Dishwasher Gripe

For the past four months or so, I've been having an ongoing battle with my dishwasher. We have an ancient beast of a dishwasher that was probably the state of the art in the eighties. It's a KitchenAid (a well-known brand, right?), and it's got the awesome faux front on it (you know, the kind that matches the rest of the cabinets). When we first bought the house, the knob that turned the dishwasher on would fall off the front whenever we'd open the door. I fixed that some time ago with some JB Weld. The prongs on the inside of the dishwasher rust out and fall off from time to time, and I've attempted several times to put them back in using some JB Weld and some duct tape, but I've found that the prongs just rust and break off again above where the JB Weld is. So, I've obviously given up on that, and prongs are disappearing slowly.

Unfortunately, the fact that the dishwasher is physically falling apart isn't my biggest beef with it. It has basically stopped washing my dishes. Any of Nora's plastic dishes always come out with the same layer of grease and goo that was on them when I put them in there. I don't even want to talk about my silverware (stainless steel Oneida silverware that should look glorious after a visit with the dishwasher). Sure, a good portion of my dishes come out acceptable (or passable), but they still aren't quite up to my standards. I end up rewashing a good 40% of the dishes by hand when I unload the dishwasher. (When Willis unloads the dishwasher, I think he assumes that everything is "clean," so he ends up putting it all away for me to find when I go to grab a dish. Even though I find these "surprises," I'm still glad the guy unloads the dishwasher now and then. It's not his fault the dishes are still dirty, after all. I just inspect each dish as I pull it out of the dishwasher—which is, admittedly, a bit OCD.) I've tried several different things (that actually did work for a good portion of time), but it seems like nothing I try anymore is helping at all.

• I make sure that there's always salt in our water softener. Our dishes always seem to come out cleaner when that thing is stocked. (And maybe this is the problem: we went through part of the late winter without stocking this thing because stores always keep their salt outdoors. We haven't bought any because they've been covered in snow and ice. I just started buying it again last week. Maybe the system needs to get used to the salt again?)
  
• I always try to remember the wetting agent (although, I'll admit I have no idea how much I should be putting in because there is no "fill line" or "instructions" for my dishwasher or for the wetting agents).
• I typically use Cascade dishwashing detergent (not even the generic stuff, but I've used generic stuff before and had it work just fine).
• I actually don't use much detergent: I also add a lot of vinegar. (This used to work like a charm when I first started doing it, and now, it doesn't seem to help at all.)
  
• I often times will even run my dishwasher while it's empty with a cup of vinegar and a cup of baking soda to clean it out.
• I make sure that the little "catch" thing at the bottom of my dishwasher is cleaned out.

I don't know. I think I might need to just admit I need a new dishwasher. Right now, I'm rewashing a partial load of dishes (I wasn't willing to hand wash these guys), and I tried something different. I threw in vinegar and baking soda, and I also tried using a bit more detergent than usual (still not as much as I'm supposed to use based on the dispenser). So, we'll see how that goes.

We weren't planning on buying a new dishwasher yet. So, it's going to have to wait, and I'm going to have to continue to be frustrated for awhile, I guess. What's sad: the thing still runs like a charm. It just does a terrible job at, well, its job.