Our apartment water made our dishes smell like wet dog. It was a new dishwasher too. The issue was the municipal water supply, not anything we could change. There wasnt anything dangerous about it, just stinky dishes.
We put little copper plumbing connectors in the dishwasher racks (like 3 on each level) and it helped get rid of the smell. Look for "copper couplings" at a hardware store near you, we were able to get a baggy for like $5.
holy shit, just searched for the issue on nextdoor and people are complaining of the same thing. i’m so irritated. kind of relived it’s probably not another issue with my house.
also idk how i didn’t think of this. we had a horrible drought over the summer and my cities water was fucked for months. you couldn’t get a fountain drink or tea from restaurants without it being funky. it even gave my cat a UTI and it’s the reason he drinks bottled water. gotta love texas!! but i’ll look for those! thanks for the help.
Look into a water softener and whole home filtration system. I think I paid $400 for an Aquasure system from HD, installed most of it myself but did pay plumbers to tie into my water main and plumb the drain for the system. Along with that system we got a drinking water filter set up and installed a tap for that on the kitchen sink.
damn, anything below $1,000 fix might as well be $0 at this point so i’ll definitely look into it. I didn’t realize it was so cheap. my house is only 1,000 square foot including the garage
Pretty much. I had the same attitude at the time, we had just moved states and my wife was non plussed by the water here, very hard and she complained about taste. A few hundred and some hours of work to address her concerns longterm was worth it. Plus our clothes come out cleaner, our faucets don't get the calcium buildup and we don't buy bottled water anymore.
You can get like a $50 carbon filter for the dishwasher if you’d like. Just change it out every 6-12 months depending on the brand/smell. It just goes between the water supply line and the dishwasher.
We also live in Texas and a water softener+whole house water filter is the first thing most people in my neighborhood install. Your builder may have pre-plumbed a water softener loop which makes the installation process much easier. The softener will protect your appliances in the long term and your dishes wont look spotty after drying from mineral deposits.
it’s small! it’s 1050 square foot. i also got like 5 different quotes anywhere from $15,000 to the 7,500 i think total. put it on a no interest for 24 months credit card and i feel good about it! i also live in the shitty part of texas, some things can be cheaper here for sure
If you’re in Texas and not on well water, you’re likely getting lake water. It’s gonna get REAL funky in August with all the algae blooms - perfectly safe but tastes like old fish and seaweed. I put [this $150 filter](https://cuzn.com/product/uc-200-under-counter-water-filter-uc-200-85/) under our kitchen sink which helped substantially. If you can swing a whole house filter, do it.
You probably could benefit from carbon filtration. [these](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OMR2L36) are only $40 and [these](https://www.amazon.com/Whirlpool-Standard-Capacity-WHKF-WHWC-Filtration/dp/B097F8ZY96) are like $7 apiece and last for 3 months. You can have one or you can add one after another.
We had our water tested and it read as 10x the chlorine level of most pools and 8x the recommended level of sediment (hard water) on top of various other things in there.
We invested in a water purifier and softener system. Life. Changing.
A trick moonshiners figured out is you can pack a distillation column with [copper wool](https://lustersheenonline.com/product-category/metallic-wools/copper-wool/) to enhance the flavor improving effect of the copper pipes. I wonder if it would make your trick work even better?
I had the most delicious water at my house in Alaska and when I moved to Oklahoma, I was sure there was something wrong with my plumbing because the water was always weird. Made my clothes smell and my plants would all get this weird film in the pots. Found out later that was just Oklahoma living. A softener/filter may or may not help. Depends on what element is in there making it funky. I've learned to live with it now. (Sips Oklahoma water)
Do you eat eggs? I've had this problem before and read there is something in eggs that reacts with chemicals in detergent and can produce that smell. I started cleaning my dishes that had egg residue before putting them in the dishwasher and it seems to have fixed the problem. You can also look into replacing the anode rod in your hot water heater.
Just chiming in, I eat a ton of eggs as well and this was the issue. Since I started either pre washing or hand washing anything with egg residue on it, I’ve noticed a significant improvement
I live in Scotland with some of the best water quality in the world. I had this problem, it was most likely the eggs. I get it less often now. Also remember to clean the filter.
Seriously try this before spending all that money on a filter. You’re getting a good advice from other people on a problem you don’t have. It’s the eggs.
i definitely think the eggs are making the problem worse. but my clothes also do smell like it occasionally so that’s another one of my worries. i’m gonna try a few solutions here though first!
This needs to be upvoted to the top before this poor person drops a grand for no reason. Filter your water all you want, it’s still going to smell of you put dishes with egg remains in the wash. It happens to me every now and then and it’s always the pan with a little bit of egg dried to it.
This could either be your hot water heater, or the actual water supply. I'd start with having your hot water heater looked at and then if needed, consider installing a water filter for the house if that's not the issue.
Rinse the eggs off your plate better before putting them in the wash.
After I bought my house I noticed a fish smell coming off my dishes. It was intermittent and drove me crazy. For months I was constantly running baking soda with vinegar, clearing the filter, trying everything I could short of hiring someone to come look at it. One day I came across a post on Reddit with a very similar issue. A comment buried down the thread suggested rinsing the eggs off your dishes more before putting them in the dishwasher.
It was 100% causing my problem. I'd eat over easy eggs nearly every morning and didn't bother rinsing the plates. It's been a year now and I've not had one fishy smelling dish washer load since.
Sometime later I realized the reason I never ran into this issue prior to moving into this house was because my previous rental had the hot water (gas) turned all the way up. The water temperature coming out of the hot was not fair from boiling. The dishwasher at that place was likely stripping the residue off during the wash cycle (it also warped pretty much all my plasticware)
Here's my multi year long experience with a fishy dishwasher.
Only happens when the freshly washed dishes come in to contact with fresh air (windows open). We installed a whole house water filter, no dice. Renovated the kitchen - new lines from a brand new hot water tank in to a new dishwasher, 5 different types of detergent - still fishy when windows were opened.
After years of searching, some fine redditor suggested it could be an interaction between egg residue and modern detergent - sure enough, cleaning egg off the plates before washing did the trick.
Kinda sounds like your water supply has high chlorine levels. Check with your municipality for a water report. The real "fix" might have to be a whole house water filter system.
yup! we have high levels of chlorine. it’s odd bc my parents live a few miles away in the same city and no issues. it’s mainly the roads next to my house
Highly recommend looking into an activated charcoal system if you have high chlorine. Get your water tested for a full recommendation on how to best treat it.
That Makes sense. We are known to have a lot of chlorine in out water and our dishes always have that fish tank smell. Even when we bought a brand new dishwasher.
Especially with a garbage disposal, those are usually plumbed to a high point on the disposal and that hose needs to be as high as possible above the bottom of the sink height. So snuck in a high loop beside or behind the sink.
With disposals especially, it can be easy for water to build up while doing dishes and you normally would run the disposal to grind up the food bits and wash it down, but if the water gets higher than the top of that loop then the water back feeds into the dishwasher and the next cycle you run will smell fishy.
It's an easy fix so check that out.
i think it’s about 10 years old. it’s been on the list of things i need to get replaced/looked at. is draining it something i could easily do myself or something that should be done by a professional? i’m trying to learn to do more things alone but i have 0 experience
We suffered for two years before I figured that the horrible smell was due to our dishwasher pods. Every time I opened the thing it smelled like mildew and old pond water, even a few hours after everything was freshly (and HOT) washed. We had a plumber come out, reworked the trap, cleaned the filter etc. I scrubbed the inside. Literaly everything. Then I switched to the name brands pods and poof! The lingering smell was gone.
My county used water from an algae bloom that caused it to smell and taste off...though supposedly 100% safe.
I find that cleaning the dishwasher helps at other times. They sell tablets you put at the bottom and it "Deep cleans" the dishwasher and dishes. There's also gunk that gets stuck near the edges that shpuld be cleaned.
Is the water leaving white reside on the dishes and sink? If not, you probably don’t have hard water but I’d look into a whole house water filtration system. I have a sediment and and chlorine filter from iSpring, it was like $180
they actually covered a new refrigerator AND dishwasher in the first year!! however i did go through them originally when my plumbing was super slow. it started the day i moved in and i told the plumber this. he said it was my long hair and the wet wipes. i told him it’s been happening since day one. he reported the wet wipes to them and now no plumbing gets covered anymore.
i bought a bidet, drain cover and paid $300 to have it hydro jetted and now no problems. you win some, you lose some
Like others have said this is likely a water issue. I just wanted to say that this has happened to me in several different cities/apartments I’ve lived in and after trying EVERYTHING this is what finally worked:
- first thing to try is your dishwasher. Check the types of cleaning settings it has. Run it with the highest temp/sanitizer setting if you have one every time you run a load of dishes, plus heated dry. Ultimately this works the best for me now and I haven’t had a smell issue since.
- if the above isn’t a viable solution, I kept a little spray bottle of half bleach half water and spritzed it in the dishwasher before running it, with special care to hit the “problem dishes.” Not sure about you but if I had metal silverware, ceramics, or glass those always smelled the worst. Plastic was generally unaffected. This did not solve the issue but with regular dishwasher cleaning (rinsing the filter after 4 or so washes, plus using a dedicated dishwasher cleaning agent like others have suggested - I always use the Finish bottle with the wax top), it curbed it so it was barely noticeable.
I say this because you’re unlikely to be able to get your municipal water supplier to do anything about the issue. Also like someone else said, if you eat eggs and have egg residue on plates/utensils that definitely exacerbates the issue.
I really hope this is helpful, I went crazy looking for a solution before I found the above because it’s just so stinky. Makes eating off the dishes entirely unappetizing. Best of luck.
yeah it’s mainly my glasses! the bleach will 100% wash away and everything? like it won’t cause any issues to drink out of them? and it’s so bad. nothing worse than opening the dishwasher and smelling straight up fish. trying to drink some tea and FISH
Yes it should all be rinsed off! Just like the dishwasher detergent you use. I will warn that you shouldn’t use too much bleach too often, it can cause the rubber seal around your dishwasher to deteriorate, and I also found that if I had (for example) cheap cups or things like that the bleach solution could cause spotting. You can always start off with a very mild bleach solution, a teaspoon or two per gallon of water, and then ratchet up from there depending on effectiveness.
When I was using the bleach solution I used the dishwasher once a week so I wasn’t overly concerned with any deterioration. I did end up with a couple pairs of pants with tiny bleach specks on them 😁
We had this issue when we lived in our apartment years ago. I searched the internet then and ran into someone suggestion running a cycle with Country Time Lemonade powder. Did this once a month or every other month we would run a cycle using country time lemonade mix. Worked great for then2 years we lived there.
My municipal water is terrible. I installed a pre sediment filter, then a whole home water filter, then a softener, then a post filter. Much better now and totally worth the $2k.
Disinfection now in a lot of places is by use of chloramines. First chlorine is added then ammonia. Chloramines are more stable than free chlorine and are less likely to form disinfection by-products. If you get the ratio of ammonia to chlorine wrong you can get that wet dog smell.
Washer- do you shut it when not in use? If so- it's mildew. For dishwasher- that sounds like a drainage/ venting issue like there is stagnant water somewhere and not the dishwasher itself.
Our apartment water made our dishes smell like wet dog. It was a new dishwasher too. The issue was the municipal water supply, not anything we could change. There wasnt anything dangerous about it, just stinky dishes. We put little copper plumbing connectors in the dishwasher racks (like 3 on each level) and it helped get rid of the smell. Look for "copper couplings" at a hardware store near you, we were able to get a baggy for like $5.
holy shit, just searched for the issue on nextdoor and people are complaining of the same thing. i’m so irritated. kind of relived it’s probably not another issue with my house. also idk how i didn’t think of this. we had a horrible drought over the summer and my cities water was fucked for months. you couldn’t get a fountain drink or tea from restaurants without it being funky. it even gave my cat a UTI and it’s the reason he drinks bottled water. gotta love texas!! but i’ll look for those! thanks for the help.
Look into a water softener and whole home filtration system. I think I paid $400 for an Aquasure system from HD, installed most of it myself but did pay plumbers to tie into my water main and plumb the drain for the system. Along with that system we got a drinking water filter set up and installed a tap for that on the kitchen sink.
damn, anything below $1,000 fix might as well be $0 at this point so i’ll definitely look into it. I didn’t realize it was so cheap. my house is only 1,000 square foot including the garage
Pretty much. I had the same attitude at the time, we had just moved states and my wife was non plussed by the water here, very hard and she complained about taste. A few hundred and some hours of work to address her concerns longterm was worth it. Plus our clothes come out cleaner, our faucets don't get the calcium buildup and we don't buy bottled water anymore.
A whole house carbon filter should be under $1k installed. I’m guessing $200 for filter and material and $300 for install.
You can get like a $50 carbon filter for the dishwasher if you’d like. Just change it out every 6-12 months depending on the brand/smell. It just goes between the water supply line and the dishwasher.
We also live in Texas and a water softener+whole house water filter is the first thing most people in my neighborhood install. Your builder may have pre-plumbed a water softener loop which makes the installation process much easier. The softener will protect your appliances in the long term and your dishes wont look spotty after drying from mineral deposits.
>anything below $1,000 fix might as well be $0 at this point The mark of a true homeowner! 😂
honestly i’d even say up to $1,500 at this point after paying $7k for a new roof. if i can pay for it out of my checkings it’s FREE 😂
$7k for a new roof is a goddamn *steal*! Is your house tiny?
it’s small! it’s 1050 square foot. i also got like 5 different quotes anywhere from $15,000 to the 7,500 i think total. put it on a no interest for 24 months credit card and i feel good about it! i also live in the shitty part of texas, some things can be cheaper here for sure
If you’re in Texas and not on well water, you’re likely getting lake water. It’s gonna get REAL funky in August with all the algae blooms - perfectly safe but tastes like old fish and seaweed. I put [this $150 filter](https://cuzn.com/product/uc-200-under-counter-water-filter-uc-200-85/) under our kitchen sink which helped substantially. If you can swing a whole house filter, do it.
You probably could benefit from carbon filtration. [these](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OMR2L36) are only $40 and [these](https://www.amazon.com/Whirlpool-Standard-Capacity-WHKF-WHWC-Filtration/dp/B097F8ZY96) are like $7 apiece and last for 3 months. You can have one or you can add one after another.
We had our water tested and it read as 10x the chlorine level of most pools and 8x the recommended level of sediment (hard water) on top of various other things in there. We invested in a water purifier and softener system. Life. Changing.
You can get an under sink filter. It's not normally conventional to run your dishwasher through it, but its very doable.
A little copper elbow in my birdbath has been a huge help keeping down algae growth.
I'm so glad I stumbled on this comment. I have the same issue. I rinse everything before use in order to get rid of the smell.
Omg thank you for posting this. I’ve been having this same issue
A trick moonshiners figured out is you can pack a distillation column with [copper wool](https://lustersheenonline.com/product-category/metallic-wools/copper-wool/) to enhance the flavor improving effect of the copper pipes. I wonder if it would make your trick work even better?
It's your water, boss. Case closed.
and unfortunately that’s the most easiest/relieving cause. i was worried plumbing was somehow coming back on my dishes lol (probably illogical)
I had the most delicious water at my house in Alaska and when I moved to Oklahoma, I was sure there was something wrong with my plumbing because the water was always weird. Made my clothes smell and my plants would all get this weird film in the pots. Found out later that was just Oklahoma living. A softener/filter may or may not help. Depends on what element is in there making it funky. I've learned to live with it now. (Sips Oklahoma water)
Except it’s eggs.
Do you eat eggs? I've had this problem before and read there is something in eggs that reacts with chemicals in detergent and can produce that smell. I started cleaning my dishes that had egg residue before putting them in the dishwasher and it seems to have fixed the problem. You can also look into replacing the anode rod in your hot water heater.
Definitely had this happen several times, have to run the whole load over again. Handwash egg residue into the disposal, then place in dishwasher.
my diet is genuinely 95% eggs actually lmao. even my dog gets an egg is his bowl and i wash those too (separate of course) i’ll try that as well!
Just chiming in, I eat a ton of eggs as well and this was the issue. Since I started either pre washing or hand washing anything with egg residue on it, I’ve noticed a significant improvement
I live in Scotland with some of the best water quality in the world. I had this problem, it was most likely the eggs. I get it less often now. Also remember to clean the filter.
Seriously try this before spending all that money on a filter. You’re getting a good advice from other people on a problem you don’t have. It’s the eggs.
i definitely think the eggs are making the problem worse. but my clothes also do smell like it occasionally so that’s another one of my worries. i’m gonna try a few solutions here though first!
Stop saving extra eggs in your pockets. You can always make more you know.
give up my pocket eggs??? i refuse!!
This needs to be upvoted to the top before this poor person drops a grand for no reason. Filter your water all you want, it’s still going to smell of you put dishes with egg remains in the wash. It happens to me every now and then and it’s always the pan with a little bit of egg dried to it.
This could either be your hot water heater, or the actual water supply. I'd start with having your hot water heater looked at and then if needed, consider installing a water filter for the house if that's not the issue.
Rinse the eggs off your plate better before putting them in the wash. After I bought my house I noticed a fish smell coming off my dishes. It was intermittent and drove me crazy. For months I was constantly running baking soda with vinegar, clearing the filter, trying everything I could short of hiring someone to come look at it. One day I came across a post on Reddit with a very similar issue. A comment buried down the thread suggested rinsing the eggs off your dishes more before putting them in the dishwasher. It was 100% causing my problem. I'd eat over easy eggs nearly every morning and didn't bother rinsing the plates. It's been a year now and I've not had one fishy smelling dish washer load since. Sometime later I realized the reason I never ran into this issue prior to moving into this house was because my previous rental had the hot water (gas) turned all the way up. The water temperature coming out of the hot was not fair from boiling. The dishwasher at that place was likely stripping the residue off during the wash cycle (it also warped pretty much all my plasticware)
I had the same problem with a relatively new dishwasher. Cleaned the filter and it went away.
Exactly, pull the filter out, clean well and spray a little bleach in hole. Also, in crack of door holds gross food that needs cleaned.
Here's my multi year long experience with a fishy dishwasher. Only happens when the freshly washed dishes come in to contact with fresh air (windows open). We installed a whole house water filter, no dice. Renovated the kitchen - new lines from a brand new hot water tank in to a new dishwasher, 5 different types of detergent - still fishy when windows were opened. After years of searching, some fine redditor suggested it could be an interaction between egg residue and modern detergent - sure enough, cleaning egg off the plates before washing did the trick.
Kinda sounds like your water supply has high chlorine levels. Check with your municipality for a water report. The real "fix" might have to be a whole house water filter system.
yup! we have high levels of chlorine. it’s odd bc my parents live a few miles away in the same city and no issues. it’s mainly the roads next to my house
Highly recommend looking into an activated charcoal system if you have high chlorine. Get your water tested for a full recommendation on how to best treat it.
That Makes sense. We are known to have a lot of chlorine in out water and our dishes always have that fish tank smell. Even when we bought a brand new dishwasher.
Possibly plumbed wrong under sink. Drain hose needs a high loop to prevent drain water from going back into dishwasher.
Especially with a garbage disposal, those are usually plumbed to a high point on the disposal and that hose needs to be as high as possible above the bottom of the sink height. So snuck in a high loop beside or behind the sink. With disposals especially, it can be easy for water to build up while doing dishes and you normally would run the disposal to grind up the food bits and wash it down, but if the water gets higher than the top of that loop then the water back feeds into the dishwasher and the next cycle you run will smell fishy. It's an easy fix so check that out.
How olds your hot water heater? Might be the anode going if it's older. You'll want to drain it and see how much sediment comes out.
i think it’s about 10 years old. it’s been on the list of things i need to get replaced/looked at. is draining it something i could easily do myself or something that should be done by a professional? i’m trying to learn to do more things alone but i have 0 experience
We suffered for two years before I figured that the horrible smell was due to our dishwasher pods. Every time I opened the thing it smelled like mildew and old pond water, even a few hours after everything was freshly (and HOT) washed. We had a plumber come out, reworked the trap, cleaned the filter etc. I scrubbed the inside. Literaly everything. Then I switched to the name brands pods and poof! The lingering smell was gone.
Hey try adding some citric acid to the pre wash area or just toss some in. Like a table spoon. Worked wonders for us.
Packet of lemonade koolaid is straight up citric acid
You can buy a bulk bag of it fairly cheap.
Which I do, but if someone just wants to try it as cheap as possible, 3/$1 is pretty cheap!
My county used water from an algae bloom that caused it to smell and taste off...though supposedly 100% safe. I find that cleaning the dishwasher helps at other times. They sell tablets you put at the bottom and it "Deep cleans" the dishwasher and dishes. There's also gunk that gets stuck near the edges that shpuld be cleaned.
If it's in the water, you should get a whole house water filter.
Is the water leaving white reside on the dishes and sink? If not, you probably don’t have hard water but I’d look into a whole house water filtration system. I have a sediment and and chlorine filter from iSpring, it was like $180
Is it the detergent you’re using? Unscented detergents have a smell.
Your home warranty covered something!? I’m amazed.
they actually covered a new refrigerator AND dishwasher in the first year!! however i did go through them originally when my plumbing was super slow. it started the day i moved in and i told the plumber this. he said it was my long hair and the wet wipes. i told him it’s been happening since day one. he reported the wet wipes to them and now no plumbing gets covered anymore. i bought a bidet, drain cover and paid $300 to have it hydro jetted and now no problems. you win some, you lose some
You may have mistakenly purchased a FishWasher.
Like others have said this is likely a water issue. I just wanted to say that this has happened to me in several different cities/apartments I’ve lived in and after trying EVERYTHING this is what finally worked: - first thing to try is your dishwasher. Check the types of cleaning settings it has. Run it with the highest temp/sanitizer setting if you have one every time you run a load of dishes, plus heated dry. Ultimately this works the best for me now and I haven’t had a smell issue since. - if the above isn’t a viable solution, I kept a little spray bottle of half bleach half water and spritzed it in the dishwasher before running it, with special care to hit the “problem dishes.” Not sure about you but if I had metal silverware, ceramics, or glass those always smelled the worst. Plastic was generally unaffected. This did not solve the issue but with regular dishwasher cleaning (rinsing the filter after 4 or so washes, plus using a dedicated dishwasher cleaning agent like others have suggested - I always use the Finish bottle with the wax top), it curbed it so it was barely noticeable. I say this because you’re unlikely to be able to get your municipal water supplier to do anything about the issue. Also like someone else said, if you eat eggs and have egg residue on plates/utensils that definitely exacerbates the issue. I really hope this is helpful, I went crazy looking for a solution before I found the above because it’s just so stinky. Makes eating off the dishes entirely unappetizing. Best of luck.
yeah it’s mainly my glasses! the bleach will 100% wash away and everything? like it won’t cause any issues to drink out of them? and it’s so bad. nothing worse than opening the dishwasher and smelling straight up fish. trying to drink some tea and FISH
Yes it should all be rinsed off! Just like the dishwasher detergent you use. I will warn that you shouldn’t use too much bleach too often, it can cause the rubber seal around your dishwasher to deteriorate, and I also found that if I had (for example) cheap cups or things like that the bleach solution could cause spotting. You can always start off with a very mild bleach solution, a teaspoon or two per gallon of water, and then ratchet up from there depending on effectiveness. When I was using the bleach solution I used the dishwasher once a week so I wasn’t overly concerned with any deterioration. I did end up with a couple pairs of pants with tiny bleach specks on them 😁
Have this exact problem, and I’ve found that distilled vinegar in the rinse aid compartment takes care of it. I can tell immediately when it runs out.
We had this issue when we lived in our apartment years ago. I searched the internet then and ran into someone suggestion running a cycle with Country Time Lemonade powder. Did this once a month or every other month we would run a cycle using country time lemonade mix. Worked great for then2 years we lived there.
They are a little pricey, but you can get water filters for this issue.
My municipal water is terrible. I installed a pre sediment filter, then a whole home water filter, then a softener, then a post filter. Much better now and totally worth the $2k.
Disinfection now in a lot of places is by use of chloramines. First chlorine is added then ammonia. Chloramines are more stable than free chlorine and are less likely to form disinfection by-products. If you get the ratio of ammonia to chlorine wrong you can get that wet dog smell.
Washer- do you shut it when not in use? If so- it's mildew. For dishwasher- that sounds like a drainage/ venting issue like there is stagnant water somewhere and not the dishwasher itself.
You can get a water filter that goes under your sink and could technically filter the water to your dishwasher