Before you open anything
Poor washing on an Almison dishwasher is a water-delivery problem before it is a heating problem: blocked spray jets and an overloaded top rack account for most of it. Poor drying is different and usually comes down to rinse aid and to opening the door too early. Neither is a fault in the machine that a part would fix.
What the machine is doing
- Grit left on the underside of bowls — Classic blocked-jet or blocked-filter pattern. The water is not reaching the surface that faces away from the arm.
- A film on glassware that wipes off dry — Detergent or water hardness, not mechanics. It changes with the product before it changes with a repair.
- Plates clean but soaking wet at the end — Drying, not washing. Rinse aid and the final rinse temperature own this symptom.
- Redeposited debris across the whole load — The filter is full and the machine is washing in its own leftovers.
- NEAR MISS: burnt-on food unaffected by anything — No dishwasher removes carbonised food. That is a soaking job before it is a machine job.
Where the fault usually sits
- Blocked spray jets or a stalled arm — First, because the arms are the entire delivery system and a handful of blocked jets changes the pattern across the whole rack.
- A loaded filter and sump — Second. It costs nothing to check and it explains the redeposition pattern that owners find most alarming.
- Detergent, salt and rinse-aid state — Third. Tablets left in a damp dispenser lose their bite, and an empty rinse-aid reservoir shows up as wet plates within days.
- Loading practice — Fourth, and no insult intended. Nested bowls and a tall board across the arm defeat any machine ever built.
- Water not reaching temperature — Last. It matters, but it is the least common of the five and the only one that needs a technician.
What to look at first
- Spin both arms and hold them to the light — Blocked jets are visible and the check takes a minute.
- Lift the filter and look at what is in it — This answers the redeposition question outright.
- Open the detergent and rinse-aid compartments — A crusted dispenser or a dry reservoir is the cheapest fix on the list.
- Only then question the heat — Because four cheaper explanations sit in front of it.
Steps up to the stopping point
- Clear every jet on both spray arms — Work round the arm methodically. It is dull, it takes a quarter of an hour, and it is the single highest-yield job here.
Tools: cocktail stick, warm waterAbout 15 min
- Strip and wash the filter stack — Rinse under a running tap with a brush; a soak in warm soapy water shifts the grease film that traps everything else.
Tools: brush, washing-up liquidAbout 15 min
- Refill rinse aid and check the salt setting — Wet plates and cloudy glass both improve within two or three cycles once these are right.
Tools: rinse aidAbout 5 min
- Run a hot maintenance cycle empty — With the machine clean, an empty hot run clears the film from the tub and gives you a fair baseline to judge the next real load.
About 90 min
Safety first, and it is not boilerplate
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel — a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Dishwasher detergent is caustic: rinse the dispenser with gloves on rather than picking at hardened tablet residue with bare fingers. If you take out the lower rack to reach the sump, watch for glass fragments in the filter, and never test a spray arm by hand while the machine is mid-cycle with the door held open.
The line for a service call
Call when the arms are clear, the filter is clean, the consumables are right and the plates still come out dirty, because at that point you are looking at water temperature or at circulation pressure and both need measurement. Call sooner if the tub is cold to the touch at the end of a long programme, which points at the heater rather than at anything you can clean. A machine that has never washed well since installation is a different conversation again, usually about supply temperature and drain height rather than about the appliance.
Nearest pages of this class
What this page does not cover
This page is written for the Almison dishwasher as a class and stops before family and model detail. It names no spray-arm part numbers, no heater ratings and no programme charts, because those differ across builds under this badge. Where a family- or model-specific page exists, it carries the programme table and the arm layout for that build and is the better reference. Water supply hardness and household plumbing temperature sit outside this page entirely, though both change what a machine can achieve.
Other faults on this machine
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
