by hand on most machines.
- Clogged drain hose or air gap. Food debris collects at the bends.
- No high loop. The drain hose must rise above the connection point before falling, or the sink drains back into the machine.
Poor cleaning with no obvious fault
Spray arm jets narrow as mineral and debris build up in them. Wash pressure drops gradually, water stops reaching the upper rack properly, and the machine keeps running a flawless-looking cycle while cleaning steadily worse. Hold the arms up to the light and check the jets are open.
It will not start at all
Door latch switches fail far more often than control boards, and they produce the same dead machine. We test the latch, the switch and the supply before any electronics are discussed.
Rule out loading and dosing before anything else
A significant share of dishwasher calls are not faults. Before booking anyone, check these — they cost nothing and resolve a real proportion of complaints.
- Spray arms turning freely. A tall item in the lower rack, or a handle poking through, stops the arm dead. The cycle runs perfectly and washes almost nothing.
- Jets clear. Hold each arm to the light. Mineral and debris narrow the holes gradually.
- Filter clean. Base of the tub, usually a quarter-turn to remove. Most people have never taken theirs out.
- Rinse aid full. In hard water this is the difference between clear glasses and cloudy ones.
- Detergent dose. Less than you think. Overdosing causes film, not cleanliness.
- Hot water at the tap. Run the kitchen tap hot before starting. A machine that fills with cold water spends the cycle catching up.
Telling film from etching
Both look like cloudy glass and the fix is opposite, so this matters.
Put an affected glass in white vinegar for a few minutes. If the cloudiness clears, it is mineral film — hard water — and rinse aid plus descaling will fix it. If it does not clear, it is etching: permanent microscopic damage from soft water combined with too much detergent, usually at high temperature. Etching cannot be reversed, but reducing the dose stops it spreading to the rest of your glassware.
Drying is a system, not a single part
Dishes come out dry through a combination of a hot final rinse, rinse aid breaking surface tension so water sheets off, and either a heated element or a condensing surface finishing the job. Any one of those failing produces wet dishes.
Condensation-drying models — increasingly common — have no drying element at all. They rely entirely on the final rinse being hot and on rinse aid. On those machines, an empty rinse aid reservoir is not a minor omission; it is the difference between dry and soaked.
Smells and standing water
A dishwasher that smells has food residue somewhere it should not be: the filter, the sump, or the drain hose. Clean the filter, run an empty hot cycle with a dishwasher cleaner, and check that the drain hose has a proper high loop. If water stands in the base between cycles, the drain is not clearing and that is the source.
Common questions
Should I pre-rinse dishes?
Scrape, do not rinse. Modern detergents need some soil to work against, and many machines have a sensor that reduces the cycle when it sees clean water going in.
Why are only the plastics wet?
Normal. Plastic has low thermal mass so it does not hold enough heat to evaporate the water on it. If glass and china are also wet, that is a fault.
Is a dishwasher worth repairing at eight years?
For a pump, heating element, door latch, spray arm or inlet valve — yes. For a control board on a budget model — often not. Ask for the part price before deciding.
Does the hottest setting clean better?
It sanitises better, but it also accelerates etching if your water is soft and your detergent dose is high. A normal cycle with correct dosing and rinse aid outperforms a hot cycle with too much detergent.
Book a visit or call (832) 888-0875 and we will tell you what the fault is before any part is ordered.