My morning is going a bit different than I expected. My girlfriend and I just spent the last two hours cleaning up glass from my kitchen and dishwasher. As you can see in the picture above, we’ve removed most of it (and trapped the Eufy in the kitchen for a while).
I ran the dishwasher last night. This morning I opened the dishwasher to unload it. I took a few coffee mugs out and then reached for my Duralex Picardie Tumblers. The first one came out fine. The second glass I tried to grab exploded into a million pieces. Luckily nobody was seriously injured.
Glass was everywhere. We used a paper towel to pick up the big pieces and then vacuumed the floor. Then we did the same for the dishwasher door, racks and base. I’m certain we have 99% of the glass up, but am concerned about the filter and drain. Should I call a repair man to come out and clean out and services the dishwasher?
What are you supposed to do when a glass explodes in the dishwasher? It’s probably a little outlandish, but my worst fear is it damages a drain line and my apartment floods.
Thought I would post an updated answer here for some closure. This is my understanding based on conversations with the technician who serviced my dishwasher.
Turn the dishwasher off
In my case the glass exploded when unloading the dishwasher. However, if you hear something break mid-cycle turn the dishwasher off. On most dishwashers the cycle should end and it should begin to drain.
You do not want the dishwasher to continue running as it may break off more pieces of the glass and make it more difficult to clean.
Carefully remove and inspect dishes and glassware
Be careful unloading the dishwasher. Spot the glass that exploded and remove that first. Then remove the rest of the items. You’ll want to inspect every glass, bowl and plate you take out for glass splinters. Make sure you wipe everything down with a towel.
I got a small splinter when cleaning up. It wasn’t bad, but I thought I was pretty careful. I’d probably advise wearing gloves if you have them. I’ve read elsewhere that you can cut up a potato to to help clean up the broken glass.
Inspect and remove the dish racks
My glass exploded on the upper rack and small splinters landed on the sprinkler arm. I also had a large piece of glass make it into the track for the upper rack. It made removing the rack a little tricky.
Clean the door and washtub
Most of the glass will probably end up in the wash basin of your dishwasher. I wadded a bunch of paper towels together and tried to pick up the bigger glass pieces. Since the washer ran the night before and was already dry. I went back with my vacuum and got the tiny shards up.
If it explodes mid-cycle or just after running, you should use a wet vac instead of your normal hand-held vacuum.
Check the filter and drain gasket, call a technician
This is where I called a technician to come inspect my dishwasher. He came by and took a look at the filter and the drain. The main concern here is small pieces of glass damaging the dishwasher pump over time. If the pump is becomes damaged, you’re probably looking at buying a new dishwasher.
I didn’t really want to take apart this stuff, so having a technician come out seemed like the safe move. If you’re handy, it may not be as big of a deal.
