Remove Dish Soap from a Dishwasher

If you’ve ever accidentally put dish soap into your dishwasher instead of dish detergent, you know the kind of mess it can create: a huge bubbly mess that doesn't just clear up by running the dishwasher. If you happen to be dealing with an avalanche of soap suds that just won’t quit, take a look at these tips to remove dish soap from your dishwasher.

Steps

Cleaning Up the Mess

1. Stop the machine and cancel the cycle. Once you realize dish soap has been added to your dishwasher, immediately stop the machine. If the soap suds haven’t started seeping out of the machine and all over your kitchen floor, then stopping it quickly will either keep that from happening or allow you to place towels on the floor to control the mess. Stopping the machine quickly will also keep the remaining dish soap from working its way through your dishwasher’s system. The dishwasher should start draining out once you cancel the cycle.
2. Grab several towels to soak up the suds. If suds have spilled onto your floor, grab several towels and start cleaning up the mess. You want to keep the mess from possibly causing water damage if it seeps behind your dishwasher or cabinets. You’ll also want to clear up the mess to keep yourself from slipping when you start cleaning out your dishwasher.
3. Remove all of your dishes. Once the dishwasher has finished draining, open it, and take out all of the dishes you were trying to clean and place them in the sink. Getting them out of the way will make things easier once you start cleaning up the mess. There’s likely dish soap residue all over the dishes, and you need to get rid of as much leftover dish soap as you can in order to gain control of the overflowing soap suds.
4. Use a small bowl or container and the remaining dry towels to remove excess water and soap suds from your dishwasher. If the water is very hot, throw in a tray of ice cubes to cool it down. Remove as much water out of the dishwasher as possible. And then wipe the walls, top and bottom of the dishwater to get rid of any leftover suds and dish soap residue.
   • Make sure to wash out the soap dispenser thoroughly, if that's where you put the dish soap.
   • You can also use a wet-dry vacuum, if you have one, to suck out the water and soap suds. But make sure it is rated for wet pickup, and make sure to use only the wet filter.
5. Dry the bottom of the dishwasher with a towel. The heating coil may be very hot, so very carefully dry the bottom of the dishwasher as best you can to wipe away any remaining dish soap.
6. Run the rinse cycle for a few minutes. Let the rinse cycle run for a few minutes to wash out the remaining dish soap. Soap suds may or may not continue to foam, depending on how effective you were at hand cleaning out the machine and how much dish soap was added to the machine.
   • If you have enough heavy, dry towels that you don’t mind suds continuing to spill out of your dishwasher, you can keep running the rinse cycle repeatedly until all of the dish soap washes out.
   • But if you’d rather a quick fix, try one or more of the following remedies.

Using Household Items to Remove the Dish Soap

1. Pour ½ to 1 cup of vinegar inside your dishwasher. One way to calm the out of control soap suds in your dishwasher is by using distilled white vinegar. Start by pouring ½ cup of vinegar directly into the bottom of the dishwasher.
   • Let your dishwasher run for a few minutes on the normal setting. After a few minutes, check inside to see if the soap suds have begun to dissipate. If they haven’t, pour another ½ cup and start the normal wash cycle again.
   • If that still doesn’t help, try adding another cup of vinegar, and repeating the normal wash cycle. Move on to another method if that still doesn’t seem to be working.
2. Sprinkle a layer of table salt over the soap suds. You can use table salt in conjunction with vinegar to deactivate the foaming agent in the dish soap, or you can use table salt by itself.
   • If you’d like to use the vinegar and salt together, then pour 1 cup of vinegar and about two tablespoons of salt across the soap suds or bottom of the dishwasher. Start the normal cycle of your dishwasher and let it run for a few minutes. If the soap suds appear to be dissipating, then you can allow the cycle to run through. If not, repeat the process until it works.
   • If you are using only table salt, then pour a generous amount atop the soap suds. The salt will break down the soap suds, and work as an anti-foaming agent to prevent more suds from forming. Let the normal cycle of your dishwasher run for a few minutes before checking to see if it’s working.
   • If the soap suds still seem to be growing, pour more salt over them and turn the dishwasher back on. Check again after a few minutes to see if the additional salt is helping. If not, repeat the process until it does.
   • Once you notice either method working, allow the normal cycle to run all the way through in order for the remaining dish soap and suds to wash completely out of the dishwasher’s system.
3. Add ice cubes to the mix. Using ice cubes along with heaps of table salt may also help to get rid of the overflowing soap suds. If your dishwashing cycle was set to hot, then the hot water is likely helping the soap suds to grow. Pouring in a couple trays of ice cubes will cool down the water and help to settle some of the soap suds.
   • Add the ice after you add the salt and let the two work together as an anti-foaming agent. Allow the ice to melt.
   • Drain your dishwasher of the melted ice and salt, and then start your dishwasher on a rinse cycle. You may need to repeat the process if you still see soap suds after the cycle completes.
4. Pour a cup of olive oil into the bottom of your dishwasher to clear out the soap suds. Olive oil works also as an anti-foaming agent. In fact, several dishwasher manufacturers recommend it as an effective solution if you happen to pour dish soap into your dishwasher. If you don’t have olive oil, any other cooking oil will also work.
   • Once you’ve cleaned out your dishwasher, removing as much dish soap, suds and water as you can, pour a cup of olive oil into the bottom of the dishwasher.
   • Let the dishwasher run for an entire normal cycle. The heavy oil should break down the soap suds and work to clear out the remaining dish soap residue.
5. Add a capful of liquid fabric softener to your dishwasher. Another method for clearing dish soap from your dishwasher is to add liquid fabric softener to the machine. Only a capful is needed to help break down the soap suds. After adding the liquid fabric softener, let the dishwasher run on a normal cycle for about a minute to activate the softener. Either press the button to cancel the cycle to allow solution and suds to drain, or change the cycle to the drain cycle.

Tips

• To prevent this from ever happening again, be sure to tell everyone in your household the difference between dish soap and dish washing detergent.
• If the water in your dishwasher happens to be hot, add a tray of ice to your dishwasher before trying to scoop out the excess water and soap suds.
• While not a household product, a commercial spa defoamer can quickly remove dish soap from your dishwasher. Simply add a few drops to the inside of your dishwasher, and let your dishwasher run on the normal wash cycle. The defoamer works almost instantly.

Warnings

• While wiping out your dishwasher, beware of the heating coil as it may be very hot.

Things You'll Need

• Distilled white vinegar
• Olive oil or any cooking oil
• Table salt
• Bowl, or small bucket or container
• Several dry towels
• Liquid fabric softener
• Commercial spa defoamer

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Sources and Citations

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• Load a Dishwasher
• Clean and Maintain a Dishwasher
• Clean Dishes Quickly

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