You know, the hot water tip is great, but cleaning the filter is really the best thing I’ve found to keeping it working well. Residue always seems to indicate a dirty filter.

I think it depends on the kind of residue. If we're just talking about caked-on stuff that you recognize that didn't wash off, I'd start with hot water and adding the pre-wash powder. But if you get stuff on your dishes that you don't recognize... yeah, that's a filter.

I once stayed with family at a vacation rental where the dishwasher left things worse than we put them in—a thick gray residue plastered over everything. We were going to be there for a week with 30 people, which meant we had a lot of dishwashing to do, but by the time I became aware of it the rest of the family had already given up on it and had started washing dishes by hand.

I took one look at the output and knew immediately what was wrong thanks to TC. An hour later (it was that bad) the dishwasher was working flawlessly and we saved hours in dishwashing time over the week.

(We also told the rental owners that their cleaners weren't taking care of the dishwasher. I didn't ask for them to pay me for the time, but I probably should have!)