Cleaning dishwasher interior

I've been reading about cleaning the inside of our dishwasher and there are many products available. While I have no particular issues, I've been wondering of it's something I should be doing as regular maintenance.

Does anyone clean their dishwasher interior? If so, how often?

 

Container of powdered Tang or Lemonade every 6 months!

 

I use something I got on Amazon and it did clean up the inside pretty well. It can be used with or without dishes so I throw one in every few months with a relatively dirty load of dishes and they come out nicely as well.

 

I've used powdered lemonade and it works. I've also recently bought citric acid for making candies and went crazy on Amazon and now have a huge bag of citric acid I'll never use... I'll probably be using a half cup of it for the next cleaning.

 

I use Affresh for dishwashers. I usually carry it when I work on customers units. I use it in my own machine every other month. It cleans all the calcium left behind.

Most of these cleaning products use Citric Acid as the cleaning agent.
Tang used to be a well known cleaner.

 

Thanks for the input. I was going to try a home-made citric acid solution but Amazon has an Affresh 6-pack for only $4 so I'll try that.

 

We have never used any specific cleaner other than the detergent meant for it. And never had any smell or stain issues. Of course we have only bought stainless steel interiors. I have seen many plastic interiors eventually stain.

 

Thanks Pete - couldn't recall Affresh as the name of the stuff I use.

 

Plain white vinegar works fine and is cheap.

 

Also recommend cheap white vinegar, (acetic acid @ pH 2.50), or coke/pepsi (phosphoric acid @ pH 2.53), although RC Cola is highest acidity (pH 2.38) which means ~1/3 more acid per container. Soda/Pop on sale is about the same cost as vinegar.

I find that diet sodas fizz and do better at loosening gunk in crevices. (Also, I viscerally HATE the taste of diet soda, so this is a convenient way to make it disappear when nobody is watching)

One trick though - I run the dishwasher empty, but pour the acidic solution into an open-top container (measuring cup or casserole dish) on the top rack. That way, the initial rinse doesn't drain out all the acidic cleaning agent. This is necessary with new "smart dishwashers" which do a short rinse to generate a sample of dirty water, then pump the rinsewater past a sensor to determine how dirth the dishes are, THEN chooses how long to run the cleaning cycle. If you put the acidic cleaner in first, the pre-rinse will flush it all down the drain before it has a chance to clean anything.

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