Regularly cleaning the filter of your Maytag dishwasher is fundamental to keeping your dishwasher working at optimal levels, and thus keeping your dishes sparkling clean. If you start to notice a build-up of grit and grime on dishes coming out of the dishwasher, or if you feel dishwasher performance has dropped, then it’s probably time to clean your filter.
Generally speaking, you should clean your filter once every 3-6 months, but even more regular cleaning may be necessary if you use your Maytag dishwasher very regularly. For more information, see our FAQs at the end of this article.
To learn how to clean the filter of your Maytag dishwasher, simply follow our step-by-step guide below.
Table of Contents
How to clean the filter of a Maytag dishwasher
- Put on a pair of rubber gloves, and make sure you have a clear path from the dishwasher to the sink
- Open your Maytag dishwasher and pull the bottom dish rack right out by pulling it toward you and then lifting it free of the dishwasher unit
- Locate the Maytag dishwasher filter – It should be located either in a back corner, or beneath the spray arm in the center bottom of the dishwasher
- Remove any further obstacles between you and the filter (including the spray arm, and any other fixtures holding the filter in place; most should be secured with easily unlocked plastic clips)
- Remove the upper-part of the filter by giving it a quarter turn anti-clockwise; take this part and put it in your sink for now
- Remove the lower-part of the filter by lifting it slightly, then pulling it forward and free of the machine; put this in the sink along with the upper part of the filter
- Warning: The gunk and detritus captured by a dishwasher filter can look, feel, and smell pretty gross!
- Now, using the hot water from your sink’s hot water tank, a little washing-up liquid, and a trusty scrubber, wash both parts of your Maytag’s dishwasher filter until they are completely clean and free of debris
- Replace your Maytag dishwasher filter by replacing the lower-part first, then the upper-part (twisting it a quarter turn clockwise this time), and finally the other fixtures and fittings you removed earlier, except in reverse order this time
- Ensuring that all parts are properly secured back within the dishwasher, you can go ahead and run a cycle of dishes whenever you next need to! Your Maytag dishwasher filter has been successfully cleaned
And that’s how you remove, clean, and replace a Maytag dishwasher filter. For any other information, or if you have further questions, please see our FAQs below.
FAQs
What’s special about a Maytag dishwasher?
There’s nothing particularly special about a Maytag dishwasher. Maytag is simply the name of the American brand which produces a range of household appliances, including dishwashers, cookers, ovens, driers and refrigerators. Maytag is owned by Whirlpool, and as such is part of one of the world’s largest and most popular home and commercial appliance manufacturers.
Many people swear by their Maytag dishwashers, and as such you can at least feel secure in the knowledge that they are a largely popular, and thus presumably reliable dishwasher brand. When it comes to unique aspects, however, chances are that the instructions we give you for cleaning the filter of a Maytag dishwasher would also generally work for the filters of other dishwashers, too.
How often should you clean the filter of your Maytag dishwasher?
In order to ensure the longevity of any appliance, it’s important to keep all of its small bits and pieces as clean and in as good a condition as possible. For Maytag dishwashers, this means cleaning the filter out semi-regularly.
But just how often you should clean the filter of your Maytag dishwasher depends on how often you use it, and what the general state of the items you wash in it is. For example, if you wash or scrape and rinse your kitchenware and dining ware before putting it through the dishwasher, then you will have to clean the filter of the Maytag dishwasher far less often than if you put the items in without cleaning them in any way.
As a general rule of thumb, Maytag recommends cleaning the filter of your dishwasher once every 3-6 months. Here is a handy chart taken from their own website to assist you in building your cleaning schedule:
| Number of loads per week | If you wash before loading | If you scrape and rinse before loading | If you only scrape before loading | If you do no pre-cleaning before loading |
| 1-3 | Once per year | Once per year | Twice per year | Every two months |
| 4-7 | Once per year | Once per year | Twice per year | Once per month |
| 8-12 | Once per year | Twice per year | Every three months | Every two weeks |
| 13-14 | Once per year | Twice per year | Every three months | Once per week |
How long do the filters in Maytag dishwashers last?
The filters in Maytag dishwashers are an integral part of the dishwasher, and are what stop grease, fat, soap and larger chunks of food from getting stuck in the pipes and causing back-up issues for you and your dishes. As such, you might understandably be wondering how long the physical filters themselves will last.
As we discuss in the next FAQ, Maytag dishwashers come with a lengthy warranty guarantee. Judging by this, we reckon that the small parts of the dishwasher are likely to last at least as long as the warranty. Or, in other words, for at least 10 years. Of course, this isn’t guaranteed, but it’s a safe bet that – provided you keep it nice and clean on a regular basis – your Maytag dishwasher filter will last you a long time.
How long is the warranty on Maytag dishwashers?
Maytag offers a 10 year warranty on all of its products produced or manufactured in or after 2017. All parts and labor are also covered for the first year of this decade-long warranty. That’s a very long warranty, especially for electronic goods, and so gives you some indication of exactly how reliable Maytag dishwashers are.
