Cleaning · 4 of 21
Viking Dishwasher Leaves Dishes Wet
Glass comes out dry, plastics come out beaded, and the tub feels cold when you open it.
| What you can see | What it usually is | Whose job |
|---|---|---|
| Tubs and lids wet, china and glass dry | Plastic holds almost no heat, so it is cool long before the moisture on it has gone anywhere | Normal, not a fault |
| Everything wet and the whole tub cold at the end | The load never got hot at all, which points at the heat during the last rinse rather than at drying | Ours |
| Puddles sitting in upturned cups and in the base of bowls | Loading rather than drying: anything with a flat underside carries its own puddle out with it | Yours to reload |
| Dry if you unload at once, wet if you leave it shut overnight | Moisture with nowhere to go has settled back onto a cold load instead of leaving the machine | Crack the door at the end |
Drying is not a wash. It is what the load does with the heat it kept once the water went away, and high dry air takes that heat back quickly, so the plastics give up first while the glass still looks fine. Before anything gets condemned, Viking Repair Denver checks what the load came out at on (303) 729-0972.
Drying is the part of the cycle with the least machinery in it, which is why so much of what looks like a drying fault is not one. The load has to finish hot, the moisture has to have somewhere to go, and the surfaces have to be ones water will run off rather than sit on. Miss any of the three and the result looks the same.
Why a load here goes cold sooner
Evaporation runs faster at this elevation, and every drop that leaves takes its share of warmth out of whatever it was sitting on, so a load cools from the moment the last rinse stops. Nearer the sea it would still be steaming while you put the kettle on; here it is at room temperature by the time the door opens.
Plastic makes it obvious: there is almost no mass in a lid to hold heat, so it is cold while the plates beside it are still warm, and cold surfaces are where moisture stays.
What gets looked at when nothing is dry
A load that comes out cold all through is the one worth a visit, because that is a heating question rather than a drying one. It is checked at the source: what the machine is being fed, what it does to that water during the cycle, and whether the control is calling for heat at the right point at all.
A load that comes out warm and wet in places needs no part at all. It needs rinse aid, a little more space between items, and the door opened when the machine says it has finished.
What to try before anyone drives over
- Put a hand flat on the inside of the door the second the cycle finishes. Warm means the load was heated and drying is doing what it can; cold everywhere is a different conversation and worth a call.
- Check that the rinse aid well is not empty. Water sheets off a treated surface instead of standing in beads, and how dry a load ends up depends on that as much as on heat.
- Open the door a hand's width at the end and leave it ten minutes before unloading. If everything is dry after that, there is nothing faulty inside the machine.
- Run the kitchen tap until it is hot before you start a load. A machine that begins on cold water in the line spends part of the cycle catching up and ends it with less heat in the load.
That is as far as it goes without tools. If it is still wrong, call Viking Repair Denver on (303) 729-0972 and say whether the inside of the door is warm to the touch the moment the cycle ends — it is usually enough to know which part is coming on the van.
Every symptom, grouped by what you can see Water in, water out, cleaning, power and the door — the whole library on one page.
Clifford Nakamura
- Written
- On the van
- Service technician — controls and intermittent faults
- Years at it
- 22 years in the trade