Dishwashing Drama

Our really nice dishwasher was broken. Water was pooled in the bottom of it and the dishes were not clean. This presented a problem.
"Of course," you say, "But washing them by hand is an excellent work around. My parents did it and look at what fine people they turned out to be."
I can't. I don't. It's this little bargain that my lovely husband and I worked out. No washing dishes for me. I will clean clutter, do laundry, mow the lawn and clean bathrooms, but not dishes. Food scraps make me shudder.
Okay, now that I've set up the problem properly--and you think I'm a complete Prima Donna--allow me to move on with my broken dishwasher. After a rather expensive service call, I learned that there was nothing truly wrong with my machine. It just needed to be cleaned.
"What?" you might say, "a machine that spends every moment of its life obediently rinsing and sanitizing dishes to a spotless shine needs a cleaning, besides the regular meals (and occasional snacks) of dish soap and jet dry?"
Who knew?
Our dishwasher needed the elements removed from the interior and soaked for an entire day in vinegar to remove the hard water deposits. After a good scrub, we replaced them and then ran the wash cycle twice with a dishwasher cleaner (Jet Dry or Dishwasher Magic are good) until the interior space was sparkly. To keep it up, we put vinegar in a cup when we run a regular load and once a month, use one of the dishwasher cleaners.
more ideas on dishwasher maintence.