Get rid of foul odors from the dishwasher

My high-end Bosch dishwasher sometimes emits a very foul odor when the door is ope n, a problem that has been happening since I bought it about three years ago. The odor comes and goes; sometimes it smells like sewer gas, and other times it smells very rank. During the manufacturer’s warranty period, I had three service calls, to no avail. The odor wasn’t there when the repairman was. He just told me to keep drain filters clean. After the warranty period, a dif- ferent repair person told me to use a dishwasher cleaner, Affresh. I tried theproduct,buttheproblem persists. On none of the repair visits was the dishwasher pulled out to check behind it. I am ready to throw it out and buy a new one. Is there anything

else I can try?

The most likely problem is that the drain hose wasn’t installed correctly, said plumber Doug McLendon, who o wns Benjamin Franklin Plumbing in Silver Spring, Maryland. “The hose has to go up to the bottom of the countertop and then down” before it connects to the drain under the sink.

You can check this yourself without pulling the dish- washer out of the cabinet. Just open the doors under the sink and look. There should be what plumbers call a “high loop” — a bend in the drain hose, typically secured to the underside of the countertop. “If it is running straight in without that high loop, th ere is no way to stop that sewer gas from

coming in,” McLendon said. The only time a dishwasher doesn’t need that high loop is when there is an air gap, a small fitting that

looks like a short piece of pipe with vents at the edge of the sink.

If you have neither, you can add the high loop, assuming the drain hose is long enough. If it isn’t, replace the hose and add the loop.

If you have the loop or an air gap, there might be food stuck somewhere. Besides cleaning the filter, you might also try sponging out the water that collects in the area where the filter sits. A single fish bone trapped there can cause problems t hatdisappear once the debris is gone.

Also check whether food is trapped in the door or the garbage disposal.