Weird Miele DW oversudsing incident..

Detectives,
Last night I ran a perfectly normal load in my Miele DW. Used one Electrasol 2-in-1 tab on a (previously "rinse and hold") load and used the "Economy" cycle. I was at the other end of the kitchen folding laundry as the machine was completing it's cycle. I had gotten used to the rythmic rapid "whoosh whoosh" as the water struck the inside of a Rubbermaid plastic pitcher in the bottom rack. The machine drained, and filled for final rinse. The spray action started,and after a few minutes, I heard the "clunk" that indicated that the rinse aid dispenser had shot its load into the hot, wet interior (..where was I going with this tale??!). Almost immediately, I noticed the "whoosh whoosh" got slower and slower, and the pump was making that aspirating sound that it makes when it's sucking air at the final dregs of rinsing. It really sounded weird, and I thought "this ain't no two-speed dishwasher!" So I opened the door, and was met with suds up past the bottom of the lower rack! The suds didn't quickly dissipate when I opened the door; it was as if someone had squirted Dawn in there! I closed the door, and let it do it's thing for a few more seconds to see if the suds would "magically" clear, or if Miele had some sort of clever sub-routine built in that would drain and refill the machine, like it's washers do in an oversudsing condition. Well,to no-one's surprise, this didn't happen, so I opened the door and added the better part of a box of table salt, which killed the suds almost immediately upon restart. The regular rythmic "whoosh-whoosh" proceeded. The hour was late, and I was exhausted, so I left the situation for in the morning, when I knew I'd just re-wash the dishes on "short" cycle to remove the dried-on salt, which I did.

The short cycle, run without any detergent, removed the salt and all was again well. My question is, if the machine didn't oversuds during the wash part of the cycle, why did it oversuds during the final rinse cycle right after the rinse agent dispenser shot its wad? The machine is using Cascade rinse aid, setting of 3. It's never done this before. Did the rinse aid dispenser just foul up and shoot like 4 or 5 loads of agent in there, causing the sudsing?

It would be mildly disappointing to think that I had a bad rinse aid dispenser in a not-yet two year old TOL dishwasher.


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Post# 265210 2/16/2008 at 09:04 (5,911 days old) by drhardee ( Columbia, SC)
Checkrate/Likes Detectives, Last night I ran a perfectly normal load in my Miele DW. Used one Electrasol 2-in-1 tab on a (previously "rinse and hold") load and used the "Economy" cycle. I was at the other end of the kitchen folding laundry as the machine was completing it's cycle. I had gotten used to the rythmic rapid "whoosh whoosh" as the water struck the inside of a Rubbermaid plastic pitcher in the bottom rack. The machine drained, and filled for final rinse. The spray action started,and after a few minutes, I heard the "clunk" that indicated that the rinse aid dispenser had shot its load into the hot, wet interior (..where was I going with this tale??!). Almost immediately, I noticed the "whoosh whoosh" got slower and slower, and the pump was making that aspirating sound that it makes when it's sucking air at the final dregs of rinsing. It really sounded weird, and I thought "this ain't no two-speed dishwasher!" So I opened the door, and was met with suds up past the bottom of the lower rack! The suds didn't quickly dissipate when I opened the door; it was as if someone had squirted Dawn in there! I closed the door, and let it do it's thing for a few more seconds to see if the suds would "magically" clear, or if Miele had some sort of clever sub-routine built in that would drain and refill the machine, like it's washers do in an oversudsing condition. Well,to no-one's surprise, this didn't happen, so I opened the door and added the better part of a box of table salt, which killed the suds almost immediately upon restart. The regular rythmic "whoosh-whoosh" proceeded. The hour was late, and I was exhausted, so I left the situation for in the morning, when I knew I'd just re-wash the dishes on "short" cycle to remove the dried-on salt, which I did. The short cycle, run without any detergent, removed the salt and all was again well. My question is, if the machine didn't oversuds during the wash part of the cycle, why did it oversuds during the final rinse cycle right after the rinse agent dispenser shot its wad? The machine is using Cascade rinse aid, setting of 3. It's never done this before. Did the rinse aid dispenser just foul up and shoot like 4 or 5 loads of agent in there, causing the sudsing? It would be mildly disappointing to think that I had a bad rinse aid dispenser in a not-yet two year old TOL dishwasher.

Post# 265215 , Reply# 1 2/16/2008 at 09:33 (5,911 days old) by nmaineman36 ()
Checkrate/Likes I dont think its the dishwasher. I would say its the rinse aid. did you just refill the rinse aid dispesner? Is it a new bottle?. I know for myself in my Miele I will notice suds in the final rinse using Miele's rinse aid. Jet dry doesnt do that and sometimes Cascade rinse aid will suds..but not like that.

Post# 265216 , Reply# 2 2/16/2008 at 09:33 (5,911 days old) by dubstar85 (Glasgow, Scotland)
Checkrate/Likes Could it be that you have overdosed on rinse aid? From a quick look at the electrasol website it looks like the two in one products have rins aid in them. That could be the reason? My mum done that when she switched to 3 in 1 tabs from seperate rinse aid and detergent. She hadn't used all the rinse aid from before.

Post# 265222 , Reply# 3 2/16/2008 at 09:58 (5,911 days old) by drhardee ( Columbia, SC)
Checkrate/Likes Perhaps it is the fault of the rinse agent. In the US, Elactrasol 2-in-one tabs don't have rinse agent in them, I believe the rinse agent is a part of the "3-in-1 product". The 2-in-1 Gelpacks have rinse agent in them, but I don't use them. I didn't just refill the dispenser, and had been using the Elactrasol tabs for several weeks. I bought them on a tremendous sale, and used them to conserve my Miele tabs, which are running expensively low. If it was a bad dispenser, I would have thought that the overload of rinse agent might have completely emptied the dispenser, but the refill light isn't on, so I don't think that was the case. Thanks for the ideas; I'll monitor the situation, and see what happens. I have turned down the rinse agent dispenser setting a notch, from 3 to 2.

Post# 265239 , Reply# 4 2/16/2008 at 12:01 (5,911 days old) by geoff (Cape Coral, FL)
Checkrate/Likes *same experience* I have a Maytag TT that I usually use Jet-Dry in. When I last bought Cascade it came with a bottle of Cascade rinse agent attached. That one little bottle caused me more annoyance than anything. I turned up the rinse aid then turned it down, tried different detergents, water temps and it didn't make a difference. I would ALWAYS get 3 inches of suds in the rinse..not to mention a film on every glass, everytime. I finally got fed up and took the dispenser out and flushed it completely clean then refilled it with Jet-Dry. Have not had the same problem since. needless to say, I threw the rest of the bottle out LOL

Post# 265476 , Reply# 5 2/18/2008 at 09:31 (5,909 days old) by peterh770 (Marietta, GA)
Checkrate/Likes I cannot use any tabs in my WP DW. It routinely oversuds with them, and will oversuds on occasion with regular powder. The Jet-Dry I use usually suds also. If you have soft(er) water, I think this is normal. Electrasol tabs are particularly hard also. Maybe the tab didn't dissolve completely, and the little bit of tab plus the rinse aid produced the disasterous results...