Smelly plates from dishwasher

[stupc63]

Well its been quite a few days now and..... still no smell . I see from reading online that all outside taps with a hosepipe fitted to it are required to have a non return valve fitted to them to stop 'contaminated' water being siphoned back into the mains. Seeing as we have no problems now could it be that we have a tap which is not fitted with a non return valve??? The house is only 6 years old and seeing as the law came into effect in 1989 have our builders stitched us up??? How would i be able to tell if the tap has a non return valve? I note non compliance can result in heavy fines. As we have been trying to cure this for about 6 months and have spent quite a lot of money also i am wondering if we can claim off them or if we report them who would it be to? Any help much appreciated. Stu.

 

[cmother1]

Hi again & congratulations. If the water smelled as bad as you say I'm amazed you haven't been plagued with upset stomachs!
A non-return valve usually looks like an elongated straight brass compression fitting (have a look at Screwfix's website for examples). It could be fitted anywhere between where the tap is tee'd off the mains and the tap itself.
Can you be certain the builders put the tap in or could it have been a previous owner who was a member of the provisional DIY?
You're very unlikely to get any financial redress unless you've well documented evidence of what the problem has cost you in money or other terms.

 

[stupc63]

We have been in this house since new so no previous owners!! all i can see between where the water comes in and the garden tap is an isolating valve. I know some taps can be non return, how can you tell? A friend of ours who lives on the estate seems to have an isolating valve that is some 1 1/2 inches longer than ours and has a black plastic tap and extra length of metal tubing compared to ours....is that the non return part (im no good at plumbing ). No upset stomachs thus far.... .

 

[cmother1]

Without photos it's hard to say what your friend has got (but does he have a smelly dishwasher??!). Short of dismantling all the bits to see if any contains a n/r valve, and putting water through it the wrong way to see if it still works, I don't know what to suggest. Some garden taps have built-in valves , but it isn't immediately obvious.

 

[JohnD]

stupc63 wrote:
we have a power shower

and does it suck cold water from a tank or from the water mains?

if there is no cold tank in the loft it must be the mains (which is not permitte as it causes contamination)

 

[stupc63]

thanks CM1 our friend doesn't have a smelly dishwasher, i think i will get someone to check our tap to see if it has a n/r valve on it, it just seems to be too much of a coincidence that when i have turned the tap off to the outside tap the smells disappear!!! JD we have a cold fill tank in the loft but i am still convinced that it is something to do with the outside tap!!

 

[kwrs]

I too have a dishwasher which has started to make all the crockery smell horrid. Ours is a Siemens machine . We have had dishwashers for over 20 years and never ever had a problem like this. It smells like stale standing water. Occasionally they do not smell at all and sometimes the smell develops after the wash is finished and the cups and plates are put away. Any ideas to get rid of it would be gratefully received. We use tablets and I wonder whether they are the problem?

 

[murphczx]

Hi, I had the same problem with my Miele. Took the whole thing apart, cleaned filters, pipes etc.. No Joy. Saw an article on a forum that indicated that you should not wash your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. My wife was insisting all of the time that we should rinse or wash the dishes fist. It has something to do with enzymes in either the power or the washer itself but you need dirty dishes.

Stopped pre washing and the problem went away. Hope this helps.

 

[stupc63]

Still no luck we have just about singled everything out apart from the water. our water company have taken samples away but say that they are all normal. we have had an independant water test done awaiting the results of that. Another person different forum exactly the same problem as us. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=23090795#post23090795 What can it be???? Anyone else had the same problems and if so what part of the country???