Completely Cleaning the Red Gunk (Pink Slime, Serratia marcesens bacteria), From Your Dishwasher

Our dishwasher has been plagued with red bacteria also known as "Pink Slime". The bacteria is called Serratia marcesens which his extremely common. We've been cleaning it monthly with vinegar and baking soda, but that didn't completely get rid of it.

We have a 5-year old Kenmore Elite Microclean dishwasher model 665.1476. It has a lot of internal plastic water distribution parts which can harbor the bacteria behind them.

The solution was take out all the innards of the dishwasher and clean them in the bathtub with bleach and then thoroughly rinsing them to avoid getting bleach in the dishwasher.

I'm pretty sure our main problem is that we've been using the hot water from our water heater to wash the dishes in the dishwasher. This is only heated to about 120 degrees F which is recommended for water heaters to avoid scalding.

To kill bacteria, you need your water to be at least 140 degrees F. Our dishwasher has a mode called "Hi-Temp Wash" that uses the internal heating element of the dishwasher to heat the water to 140 degrees F, which is enough to kill bacteria.

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Link to my Etsy Store:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BetaCygniDesigns

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End Screen Video Acknowledgement: Cosmic Reef Video produced by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/2020/16/1277-Video