On Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 9:22:31 AM UTC-5, Rusty wrote:
I need to put rods through my drain about every year or so due to
dishwasher detergent congealing and clogging the drain.
Using "Finish" (top brand ?) tablet detergent.
We rarely use the sink which drains to the same path, so it doesn't
get much "flush though".
I'm assuming when the dishwasher drains, it re-congeals when the
expelled "liquid" gets cold.

Any suggestions ?
Maybe a liquid dishwasher detergent ?

Thanks.



I know this message was a couple of years ago, but we are currently experiencing the same problem. I found this thread hoping to find ways to get it unclogged and prevent it from happening again.

I won't say which brand of powdered dishwasher detergent it was (except that it was a major brand), but I stopped buying it because I noticed it was clumping together, sticking to the sides of the dishwasher, and giving our dishes a powdery-film appearance.


When the dishwasher stopped draining, I opened up the filter to clean it out and found huge clumps of the dishwasher powder all caked together...substantially larger than the filter-holes themselves, meaning it clumped together inside the filter itself.


(Doubters please note, companies can change their ingredients without notice, get a one-time shipment of ingredients that are substandard or fake, and some ingredients have changed due to recent federal regulations...especially ingredients previously used to soften hard water).