I May Have Done It!

I have had it with my dishwasher.

Symptoms:
-It won't open or shut completely
-The glasses look foggy
-All the dishes are coated with a sandy like substance and is cemented on with the dry cycle

I replaced the handle after it broke and now our dishes are no longer held captive.

I've done everything I can to the water softener. The only thing left is to change out the filters ($50). The fogginess and lack of cleanliness has to be an issue with the dishwasher.

The sandy residue is driving me crazy! I've researched everything online and pretty much everyone with my dishwasher has the same problems but no solutions. Even my niece Hannah said, "Oh, ours does that too."

I've run it with dishwasher cleaner. I've run it on it's own hoping to flush out the issue only to put dishes in and have them accosted with sandy ick.

Today I decided to take the stinking thing down to the screws in order to find the issue or I'm just going to replace it (because we have the money for that, ha!).

So, I squatted down and peered into the cavern that is the dishwasher and this is what I saw:

Do you see that box shaped thing to the left of the center gray column? I reached in and wiggled it free. Guess what? That just happens to be a catch basket for food particles and shockingly enough after 5 years it was full of the very sand substance that's been all over my dishes. There was at least a measured cup full of gunk in there.

Why hasn't anyone figured this out yet? There are innumerable people online with the same dishwasher complaining of the same issue and there are all kinds of ridiculous suggestions including re-plumbing the dishwasher. No one suggested there might be a catch that has gunk in it.

My first load of dishes post gunk removal is running. I'll let you know how it turns out! My guess is I've found the source of the problem.