Dirty Dishwasher Filter? Who Knew?

Art was resting and surfing the web for fun when he spied something about cleaning your dishwasher. The inside of our 8 year old Bosch dishwasher seemed shiny enough. We didn't think there would be a problem. The website mentioned a bad smell being indicative of a dirty filter. They also stated that newer dishwashers came with a filter that should be cleaned.

What? What filter?

He took out the bottom dish rack and removed the filter cover and then the filter. What a shock!

The filter was 75% clogged with rock hard water deposits. Arrrghhh! And the water pooled at the bottom did smell.

Art tried scrubbing it with soap, water and a toothbrush which couldn't remove the calcium deposits so we soaked it in vinegar and water which loosened it enough to clean. I used a spoon to scrape some of the deposits off which was much more effective.

Do you clean out your dishwasher filter?

Art just read that you're supposed to clean your dishwasher once a month by pouring a cup of vinegar into your dishwasher and running it through a full cycle while empty.

I guess we'll be doing this from now on.

 And here it is with the filter reinstalled.

Ummm... I just found the instruction manual for the dishwasher. It DOES say that the filter is supposed to be self cleaning, but we should check it "occasionally" for debris. It doesn't mention anything about hard water deposits though.

And wait... It also says to remove the spray arm and check to make sure that's not clogged too.

Sigh...