Keeping Your Rinse Aid Dispenser Clean
Did you know that you should keep your rinse aid dispenser clean? I don’t know what brought you to this article, maybe your rinse aid dispenser is clogged and not working properly. Or maybe you’ve put vinegar in it and you read my article on rinse aids and learned that the acidity of the vinegar can wear down the rubber components of your dishwasher and want to get it back out. Maybe you just want to keep every aspect of your dishwasher functioning efficiently!
In any case I thought it was a good idea to post a short article about how to clean your rinse aid dispenser.
The Cap
First, make sure the cap that secures the rinse aid dispenser is not missing or damaged.
If the cap isn’t there, or isn’t able to close, the rinse aid will all come out during the prewash and wash cycles and there will be none left during the rinse cycle.
Rinse aid needs to be dispensed during the rinse cycle to do its job. So if the cap is missing or damaged it will seem like your rinse aid isn’t working.
If your cap is missing or damaged you can order a new one fairly inexpensively such as this GE Rinse Aid Dispenser Cap – just make sure you find the right cap for the make and model of your dishwasher.
If your rinse aid compartment is the kind that has a door that swings open and closed, make sure the door can move freely and snap all the way shut. If it is covered in heavy buildup or soap scum you should clean it with a warm wet sponge.
Every part of your dishwasher should be kept clean and free of debris, soap scum, lime scale, and buildup.
Using the best possible dishwashing detergent should help prevent this type of buildup!
Cleaning the Rinse Aid Compartment
If you have accidentally put dish soap into your rinse aid dispenser skip this step!
Start by unscrewing the cap from the rinse aid compartment. You’ll set this aside and leave it out of your dishwasher – but don’t lose it! It goes right back in when you’re done.
Set the rinse aid feature to its highest setting. Sometimes this will be a small knob near where you fill the rinse aid, or under the cap. This setting opens an aperture on the rinse aid release valve wider so that more liquid can flow through it.
Some automatic dishwashers do not have settings for rinse aid, so if you don’t see a way to adjust this don’t worry about it. You can also consult your dishwashing machine manual to see how to do this. It isn’t a crucial step, but it allows the maximum amount of water to flow through the compartment while the machine cycles, which can help clean it out more thoroughly.
Next you’ll run the empty dishwasher with a bottle of Dishwasher Machine Cleaner. Dishwasher machine cleaner should remove any buildup, lime scale, and soap scum while killing bacteria such as e coli.
Dish soap in the Rinse Aid Dispenser?
You should NEVER put dish soap in the rinse aid dispenser.

However, if someone in your household mistakenly put dish soap into your rinse aid dispenser (it happens more often than you might think) you should not follow the above instructions for cleaning your rinse aid dispenser, because your dishwasher will overflow with soap suds.
But all is not lost!
You can get the majority of that soap out of your rinse aid dispenser with a turkey baster – just use it for suction instead of basting.
I recommend flushing the dispenser as much as possible using the turkey baster with water.
Then you can leave it open according to the above instructions (remove the cap and turn it to its highest setting) and run the dishwasher empty, but this time add a cup of table salt instead of the dishwashing machine cleaner. Table salt reduces the amount of suds caused by soap, so it will help prevent your kitchen from turning into a miniature bubble fun run for your children.
I hope this helps!
July 2, 2018 @ 2:02 pm
Can the first part be done with the rinse aid compartment cap off? We actually put machine cleaner in the rinse aid compartment (accidentally) and have been using our dishwasher! I’d like to use the rest of the machine cleaner as it’s supposed to be used…Can this be done with the rinse aid compartment cap off or could it damage my Maytag dishwasher?
October 29, 2018 @ 5:04 am
Kara,
You should run your dishwasher once with the rinse aid cap off and let the wash cycle clean the machine cleaner out of your rinse aid compartment. It happens! It’ll be okay!
August 9, 2020 @ 3:01 am
Where do I put the turkey baster to suck out liquid from the rinse aid? I accidentally put in concentrated window cleaner (same color, very similar shape bottle, eek!)
December 24, 2018 @ 8:40 pm
Woah! I’m really digging the template/theme of this blog. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very difficult to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and appearance. I must say that you’ve done a very good job with this. Additionally, the blog loads extremely quick for me on Internet explorer. Exceptional Blog!
February 3, 2019 @ 5:57 am
Today, I went to the beach front with my children. I found a sea
shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and
screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic
but I had to tell someone!
February 9, 2019 @ 3:54 am
Hi, the whole thing is going sound here and ofcourse every one is sharing data, that’s genuinely excellent, keep up writing.
May 8, 2019 @ 5:43 pm
Awesome article.
May 20, 2019 @ 8:20 am
Thanks for finally talking about Keeping
Your Rinse Aid Dispenser Clean. I Liked it!
November 16, 2019 @ 7:10 am
Hi there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok.
I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.
March 4, 2020 @ 11:17 pm
You can follow me on Twitter @fithouses
November 21, 2019 @ 12:51 am
Hi, I check your new stuff on a regular basis. Your story-telling
style is witty, keep doing what you’re doing!
November 21, 2019 @ 6:46 pm
Wonderful! This is the type of information that should be shared across
the internet.
Thank you =)
January 13, 2020 @ 10:40 pm
Hi there, all the time i used to check website posts here early
in the daylight, since i like to learn more and more.
January 14, 2020 @ 5:37 pm
Where do I put the cup of salt ?
March 4, 2020 @ 9:19 pm
You just put it right where your dishwasher detergent normally goes 🙂
January 15, 2020 @ 7:00 am
Just desire to say your article is as amazing.
The clearness in your post is just great and i could assume
you’re an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission allow
me to grab your RSS feed to keep up to date with
forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the enjoyable work.
March 4, 2020 @ 9:17 pm
Thank you so much Kristin, that means a lot!
February 9, 2020 @ 12:24 am
Good day! I could have sworn I’ve visited this site before but after browsing through many of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely happy I discovered it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back regularly!
February 10, 2020 @ 6:47 am
I’m amazed, I must say. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and engaging, and without a doubt, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The problem is something not enough folks are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy that I found this in my search for something concerning this.
February 15, 2020 @ 3:17 pm
Thanks very nice blog!
February 17, 2020 @ 10:58 am
This paragraph is really a fastidious.
March 4, 2020 @ 8:38 pm
I don’t really know what you mean by that – but thanks for stopping by, Ned!
February 21, 2020 @ 5:51 am
Thank you for the information about using table salt and vinegar. I mistakenly put Dawn Foam dishwashing soap into my new Whirlpool Dishwasher. It took me two weeks to understand what I did, I thought the machine was malfunctioning. So before calling the company and complaining I looked at the bottle and figured it out. From now on I won’t buy the blue bottle of dishwashing soap so there’s no confusion. The salt and vinegar worked great, I took off the cap on the rinse aid and moved it to max. It took 3 cycles to get it out. Thank you for the information.
March 4, 2020 @ 8:34 pm
I’m so glad I could help! Thank you for sharing your story here! It means a lot to me that anyone even sees my little blog here.
February 24, 2020 @ 3:23 am
I know this web page provides quality depending articles and
extra material, is there any other web site which gives such things in quality?
February 25, 2020 @ 4:49 am
Heya! I’m at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 3gs!
Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts!
Carry on the outstanding work!
May 24, 2020 @ 5:51 pm
This was a big help when I realized the rinse aid had completely quit dispensing. I had not realized that was a flow adjustment in there until that was pointed out in this article, and I still needed a flashlight to read the settings.
Also, I looked in where the rinse aid washes drains out, and it was full of goop. After a fruitless effort to get out a little with an ice pick, I used a medication syringe with hot water repeatedly to blow it out, closing the door occasionally to drain it and see what was left. I blew out *far* more that way than I could see, so I hope the rest will now flush out more quickly without all that in the way. It started to have a blue tint in the last part that came out, so that may have been all I needed to do, but I am going to let it flush a few cycles anyway.
July 24, 2020 @ 7:17 am
Saved as a favorite, I really like your site!
August 15, 2020 @ 12:37 am
Thank you so much Roselia!
August 12, 2020 @ 2:42 am
I constantly spent my half an hour to read this website’s posts everyday along with a mug of coffee.