So we recently moved into an apartment while our home is being remodeled. I'm fairly handy around my appliances but this one has me stumped. The apartment maintenance has basically written me off.

When I first started using the dishwasher I noticed it was leaving white residue on my dishes. I figured it needed a good cleaning so I spent the day running some empty loads with vinegar. I cleaned out the air trap and made sure spray arms were clean etc. But for the last 2 months I still end up with dishes that have a white film all over them. So I kept trying to clean it. Well nothing has worked. I was running another empty load tonight with vinegar when I happened to open the door just in time to see the bottom of the dishwasher, under the filter, oozing with a weird white liquid. It was coming out of the spray arms as well, and kind of looked like watery white paint.

I use normal detergent packs, I don't over fill or do anything stupid like that (homeowner for 25 years, not a teen living on their own for the first time with zero knowledge). Since it's an apartment I am limited in what I can do (can't control water heater temps, etc).

But has anyone ever seen or heard of a white liquid coming up from the filter and through the sprayer arms?

Can you take off the bottom spray arm and screen, to check the well? I've seen some DWs with a large accumulation of detergent caked up in the well. Maybe your detergent is dissolving it? Will the DW accept JetDry/rinse additive?

I just took the bottom apart right now and honestly, while dirty, wasn't as bad as I was expecting an apartment DW to be. But I took it all apart and gave it a good scrubbing. I set a quick wash and just now opened the door and the bottom is full of suds again. So I can only guess maybe there's crap down in the line where I have no access?

When you did the quick wash, did you use detergent?

No I haven't used any detergent when trying to clear out the gunk, which is why I've been so stumped as to the amount of suds coming up.

There's got to be something stuck down where the water comes up and into the sprayer arm, but if so I have no idea how to remedy that.

Can I run an empty load with the bottom taken out? Like no spray arm and filter? To see if maybe it would blow out whatever might be in there? I have an old Maytag.